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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 8th

"HOSTEL: PART II" released in 2005

If the first Hostel film which was set in a fictional town in Slovakia and centers on a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill kidnapped victims, didn't make you think twice about backpacking in eastern Europe, than Eli Roth's follow up, Hostel: Part II, certainly will!

This time around, three college art students, Beth (Lauren German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), are convinced to join their new friend, nude model Axelle (Vera Jordanova), on a luxurious spa vacation and the four travel to a small Slovakian village and check into the local hostel. Meanwhile two American businessmen, Stuart (Roger Bart) and Todd (Richard Burgi) also arrive in town for the village's Harvest Festival - for completely different, more sinister reasons. And the eerie Elite Hunting boss Sasha (Milan Knažko) settles an unpaid debt from the past. In the end, who will die and who will survive will come as a surprise!

To view the original trailer on our Facebook page, click on IHdb

With the critical and financial success of the first Hostel (2005), Lionsgate was quick to capitalize on it and greenlit the sequel. This time filmed in Prague (including some scenes filmed at the online brothel Big Sister) the movie continued two features from the original - all "clients" who have at least one establishing scene before they arrive at the torture factory end up being killed, and the young men and women who deliberately deliver victims to Elite Hunting are themselves murdered. In another sequence, perhaps inspired by Friday the 13th Part 2, the surviving protagonist from the first film, Jay Hernandez's character Paxton is quickly dispatched early in the second film.

To view the original trailer on our Facebook page, click on IHdb

Eli Roth returns to write/direct the sequel, starring Lauren German, Bijou Phillips and Heather Matarazzo as the doomed tourists with special cameos by Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato (who, ironically, plays a sadistic cannibal in the film), Edwige Fenech as the Art Class Professor, and Luc Merenda, known for his previous starring roles in the Italian horror films Torso (1973) and the Kidnap Syndicate (1975), coming out of retirement to play The Detective - encouraged by Fenech to accept the role.

To view the original trailer on our Facebook page, click on IHdb

Critical reaction to Hostel: Part II was mixed, with Screendaily reviewing "Filmmaker Eli Roth tries to enliven the formula, but this sequel loses the grim surprise of the original without adding much new in terms of plotting or gory set pieces." It also faired less than its predecessor at the box office with $35 million, less than half of the first films $80 million gross.

Still, both Hostel films cost a total of $15 million dollars and grossed a total of $115 million dollars theatrically worldwide, making the Hostel films one of the most profitable horror franchises. Four years later, Hostel: Part III was released straight-to-DVD, directed by the producer of the first two films Scott Spiegel, this time setting the Elite Hunting Club in Las Vegas.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   44%

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