Independent Films, Film Profiles

Hostel: Part II
by Eli Roth

Hostel: Part II is the 2007 sequel to writer-director Eli Roth's 2005 horror film Hostel. The film was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. Like its predecessor, the film is set in Slovakia and centers on a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill kidnapped victims. The film performed poorly at the box office totaling just $17 million by the end of its theatrical run whereas the original made $19 million in its opening weekend alone. However, it had beaten its budget. Eli Roth shot scenes for the movie in the Prague online brothel Big Sister and in Iceland, the Blue Lagoon.[3]Picking up shortly after the end of Hostel, the film opens with Paxton (Jay Hernandez) in seclusion with his girlfriend Stephanie (Jordan Ladd). The two argue, and the next morning Stephanie wakes up to discover Paxton's decapitated body seated at the kitchen table, with their cat licking the blood from his neck. Meanwhile, in Slovakia, a mysterious package is delivered to Sasha (Milan Kňažko), the owner of Elite Hunting. From the reaction of Sasha's hounddogs and the size of the box, it is left to the audience to deduce that this package contains Paxton's head (which was missing from the scene of the decapitation). In Italy, art students Beth (Lauren German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips) and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) are convinced by Axelle (Vera Jordanova), a nude model they are sketching, to join her on a vacation to a luxurious spa. The four travel to a small Slovakian village and check into the local hostel, where the desk clerk uploads their passport photos to an auction website, where hotshot American businessman Todd (Richard Burgi) bids on Whitney and Beth for himself and his passive best friend Stuart (Roger Bart).Later that night, at the village's "Harvest Festival", Lorna discovers that Beth has inherited a vast fortune from her mother. Stuart approaches Beth and the two share a friendly, if awkward, conversation. An intoxicated Lorna leaves to go on a boat ride with Roman, a charismatic local, who proceeds to kidnap Lorna with the help of two accomplices. A local walks up to Beth and asks her for a dance, she declines. He responds with "I could have helped you." Beth doesn't understand and shortly afterwards the Hostel clerk approaches and tells her that "He won't bother you anymore." Beth and Whitney leave the party, while Axelle volunteers to stay behind and wait for Lorna.The next morning the three girls head to the local spa to relax. Basking in the relaxing atmosphere of the hot springs, Beth is able to fall somewhat at ease and dozes off. Meanwhile, a naked Lorna is shackled upside-down in a large room, where a woman (Monika Malacova) named Mrs. Bathory enters, undresses and lies beneath Lorna, then proceeds to slowly kill the girl, cutting her with a long scythe and bathing in her blood, then slitting her throat with a sickle.At the spa, Beth awakens to find herself alone and her belongings stolen. As she looks for her friends, she notices several men approaching and surrounding her. Fearing for her life, she climbs over the spa's walls and through the forest. While making her escape, she stops a truck with the local who asked her for a dance. He has all of his belongings, assuming he could have helped her as he is leaving himself. Running into the woods she is ambushed by the "Bubblegum Gang", a gang of violent, lawless children who are reappearing from the first film. Before they are able to descend upon her, however, Axelle and Sasha appear and ward them away from her. Axelle escorts a flustered but somewhat relieved Beth to their vehicle. With Axelle and Beth away, Sasha confronts the children. He is angered that they interfered with his "business operations." As punishment, and to warn against future transgressions, Sasha draws out his gun and has one of the children brought forward before him. Sasha summarily kills the boy, and the rest of the gang flees.After being taken to Sasha's mansion, Beth realizes that Sasha and Axelle are responsible for Whitney and Lorna's disappearances after seeing the men who tried to kidnap her at the spa coming up the stairs of Sasha's home. She tries to hide and discovers a room filled with severed heads, including Paxton's, before being captured and taken to the factory.At the factory, a sobbing Whitney is strapped to a chair in one of the cells while an old woman applies makeup to her face. Whitney severely bites the woman's nose and escapes, only to be captured by the guards.Stuart then enters his room where Beth is strapped to a chair with a sack over her head. Stuart looks around the room at the tools with horror. He then takes the sack off Beth's head and explains about Elite Hunting. He then unties her from the chair and lets her think she is escaping. He then punches Beth in the face.Whitney is then taken to Todd's cell and strapped to a chair, where he taunts and terrorizes her with a circular saw. Overwhelmed with excitement, Todd accidentally cuts into her face with a power saw, maiming her, which disturbs him so much that he now realizes the horrors of Elite Hunting.He tries to leave, claiming he no longer wants to kill her. The guard explains that he must kill her if he wants to leave; when he refuses, the guards set the dogs on him, killing him for violating his contract.The guards then bandage Whitney and show her photograph to other clients in adjoining cells, offering her at a discount. They go to a room where an older man (a cameo role from Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato) puts in his bid. He is then shown cannibalising the young man (Stanislav Ianevski) Whitney had met at the dance. The young man's right foot is gone and on his left, several layers of flesh are missing. The man continues to cut off pieces of the young man's flesh with a knife and fork, and eat it, all while listening to classical music. The guards then move to another, where the man bids. He is shown torturing a man on a caged bed that severely electrocutes the victim.The deranged and sadistic Stuart, now torturing Beth and blaming her for his friend's death, accepts the offer and kills Whitney. As he returns to finish with Beth, she seduces him into releasing her from the chair, then fights him off as he lies on her and chains Stuart to the chair. Beth grills Stuart for the code to the cell, then sticks a needle in his ear when he refuses to tell her. Stuart tells Beth the code, but she still needs to be buzzed through the door, which inadvertently summons Sasha and the guards to the room. Beth offers to buy her freedom with part of her inheritance. When Sasha explains to her that she must kill somebody to leave, Beth cuts off Stuart's genitals (after he calls her a cunt) and tosses them to one of the guard dogs, which eats them; Beth then orders Stuart to be left to bleed to death as he screams in pain. Per the standard contract, Beth is given an Elite Hunting tattoo. In the closing sequence, Axelle is lured from the village festival into the woods by the Bubblegum Gang, where Beth surprises and beheads her, allowing the gang to play football (soccer) with her head. The film then ends on a shot of Axelle's decapitated body with the Bubblegum Gang dancing in the background.