Hostel

Writer-director Eli Roth made his feature film debut in 2002 with Cabin Fever, a low budget horror about a group of teenagers terrorised by flesh-eating bacteria in the American backwoods.

Inspired by alarmist newspaper stories, the film was a triumph of style and ingenuity over budget ($1.5 million), and left us in no doubt that Roth is a film-maker who loves gore by the bucket-load.

Hostel provides him with a considerably bigger budget ($4.5 million) and an opportunity to let his freakish imagination run riot.

Inspired by a reportedly true story, Hostel paints a vision of global tourism that beggars belief. Gallons of fake blood slosh about the screen as the characters beg - or rather scream at the top of their lungs - for their lives.

The film has been a number one box office smash in America and the unpleasant cocktail of sex and violence should draw audiences this side of the Atlantic too, especially to late-night screenings.

The unfortunate heroes of the story are best buddies Josh (Richardson) and Paxton (Hernandez), a pair of fun-seeking American backpackers who intend to booze and sleep their way around Europe as a last hurrah before college.

En route, the two lads meet Icelandic traveller Oli (Gudjonsson), who agrees to join them on their quest, and the trio head for Slovakia - a nirvana for foreign tourists where the women are supposedly just as desperate for male attention as they are gorgeous.

Checking into a hostel in an out-of-the-way town, Josh, Paxton and Oli think all of their prayers have been answered. Their roommates are two leggy beauties - Natalya (Nedeljakova) and Svetlana (Kaderabkova) - who love to parade about the hotel in little more than their underwear.

Then something strange happens: Oli disappears without trace, along with a Japanese girl from the hostel.

Following a trail of clues, Josh and Paxton discover their friend's nightmarish final destination. In so doing, the two lads finally understand there is only one way they are going to be checking out of the hostel: In a coffin.

Once the bloodletting and dismemberment begins in earnest, the actors have little more to do than vomit, and scream variations of: "Please let me go!" and "Noooooo!"

The offbeat humour of the first 20 minutes gives way to some really nasty, graphic scenes of torture. If you're at all squeamish, then look away, because Roth delights in inflicting unspeakable pain on his characters. Maybe you don't want that hot dog and large popcorn after all.