Hostel, scariest movie?

Question

My wife and I just watched Hostel for the first time tonight and was that the most disturbing movie ever. If you have seen the movie where do you rank it on the scariest movies ever?

Answer 1

Hostel is really great. However, i also high recommend the Saw 1 & 2.

I am waiting for the Hostel 2 in Feb 2007 and Saw 3 in coming November

Answer 2

I'd say that the best word to describe it is sick, not scary (even though I've watched the less censored version on dvd).

I have seen much sicker films and scarier films. Hostel had promise and a very good idea behind it, but I think that Eli Roth worked better with less money on Cabin Fever. In it, you didn't have any emotional investment in the main characters, you really couldn't care less if they actually did die, plus it just felt like Eli was picking bits off of other scary movies and putting them in (an homage to the greats, i suppose). I guess when he was writing it, the plot came second and he just spent a lot of time going, now what could be really gross and interesting to see?

Until quite recently, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was for me the most disturbing movie that I had seen. It has a certain raw quality that makes it feel more real in a similar to the way that The Blair Witch Project was made scary for some.

I think that Funny Games by Michael Haneke is the most disturbing film that I have seen so far. It has some blood, but all the action takes place off the screen. You rarely get any relief throughout the movie, as the bad guys completely terrorise what was at the beginning a happy family. But because the film is supposed to be saying something philosophical about how violence has become a serious form of entertainment for us, there are a couple of things that could either annoy the hell out of you or make you think that this is an excellent movie.

p.s. perhaps you should (not) watch Battle Royale, a Japanese movie, where sometime in the future a bunch of Japanese high school kids are put on an island and they have to kill one another in order to survive. Only one is allowed to survive past this deadline, and if more than one is alive then they all die.

Answer 3

Well...It's not the scariest movie ever...but still pretty good...

I haven't seen an effective horror film like this in a long time. My stomach was still knotted up after we left the screening. The last time I felt like that was when I saw ALIENS for the first time about 19 years ago. Since then, no other horror film has ever made me feel like that. I certainly didn't expect it from this one. As much as I loved Cabin Fever, I'm not blind to the shortcomings of its script. As such,I was expecting more of the same from Hostel - dark humor, gore, and a sense of dread. I'm happy to see that director Eli Roth has taken a big step forward in becoming a better storyteller and filmmaker.

Admittedly my heart sank when the film began. The scenes introducing the main characters were blandly shot and edited. All I could think was, 'Oh no. Roth succumbed to some unseen studio pressure to make a normal-looking horror flick'. The style was typical of the what you'd see in crap like I know what you did last summer. But in very subtle ways, the blandness gets washed away and as our heroes enter the threshold of Hell, the style of the film changes as well. This, I learned during the Q&A afterwards with Roth, was intentional.

If you've read some of the other reviews posted here from people who saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, you get the general idea of the story. Contrary to what you might've heard, this is not a 90 minute film on torture. The torture scenes are brief and to the point. Roth doesn't wallow in pointless gore. And this is where I think it shows how he's improved as a filmmaker. He's more interested in scenes and ideas that move the story forward. Yes, there is plenty of gore, but it's relevant to the story and doesn't exist just for it's own sake.

One of the aspects of this film that made it so powerful was how Roth created a sense of helpless and inevitability. He provides the dark setup, throws in a sympathetic character, and begins twisting the screws and ratcheting up the suspense. This isn't a movie where you turn off your brain to enjoy it. On the contrary. The more you think about it, the more horrifying it becomes. You begin putting yourself into the character's situation and wondering what you'd do. When you realize that there is no hope for the character, no way to escape, no 'buddy' who's gonna turn up at the last minute to save the hero, and not a shred of humanity or compassion to the antagonists, real fear begins to set in.

Another great element in the script is how the 'survivor' makes moral choices that define their character. Instead of being merely reactive like the characters in Cabin Fever, the survivor makes several decisions which change the course of the story. It's a sign of well thought-out script and a filmmaker who cares about the fate of his characters.

For horror fans, this is an absolute must-see. It's so refreshing to see a horror movie that actually makes you feel uncomfortable and one in which you have no idea what's going to happen next. As for the gore, I was surprised by what they got away with. Although there were no credits at the end of the film, the cut I saw was rated R by the MPAA and according to Roth, he didn't cut anything out.

Answer 4

If Hostel doesn't scare you then nothing will. I've seen plenty of disturbing movies, but this one takes the cake. It's been banned in some countries. One seen in particular, is absolutely horrific. It involves an eyeball hanging by the optic nerve, that is clipped with a pair of scissors. Not for the faint hearted.

Answer 5

I don't agree entirely. While I found it disgusting and disturbing, I prefer my horror movies to be a little more subtle. While I don't shy away from gore necessarily, I find that I prefer movies that rely on good direction, acting, lighting and music to set the tone. Also, it's much more meaningful when the characters are likeable and you care what happens to them. I felt nothing for the characters and didn't really care if they died. To me, they were just silly hedonists with no real personalities whom the world didn't need.

While the movie was creepy, I just couldn't get into it. It repelled in the wrong kind of way to me.

Answer 6

Naaaaa....it was kinda sick. But definitely not the scariest. I don't get scared easily, but some things do sicken me. And I think the one movie that has bothered me was the Rob Zombie movie, "House of a 1000 Corpses". You wanna see something disturbing? See that one! there is even a sequal to that one...."The Devil's Rejects", but I have yet to see it. Don't know if I want to.

Answer 7

I don't mind a good gorefest now and then but it's not gore that scares me.

Halloween....know it by heart, seen it a million times and it still scares me.

The ORIGINAL Texas Chainsaw Massacre....still freaks me out.


For me anyway, a great horror film is one that makes you see things that aren't there, jump at noises, and want to run and turn on the lights...bloodshed isn't what makes it scary...its the mind f*** that gets ya!

Answer 8

10 that sh*t was on another level.

Answer 9

not even