Hostel Part II: Unrated Director's Cut Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: Hostel Part II: Unrated Director’s Cut

Region: A

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Genre: Horror

Stars: Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Philips, Vera Jordanova, and Richard Burgi

Writer: Eli Roth

Director: El Roth

Feature length: 95 minutes

Extras: Deleted Scenes, Hostel Part II: The Next Level Featurette, The Art Of KNB Effects Featurette, Production Design Featurette, Hostel Part II: A Legacy Of Torture International Television Special, Blood And Guts Gag Reel, The Treatment Radio Interview, Commentary With Director Eli Roth, Commentary With Director Eli Roth, Executive Producer Quentin Tarantino, And Associate Producer Gabriel Roth, Commentary With Lauren German, Vera Jordanova, And Richard Burgi, Interactive Surveillance Cameras, Previews

Languages: English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai, and Korean Language Subtitles

Packaging: Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 16

Sound: PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2007/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2007

Theatrical Distributor: Screen Gems and Lionsgate

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Hostel Part II is Writer and Director Eli Roth’s continuation of his hit second film Hostel. Roth says in his feature length audio commentary that he wanted Hostel Part II to begin in such a way that if you removed the opening credits, you could almost imagine both films being part of one big movie and so Hostel Part II starts immediately from where the first film left off before getting into a new set of characters and some different points of view that fills in the blanks and answers the questions fans from the first film may have had. The continuation focuses on three girls studying in Italy for the summer, who are lured into visiting a quaint town in Slovakia where there are hot springs that are supposed to have rejuvenating properties and thus the girls end up at the same hostel that serves as the front for the victims to later be auctioned off to wealthy people worldwide who pay to torture and kill them in various manners. The nightmare is made to be even more vivid this time out because we also get the view point of two American businessmen who have won a bid to kill torture two of the girls in one of the film’s creepier sequences and as a result we also get to see how the whole business works with more behind the scenes shots that makes the premise all too believable as something that could not only happen in an Eastern European country, it could happen anywhere.

Now for the record, while it is not necessary to have seen the original Hostel in order to enjoy Hostel Part II, I strongly recommend anyone who is the least bit curious about the first film to see it first and preferably to watch both Hostel movies back to back if you want to put Mr. Roth’s idea of making the film a continuation rather than a sequel to the test. Though Mr. Roth recaps the first film within a few minutes of the second, if you watch Hostel Part II without watching Hostel then the original will essentially be spoiled and part of what makes Hostel Part II a good movie is the extra layer it places upon the events of the first movie so I highly recommend seeing both films in their chronological order if you never saw the first film. One of the things I’ve noticed about Mr. Roth is that he is a very articulate guy and he loves to talk. So it is no surprise that Mr. Roth participates in three separate feature length audio commentaries and like the commentaries he has done for his previous feature films on DVD, which also includes Cabin Fever, I am impressed at his encyclopedic knowledge of the genre and subgenres of horror films and I am impressed at how he can talk in three different audio commentaries and while there will be moments where certain information might repeat itself here and there, essentially these truly are three separate audio commentaries with different points of view and all are entertaining.

I personally feel the first commentary is about to a certain extent, life after Hostel and Eli Roth, the successful genre filmmaker as opposed to Roth talking about all he did to learn as much about the business as he can in the commentary for Cabin Fever or Roth’s mainstream breakthrough success and the excitement that comes with that on his second film Hostel. Now listening to Roth in his feature length solo audio commentary I felt as though I was listening to a filmmaker that had found his footing and was now more comfortable with his success and though Roth is still young, he is definitely more mature here in his explanation of how the second film came about and his experience reassuring Europeans that the portrayal of Slovakia in Hostel was not intended to be exploitive. If anything he was trying to get across the idea of American presumption and audacity abroad and the town portrayed in both movies is not meant to be a realistic portrayal of Eastern Europe after the disillusion of the Soviet Union, but rather a skewed American perception. In Hostel the guys are drawn to the town by tales of Slovakian woman that love to sleep with young American men while in the second film, the girls are not drawn by sex, but rather a romantic image. The reality of course being that odds are Slovakia is not a place where American college guys go to get laid and it is no more romantic than any other part of the world. The image of the town in the Hostel films can therefore be seen as being completely subjective to what the characters believe they are experiencing or will receive if they go there and what we as the viewing audience projects upon the film itself.

Roth mentions his experiences promoting Hostel Part II, which included appearing as a guest of The Howard Stern Show. Previously he had called in, but this was his first time he was invited to sit on the couch and be a proper guest. Roth was Howard Stern’s Production Assistant and would watch Howard’s trailer at night while Howard was sleeping if I am correct, and used the time to work on his screenplay for what would become Cabin Fever so as I’ve noted in the past, this is not the overnight success story, but rather a person who worked diligently to get to where he is today and was fortunate enough to succeed. The second commentary is more production specific with Executive Producer Quentin Tarantino and Associate Producer Gabrielle Roth sharing the microphone with Eli. I found this commentary to be interesting because in-between their discussion of how the sequel came to be and so forth, they also mention a few anecdotes about Tarantino’s own stab at the genre Death Proof, which was part of the Grind House double feature that included Robert Rodriguez’ Planet Terror. In relation to the mock trailer for Thanksgiving that appeared between the two films, Roth talks about his appearance in Death Proof, which was done in-between the production of Hostel Part II. So since Tarantino does not provide a commentary on the region one DVD release of Death Proof, this commentary track along with Rodriguez’ commentary on Planet Terror gives people some indirect insight into the making of Death Proof, which is kind of like an added bonus or Easter egg of sorts. The last commentary features Lauren German, Vera Jordanova, and Richard Burgi, who all have a good report with each other and Roth does a good job at interviewing the actors so that they open up more naturally without Roth prodding them a bit.

Roth also participates is a radio interview for a program called The Treatment (26:25) that is included on the Blu-ray Disc and while I would have liked a “Play All” feature for the deleted scenes, one gets brief text explanations for the ten deleted scenes which are all presented in MPEG-2 encoded widescreen with 5.1 Surround Sound. The same holds true for the gag reel (3:29) and for bonus trailers that include Resident Evil: Extinction, Tekkonkinkreet, and Vacancy as well as a coming soon to Blu-ray Disc spot (: 32). Exclusive to the Blu-ray Disc are the images of eight running closed circuit surveillance monitors with footage shot for the film to appear on the monitors in the background. One can choose any monitor they want to view footage of different rooms within the Elite Hunting factory facility. Bonus pillar boxed featurettes include a look at a history of torture through the ages (23:45), a production design short (6:43), a look at the amazing effects work of KNB (6:02) and a behind the scenes making of featurette (26:28).

Hostel Part II is presented in a sharp high definition widescreen aspect ratio of (2.35:1) with a resolution up to 1080p where available and a terrific Uncompressed English PCM 5.1 Surround Soundtrack as well as English and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Thai and Korean Subtitles encoded as options. The AVC codec is used for the film presentation and while the enhanced Java features that allow for more flexible interactivity for the user without necessarily interrupting the viewing experience are a huge improvement, compared to HDi used on HD DVD, I think the interactivity features still have a bit of a way to go. I also found that even with the latest firmware upgrades for my Samsung BD-P1000 first generation Blu-ray Disc Player, the disc interactive features were slow, but they worked much better on my Sony PlayStation 3 with the most recent available firmware update.

Hostel Part II: Unrated Director’s Cut as well as Hostel: Unrated Director’s Cut are both available exclusively on Blu-ray Disc high definition at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and make for a good HD double feature this Halloween.

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