Product Details

• Actors: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson, Barbara Nedeljakova, Jan Vlasák
• Directors: Eli Roth
• Writers: Eli Roth
• Producers: Eli Roth, Boaz Yakin, Chris Briggs, Daniel S. Frisch, Mike Fleiss
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 18, 2006
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (487 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EHRVP6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,714 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Hostel (Unrated Widescreen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Well-made for the genre--the excessive-skin-displayed-before-gruesome-bloody-torture-begins genre--Hostel follows two randy Americans (Jay Hernandez, Friday Night Lights, and Derek Richardson, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd) and an even randier Icelander (Eythor Gudjonsson) as they trek to Slovakia, where they're told beautiful girls will have sex with anyone with an American accent. Unfortunately, the girls will also sell young Americans to a company that offers victims to anyone who will pay to torture and murder. To his credit, writer/director Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) takes his time setting things up, laying a realistic foundation that makes the inevitable spilling of much blood all the more gruesome. The sardonic joke, of course, is that Americans are worth the most in this brothel of blood because everyone else in the world wants to take revenge upon them. This dark humor and political subtext help set Hostel above its more brainless sadistic compatriots, like House of Wax or The Devil's Rejects. In general, though, there's something lacking; horror used to suggest some threat to the spirit--today's horror can conceive of nothing more troubling than torturing the flesh. For aficionados, Hostel features a nice cameo by Takashi Miike, director of bloody Japanese flicks like Audition and Ichi the Killer. --Bret Fetzer

On the DVD

The first question most fans will ask is, "Where is the unrated footage?" Surprisingly, the only new footage to be found is 30 seconds added to the Fulci-esque "eyegasm" sequence (as it's affectionately referred to in the executive producers' commentary.) The meat, shall we say, of the DVD is in the extras, particularly in "HOSTEL Dissected" (a three part "making of" featurette) and the four feature-length commentaries. The featurette is very amusing mainly because of the wicked irony of the film crew having so much fun making a film whose subject manner is so graphic and unsettling. Some of the highlights include Eli Roth joking at a press conference about Icelandic actor Eythor Gudjonsson ("Oli") and how he is going to replace Björk as Iceland's big star, only to be picked up on Icelandic news as a confrontational proclamation. Also priceless is Roth telling actress Jennifer Lim ("Kana") that Hostel is inspired by true events about a similar place in Thailand, and she gullibly eats it up. The best extra by far is the executive producer's feature length commentary with Quentin Tarantino. During the film they discuss many topics including whether Hostel is a "horror" film or a "thriller," how they got away with an R rating, why the new breed of highly graphic horror films are so popular, why European actresses are less uptight about nudity, director Takashi Miike's cameo, and all the extra grossed-out ideas they never filmed but would love to add. Looking at Hostel you would think they're all a bunch of sadistic and creepy guys, but after listening to their commentary, nothing could be further from the truth. They all simply just love the horror genre, love filmmaking and are having a blast making their movies. What is great about the extras on this DVD is they really breathe life into the filmmakers' personalities and thought processes. If you think that Hotel is a simple soft-core torture film, watching the extras and listening to the commentaries may help change your perspective. --Rob Bracco

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate tourist trap, October 28, 2007

By 

trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hostel (Director's Cut) (DVD)

The first time you watch "Hostel" you leave remembering two things: an insane amount of sex and nudity, and some truly brutal torture sequences. The media ignoranty dubbed it a new genre, "torture porn". This film is actually rather tame when compared to some of Italy's 70's horror, grindhouse flicks like "Cannibal Holocaust", and some of Asia's current horror masters. Nontheless, horror fans drooled, sqeamish movie-goers and media watchdogs were offended, then everybody moved on. The truth is this: "Hostel" is the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" of our generation. After taking this so-called "director's cut" re-release as an opportunity to revisit a recent horror film I remembered fondly -if mostly for the two reasons stated above- I came to realize why so many people (not the least of which is Quentin Tarantino) believe in Eli Roth as a horror savior.

"Hostel" is a film layered with subtle humor that builds suspense beautifully and gives the audience exactly what they want to see while making them feel as though they've seen worse things than they actually have; all TCM hallmarks. The characters, obnoxiously American protagonists and European antagonists alike, are all both likeable, depraved, and almost feel like people you may know or have met somewhere before. You laugh with them, you scream with them, and you wonder what your own friends and family are truly capable of. Also reminiscent of TCM is the slaughterhouse feel one gets from the entire process of this torture industry where angry Europeans can take out their frustration with Americans and other tourists for a fee, thus comparing the suffering of the victims to that of animals harvested for slaughter. Be it simply for irony's sake, vegetarian propaganda, or both; it is nicely done. Had I reviewed this flick after one veiwing, I'd have given it 4 stars, tops, but having spent a little more time with "Hostel", I've found that there really is much more than meets the eye here. It really is a damn near flawless horror film with lots of little jokes I missed the first time around (keychain anybody?) and a final act that is so delightfully insane you can't help but smile as Roth intentionally pushes the limits of implausibility to comical levels while giving the audience bloody satisfaction. I love it.

While these DVD's are packed with extras that the studio apparently wouldn't allow Roth to include in the intitial release, as a director's cut this release fails miserably. The film itself is entirely unchanged except for an alternate ending. And that ending is awful, nonsensical, confounding, out of character, and pretty much inferior to the original cut in every possible way. So why the 5 stars? Because Roth was wise enough to include both versions so that you can choose to watch the original unrated version with the good ending intact. No harm, no foul. There are no less than four commentaries, tons of lengthy featurettes, around 20 minutes of deleted scenes, and an interview with the most hardcore director in the business, Japan's twisted and talented Takashi Miike (who has a cameo in the film) among other extras. Many of these special features were on the first DVD so this release is really only for those who have put off buying this movie. And if you haven't yet, now is the time.

161 of 211 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dark, nihilistic, misogynistic...but somewhat flawed, February 27, 2006

By 

A. Sandoc "sussarakhen" (San Pablo, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hostel (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I may be one of the few people who actually enjoyed Eli Roth's first film, Cabin Fever, despite the many inherent flaws to the story, direction and all-over-the-place feel. I never bought into the tagline for that film as once of the most horrific films this generation. I've been watching horror films for as long as I can remember and Cabin Fever doesn't even scratch the surface of what constitutes a great horror film. But it did show me that Eli Roth was serious about genre and acknowledges and honors his roots and influences.

Hostel is Roth's sophomore effort, and just like Rob Zombie with his second film (The Devil's Rejects) he shows improvement as a filmmaker and continues to show that he respects the genre he's chosen to be in. Hostel is an exercise in hate, pain and nihilism. There really are no sympathetic characters in the film. Roth instead shows just how debased, cruel and inhumane people can be towards each other. Whether its through verbal, physical and intellectual means. I must point out that this film is not the torture-porn that alot of media-types call it. The gore and torture really doesn't start until fully halfway into the film. Everything before the second half begins can be summed us as soft-core porn. There's alot of nudity and sex in this first half and sets-up the three characters played by Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson.

These three college students are shown as boorish, misogynistic, insensitive louts who wish nothing more from their European vacation than sex, drugs, sex, drugs and more sex. It's this behavior that lures them to a town in Slovakia. An Eastern European, Soviet Bloc-era town where the women are stunning and horny to do whatever with foreign men. So, the trio takes off for this haven of horny, easy, beautiful women and the soft-core porn sequences continues once they arrive. But intermixed within these sequences are small bits and hints of dread and uneasiness. There's a certain sense of decay to the town and its inhabitants despite the normal scenery.

The second half promptly begins once they arrive in town and check into the hsotel. The gore mentioned by most reviewers are pretty graphic for what was finally given an R-rating. For people like myself and other horror aficionados the gore in Hostel is something we haven't seen before. The gore and torture scenes are in-your-face and Roth owes alot of thanks to Takashi Miike's Audition in how the scenes are presented. Roth's style of directing Hostel really brings to mind Miike's cult favorite. Takashi Miike even makes a brief appearance in the film.

One thing that I wanted Roth to do which he seemed to have pulled back from was going all-out in presenting Hostel as a horror exploitation film. This film tries to emulate the gory exploitation Italian and American films of the mid-70's to early 80's. Maybe the MPAA had forced Roth to trim certain scenes to get an R-rating. In certain scenes one could almost feel and sense that something was left out. Maybe the DVD release with an unrated, director's cut will shed some light to this. Roth's influences are plain to see, but he falls slightly short of reaching the lofty heights that Romero, Miike, Fulci, Craven (early), Hooper, Gordon and Argento established with their grand guignol works.

Hostel is a very good second offering from Eli Roth who really seem to like the horror genre and is constantly trying to pay it homage. His direction is much better and gone are the campy, almost comedic sequences from Cabin Fever. The film does fail to convey anything original to the genre, but succeeds enough in honoring its bloody past. Roth went from a genre-hack to very promising horror auteur with Hostel. I am hoping his next project is less of an homage to horror's past and he actually adds to its future legacy. I'm happy to give this film a grade of 7/10.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So it is that bad?, March 31, 2006

By 

M. UHL "Sick and alone" (I done forgot) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hostel (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Look, for anyone rating this 1 star or hoping for a 0 star rating stop reviewing a genre that you hate. Maybe you like older movies, maybe you like love stories, maybe you like a film to be uplifiting. Whatever you like it is not horror. Sure, there are plot holes (all horror movies have those) and yes it has SO MUCH gore and nudity(which a horror movie is naked without) it offends you. But who asked you to watch this and rip it apart.

I love movies in general, own a couple hundred. I saw this in the theater because I enjoyed the very humerous Cabin Fever and Eli Roth as a director in general. If you like movies and can enjoy good humor watch the cabin fever extras. So simple and funny. And Eli Roth appearing in Both Cabin Fever and Hostel was really funny, I dug his cameos.

Overall I like Eli Roth's movies and think Hostel was not GREAT or anything but it was far from the 1 star ratings most of the close minded people reviewing it posted. So if you can agree with what I have said go watch this and cabin fever too, you won't be sorry.