Post by Eddie Love on Sept 22, 2009 21:33:23 GMT -5
Just listened to this episode where you guys went off on the movie Hostel. I can't believe I'm going to do this. Let me first say that I haven't cared for either of Eli Roth's performances in the last two QT pictures. I've never read an interview with him so I'll take it on faith that he's a pompous jerk. (Besides, he's supposed to have dated my girlfriend Rosario Dawson -- so mark me down as a hater. ) I'm not much of a horror fan in general. I've seen a bunch of slasher movies because that's what we did back in the 80s. I fast-forwarded through Saw and watched the first ten minutes only of its first sequel, because the gory goings-on made me queasy. My wife and I did Hostel on one of the premium on-demands, and I assumed from the dreadful stories I'd heard that we'd only make it through a few minutes. The meandering first half hour didn't bode well, but by the end I found it really interesting and myself thinking about it for days.
First off, for all the denunciations about "torture porn" the audience is never put in the position of anyone other than the victims. The most graphic torture scene was unsettling and rightly so. Also, the villains are portraits in the banality of evil. They have no superhuman capabilities like Michael Myers and Jason. You would have to be insane to root for them in any way. (The only time the audience is put in the position of the stalker is when the young hero takes his revenge at the end, by which point I was thrilled he was getting his own back and sickened that my own bloodlust was up after what I'd just watched.)
What else was cool was that once the premise was established we spend the last half hour in essentially a suspense story with the hero escaping, rather than playing and replaying a series of stalkings. The fact that he survived the story and we were spared a nihilistic ending was also nice. (As opposed to the shockingly cynical I Know What You Did... movies where JLH is murdered at the end. No bit where she wakes up and you realize it's a dream, no -- she's killed. And then returns for the sequel.)
But what was most powerful in the picture was the scene where the drunken American horn-dog frat boy is being tortured by the German tourist and much to the torturer's surprise (and ours) the kid starts pleading with the man in his tormenter's native German. Disgusted, the guy asks for a new victim to torture. He hadn't counted on understanding the stark entreaties of his victim. Would the guards at Abu Garib have hesitated if they could understand what was said by the prisoners they were humiliating? (I'm not equating these shamefully scapegoated U.S. soldiers with the killers in Hostel -- but I think Roth's point is an interesting one: We devalue to the point where we can dehumanize the people we literally don't understand.)
You also mentioned the movie Touristas which is essentially the same story set in South America with a more seasoned (and hotter) cast. The film (which I also saw on-demand) also worked for me. It's entirely derivative of Hostel, but the reason these victims are dispatched is a neat twist. ALSO, there's a chase sequence in the final section where this set of Ugly Americans are swimming through these underwater tunnels with only tiny periodic air pockets where they can breathe. It's a stunningly rendered action sequence, that would fit expertly into a Bond or Bourne style adventure.
Having said all this, I never had any interest in seing the Hostel sequel. Still, Derrick is always making the convincing case that most horror movies are too implausibly ridiculous as their scenarios could never really happen. Granted, for some of us our days trekking the globe for beers and babes may be passed, but I'm sorry -- these things could, and I hate to say, may well really happen.
First off, for all the denunciations about "torture porn" the audience is never put in the position of anyone other than the victims. The most graphic torture scene was unsettling and rightly so. Also, the villains are portraits in the banality of evil. They have no superhuman capabilities like Michael Myers and Jason. You would have to be insane to root for them in any way. (The only time the audience is put in the position of the stalker is when the young hero takes his revenge at the end, by which point I was thrilled he was getting his own back and sickened that my own bloodlust was up after what I'd just watched.)
What else was cool was that once the premise was established we spend the last half hour in essentially a suspense story with the hero escaping, rather than playing and replaying a series of stalkings. The fact that he survived the story and we were spared a nihilistic ending was also nice. (As opposed to the shockingly cynical I Know What You Did... movies where JLH is murdered at the end. No bit where she wakes up and you realize it's a dream, no -- she's killed. And then returns for the sequel.)
But what was most powerful in the picture was the scene where the drunken American horn-dog frat boy is being tortured by the German tourist and much to the torturer's surprise (and ours) the kid starts pleading with the man in his tormenter's native German. Disgusted, the guy asks for a new victim to torture. He hadn't counted on understanding the stark entreaties of his victim. Would the guards at Abu Garib have hesitated if they could understand what was said by the prisoners they were humiliating? (I'm not equating these shamefully scapegoated U.S. soldiers with the killers in Hostel -- but I think Roth's point is an interesting one: We devalue to the point where we can dehumanize the people we literally don't understand.)
You also mentioned the movie Touristas which is essentially the same story set in South America with a more seasoned (and hotter) cast. The film (which I also saw on-demand) also worked for me. It's entirely derivative of Hostel, but the reason these victims are dispatched is a neat twist. ALSO, there's a chase sequence in the final section where this set of Ugly Americans are swimming through these underwater tunnels with only tiny periodic air pockets where they can breathe. It's a stunningly rendered action sequence, that would fit expertly into a Bond or Bourne style adventure.
Having said all this, I never had any interest in seing the Hostel sequel. Still, Derrick is always making the convincing case that most horror movies are too implausibly ridiculous as their scenarios could never really happen. Granted, for some of us our days trekking the globe for beers and babes may be passed, but I'm sorry -- these things could, and I hate to say, may well really happen.
