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| Release: 2011, Rating: R/UR, Runtime: 88 min. |
Hostel: Part III, another sequel in the series that proved that audiences love torture porn, but only for so long. Speaking of, it didn’t take long for this series to fall into the Direct to DVD category, as Hostel: Part III comes at us in a low budget and poor offering of cliched stories, shoddy acting and a tired formula of gore for gore’s sake. The others may of had those problems as well, but at least they looked good doing it…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: While attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas, four friends are enticed by two sexy escorts to join them at a private party way off the Strip. Once there, they are horrified to find themselves the subjects of a perverse game of torture, where members of the Elite Hunting Club are hosting the most sadistic show in town.
Gone is the seedy, dark and dirty European setting and instead, we get the seedy, bright lights and surprisingly clean underbelly of Las Vegas. Plenty of horror films have used Las Vegas as a backdrop, some pretty good and some absolutely awful (check out this article, , to see exactly what I’m talking about), Hostel: Part III falls somewhere into between the two. The story is about a group of friends heading to Vegas for a bachelor party. The night is young and the woman are wanting and the parties are hopping. The groom’s best man and unruly rebel (the film let’s you know he’s a rebel, when he ruthlessly throws an empty wine glass out the limo window and just laughs), offers an undisclosed amount of money to some classy ladies of the night, to show the groom and friends a wild time at a club, in the outskirts of Vegas.
Obviously, the best thing to do while in Vegas, is to leave the city and head out to the desert, so naturally, they head on out to the club and it isn’t long before one of their friends is drugged and carted off to a building, housing a bunch of rich folks, who are betting on how a person is going to die, whilst it happens right in front of their eyes.The guys start to worry when their friend doesn’t show up the next day and decide to doing some investigating, which consist of driving around aimlessly and breaking into a hooker’s (sorry, escort’s) trailer, which is crammed full of sex toys, which wasn’t necessary to mention in this review, but how could I not. The shoddy investigating leads to them getting more than they bargained for, as they are all kidnapped and carted off to that same torture building. However, not everything is as it seems, as one friend, might not actually be a friend at all! DUN DUN DUNNNNN!
I’ll admit, Hostel: Part III actually threw a few twists my way that I didn’t see coming. I do have to give it some props there for keeping the story fresh, well semi-fresh, more like recently deceased fresh. The main problem with the movie, is I really wish they would’ve dealt more with the betting process and the game the rich people were playing. They only touched on it a little bit, showing you a slice here and there, but they never dedicated any sort of time to it. Instead, they focused on the friends and their pointless problems. The gambling idea was actually an interesting concept and besides the aforementioned twists, was the only real fresh (remember, semi deceased fresh) thing this movie was serving up.
The next, slightly smaller problem with the movie, was the budget. Gone is the dark and dirty look of the European setting, now we get the clean and polished look of a TV production. The Hostel series was never known for having a big budget, much like the Saw series that inspired it, but director Eli Roth (not returning to direct this one obviously) worked with what he had and gave us a certain look that this one is sorely missing. Not having the money, also means we get some really high caliber acting (there is sarcasm somewhere in this sentence, I just know it). No real noticeable faces, save for that annoying kid from Nip/Tuck, that everyone loved to hate and also that guy from Wanted (you know, not Professor X and not God, but that other guy). Everyone else is there for a small paycheck and the chance to see some nudity, which honestly, I can’t blame them.
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| There isn’t a whole lot of photos for this movie online, so I figured I’ll just show these girls again. |
The Hostel series is effectively over and to some people, that’s a good thing. I was never a giant fan of the series, only really enjoying the first one. However, seeing it going out like this is a disappointment. For a big fan, it would be like someone strapped you to a chair and proceeded to forcefully poop down your mouth, while a bunch of people watched and gambled on when you were going to choke to death. Okay, it’s not that bad, but it’s still a forgettable film and one that should be seen once and then promptly discarded. As the saying goes, a poorly made low budget film shot in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
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