“#Rothtober continues with Hostel Part II. It picks up exactly where Hostel left off, if you were watching the theatrical release. So we’ll just jump right in as well.
Putting together a good sequel is tough, but Roth pulls it off gore-geously. You have the same set up: Americans backpacking in Europe get taken by some big bads who sell them off for other people’s killing pleasure. But now you’re gonna get both sides of the story. Besides following our unsuspecting tourists, you also follow a couple of the buyers. You see them get notified of the available “”goods”” and the whole rest of the process from their side. And OhMyGod one of the buyers is Roger Bart! Sorry, musical theater geek moment.
I also really liked how this one ended. Yesterday I said that the two endings from the previous Hostel should have been combined so that it would be both dark AND satisfying. Hostel II nailed that combination. Really, the last possible ending I would have considered, and it’s perfectly wrong.
And of course, Roth turns the blood up a notch. The Elizabeth Bathory inspired torture scene for Heather Matarazzo’s Lorna is one of my all time favorite grisly movie deaths. If someone was ever gonna go there, my boy Eli was certainly the crazy person for the job.”