Movie Review: Hostel Part III

Synopsis: 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.

You really don't need to know who stars in this or much about the set-up. I mean it's just Hostel in another city, this time Las Vegas. But Vegas is only a part of the movie for the first 10 minutes probably. Then think of The Hangover (1 or 2... take your pick) and cross that with Hostel (1 or 2... take your pick) and you have Hostel Part III. Oddly enough, there's no hostel involved in this though. But there are people being captured and tortured for a wanting audience.

The MPAA says "Rated R for strong bloody sadistic violence and torture, sexuality/nudity and pervasive language" and so there you go. That's the whole film in a nutshell. Either I'm numb to it or it's possibly just not as shocking as the earlier movies, but I never was really squirming in my seat during torture sessions. Perhaps because most of the victims are sort of unlikable, obnoxious idiots. Some aren't, and I was sympathetic to them, but there's only a couple of people to root for here in my book. And there's a lot of blood splatter but it's just not as in-your-face gory as the first movie. Again though, maybe I'm just used to it. This whole "torture porn" genre has sort of run it's course.

It's all quite dumb and preposterous, even to the point of some scenes being laughable I thought. That takes away from a lot of the power of the first 2 films as it's more over-the-top this time around than it is horrifying.

I said you don't need to know who's in it, but I will say Zulay Henao (who plays Nikki) looks spectacular and I wish she had a much bigger role. If you don't know who she is I'd advise you to immediately her name for some wonderful Maxim photos.

Anyway though, it's not a terrible movie by any means and I was actually interested for the most of it. There's a twist of sorts at the end that's kind of silly, but still fun. If you liked either of the Hostel films don't pass this up just because it's direct-to-DVD, it's still worth a visit. If you don't like this sort of thing then by all means avoid this, it's not really gotten any more pleasant.

5/10