Hostel - " Its just ketchup"

Through out this film course, we have witnessed the following:

- high school girls killing other high school girls
- a teenage boyfriend killing his teenage girlfriend
- a high school class killing each other
- two high school kids killing 12 other students
- teenage suicide

We have discussed and analyzed these teenager's reasons for killing. We have analyzed their dark and twisty world. We have examined the causes for these actions:

- violent video games?
- parents?
- death rock music?
- bullying?

All of these causes can be summed up in to one film, HOSTEL. Can slasher films like hostel be a cause? I will also explain why and how analyzing teenagers from a Hostel perspective is different.

First of all , we have seen films in which parents are neglectful to their teenage children. These parents either wont let thier children go or thier children need them more. In hostel, the teenage backpackers are experiencing one thing teenagers dream of, FREEDOM. Their parents are neither there or gone. The adults in this film are sick elites that pay to watch torture. But hey, he teenagers are free, their ultimate dream of being alone is happening. Eli Roth soon takes that away. When the villian of the film approaches the teenagers, he says " you must choose". With the freedom given to them, teenagers are more prone to choose what's too good to be true. This scene also is a reference to the American democracy, but is more related to our course as a " free teenager's choice". In a way I think the film is saying this to teenagers : you will pay for the freedom and fantasies you have in your head, as a teenager you shouldn't want that.

Lets take a look at Paxton's character. Paxton gets his fingers cut off, witnesses torture, risks his life, and in the end does the torturing himself.

- Paxton's fingers being cut off = bullying?
- witnessing torture = violent video games/media moral panic etc.

The choice of Paxton torturing the villian in the end of the film can be seen as an effect to the " bullying" and "violent video games" he experienced before he got his revenge. This is not to say that Paxton is a messed up teenager, he got his revenge and we can all go home happy. The excess of torture however, can be questionable.

"The babealicious bratislave hostel is the bait that lures victims into a sort of midievil torture chamber for hire, a murder brothel where rich men of all nations can unleash their most bloodthirsty impulses"- Salon review.

the rich men are the ones enjoying the teenager's torture. Who is the audience for the actual movie? I personally enjoy the gore of the film because it is extreme and takes you places you hopefully never will be in. It's not something I can identify with but its something I can escape to, the horror of torture.. where I can always go back to reality because after all, :its just ketchup.