Hostel 2
Encyclopedia
Hostel: Part II is a 2007 horror film by writer-director Eli Roth
that is the sequel to the 2005 horror film Hostel. The film was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. Like its predecessor, the film is set in Slovakia
and centers on a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill kidnapped victims. The film performed poorly at the box office totaling just $17 million by the end of its theatrical run whereas the original made $19 million in its opening weekend alone. Eli Roth shot scenes for the movie in the Prague
online brothel
Big Sister
and at the Blue Lagoon
in Iceland
.
) is suffering from nightmare
s and lives in seclusion with his girlfriend Stephanie (Jordan Ladd
). The two get into an argument where Stephanie denounces Paxton's paranoia as insufferable and exaggerated. She awakes the next morning to find her boyfriend decapitated
. An unmarked box (presumably containing Paxton's severed head) is then delivered to Elite Hunting boss Sasha (Milan Kňažko
), as he relaxes at an outdoor cafe with his bloodhounds.
In Italy
, three art students, wealthy Beth (Lauren German
), tough Whitney (Bijou Phillips
), and outcast Lorna (Heather Matarazzo
) are convinced by Axelle (Vera Jordanova
), a nude model they are sketching to join her on a vacation to a luxurious spa. The four travel to a small Slovakian village and check into the local hostel, where the desk clerk uploads their passport photos to an auction website, and American businessman Todd (Richard Burgi
) submits the winning bids on Whitney and Beth for himself and his passive best friend Stuart (Roger Bart
).
Later that night, at the village's "Harvest Festival", Lorna discovers that Beth has inherited a vast fortune from her mother. Stuart approaches Beth and the two share a friendly, albeit awkward, conversation. An intoxicated Lorna is taken for a boat ride, resulting in her kidnapping. Beth and Whitney leave the party, while Axelle volunteers to stay behind and wait for Lorna. Whitney wants to sleep with local Miroslav (Stanislav Ianevski
) but Beth talks her into calling it a night.
The next morning, Lorna finds herself naked, gagged, hands shackled behind her back, ankles shackled, and hanging upside down in a large room, where a woman named Mrs. Bathory (Monika Malacova) enters, undresses, and lies beneath Lorna. She then uses a long scythe
to repeatedly slash Lorna's back and torso, and revels in bathing in Lorna's blood, before fatally slashing her victim's throat. Beth, Whitney, Axelle and Miroslav go to the hot springs spa to relax, where Beth falls asleep. She then awakens to find herself alone and her belongings stolen. As she looks for her friends, she notices several men approaching and surrounding her. Fearing for her life, she flees, but is ambushed by a gang of violent street children. However, Axelle and Sasha appear and ward them away from her. Sasha then murders one of the children as punishment.
At a factory, Whitney is strapped to a chair in one of the cells. She attempts to escape, however, since Paxton's escape, the security at the factory has increased significantly. Beth is taken to a mansion, where she finds a room filled with heads, with Paxton's head at the center of the room. She is then taken to a room in the factory and is strapped to a chair. Stuart enters and explains about Elite Hunting. He unties her from the chair and almost decides to escape with her but then knocks her out. Whitney is taken to Todd's cell and strapped to a chair, where he terrorizes her with a circular saw. He accidentally lets Whitney's hair get caught in the saw and rips off part of her scalp, causing him to realize the horrors of Elite Hunting. He tries to leave, but the guard explains that he must kill her if he wants to leave; when he refuses, the guards turn savage dogs loose and they maul Todd to death. The Elite Hunting representatives try to find someone to finish with Whitney, inquiring whether an Italian cannibal who is eating Miroslav alive and a man who has his victim chained to an electrified metal bed are interested.
Stuart, now torturing Beth and blaming her for Todd's death, takes the offer on Whitney and decapitates her with a machete (although the scene is edited so the fatal blow is not shown). As he returns to finish off Beth, she seduces him into releasing her from the chair, then fights him off and chains Stuart to the chair, driving a needle into his ear canal and screaming for the gun-drawing guards to "get Sasha!". Beth makes the Elite Hunting boss an offer: she will pay the full fee to become a customer. When she is told that she must kill somebody to leave, Stuart stupidly insults Beth. She proceeds to cut off Stuart's genitals, leaving him to bleed to death, as he screams in pain. Per the standard contract, Beth is given an Elite Hunting tattoo.
In the closing sequence, Axelle is lured from the village festival into the woods by the street children, where Beth surprises and beheads her, allowing the gang to play football with her head ending the film.
Director Eli Roth
, his brother Roger, and co-producer Dan Fisner make cameo appearance
s as heads on sticks. Ruggero Deodato
makes an appearance as a cannibalistic client. Eyþór Guðjónsson
, Rick Hoffman
, Jana Kaderabkova, and Barbara Nedeljáková
make flashback cameos at the beginning of the film as their original roles in the first film.
Lionsgate
showed the first 5 minutes of Hostel 2 before select screenings of Bug, which opened on May 25, 2007.
In one of the trailers, the narrator says "It's only a movie," which was the tagline to the controversial horror film The Last House on the Left
directed by Wes Craven
. It was promoted in commercials on TV as having "the most shocking ending in horror movie history".
Director Eli Roth and cast member Bijou Phillips
attended UFC 71
during which the film was promoted.
At the date of the U.S. premiere on June 8, 2007, interviews with the Hostel 2 director Eli Roth
were released at Big Sister
.
. It opened in 6th place with only $8.2 million and went on to total $17.6 million by the end of its theatrical run. The film grossed over its $10.2 million budget. Comparatively, the original, with a more modest $4.8 million budget, opened at #1 with $19 million ($2 million more than Part IIs final gross) and went on to make over $47 million.
Director Roth blamed piracy
for the film's box office results.
showed a 44% overall (rotten) rating, with the "Cream of the Crop" scoring it at a 43% overall. The sites consensus states "Offering up more of the familiar sadism and gore, Hostel: Part II will surely thrill horror fans."
, Malaysia and Singapore
, and the "German Extended Version" (in which Lorna's torture and death scene is still not shown completely) has subsequently been banned in Germany
. The court in Munich
decided that releasing the movie in this or the uncut version is to be punished. Only a heavily edited "not under 18" version is still available. It was banned in New Zealand
, after the distributor refused to cut the scene showing the torture of Lorna to receive an R18 certificate. The film, with the scene in question edited out, was later released on DVD
on April 30, 2008.
On October 8, 2007, the film was cited in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as an example where stills from the film could be illegal to possess under the proposed law to criminalise possession of "extreme pornography
". MP Charles Walker claimed that although he had never seen the film, he was "assured by trusted sources" that "From beginning to end, it depicts obscene, misandry acts of brutality against women — an hour and a half of brutality".
Writer and attorney Julie Hilden defended Hostel Part II critically and artistically in her essay "Why are critics so hostile to Hostel: Part II?".
Former Slovak
Minister of Culture and actor Milan Kňažko
played Sasha, the head of the torture ring. He also defended the first film.
, one of the producers of Hostel and Hostel: Part II, was in talks to write and direct a third film in the series. In July 2009, Eli Roth
confirmed that he would not be directing Hostel: Part III. Total Film later reported that Roth would be involved, albeit as producer only, and that the film will abandon the European locations of the previous films in favor of an American setting. A trailer for Hostel: Part III was released in October 2011 confirming the film's Las Vegas setting.
A direct-to-DVD
release, Hostel: Part III is scheduled for release on December 27, 2011 (US) and January 18, 2012 (Europe).
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award...
that is the sequel to the 2005 horror film Hostel. The film was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. Like its predecessor, the film is set in Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
and centers on a facility in which rich clients pay to torture and kill kidnapped victims. The film performed poorly at the box office totaling just $17 million by the end of its theatrical run whereas the original made $19 million in its opening weekend alone. Eli Roth shot scenes for the movie in the Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
online brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
Big Sister
Big Sister (brothel)
Big Sister is a brothel and associated voyeuristic pay site, located in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the only brothel where customers can use the women's services free, subsidized by paying Internet viewers; live video and audio streams and archived videos of the activity in the brothel are...
and at the Blue Lagoon
Blue Lagoon (geothermal spa)
The Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. The steamy waters are part of a lava formation. The spa is located in a lava field in Grindavík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland...
in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
.
Plot
Shortly after the events of Hostel, Paxton (Jay HernandezJay Hernandez
Javier Manuel "Jay" Hernandez, Jr. is an American actor.-Early life and career:Hernandez was born in Montebello, California, the son of Isis , a secretary and accountant, and Javier Hernandez, Sr., a mechanic. He has a younger sister, Amelia, and two older brothers, Michael and Gabriel. Hernandez...
) is suffering from nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
s and lives in seclusion with his girlfriend Stephanie (Jordan Ladd
Jordan Ladd
Jordan Elizabeth Ladd is an American actress. She began taking small film roles before landing her first high-profile role in Never Been Kissed . Since then, Ladd has portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in films, including Cabin Fever , Club Dread , and Death Proof...
). The two get into an argument where Stephanie denounces Paxton's paranoia as insufferable and exaggerated. She awakes the next morning to find her boyfriend decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
. An unmarked box (presumably containing Paxton's severed head) is then delivered to Elite Hunting boss Sasha (Milan Kňažko
Milan Knažko
Milan Kňažko is a Slovakian actor and ex-politician. He was one of the leading personalities of the movement Public against Violence in November 1989 and one of the most popular faces of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia.-Acting:...
), as he relaxes at an outdoor cafe with his bloodhounds.
In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, three art students, wealthy Beth (Lauren German
Lauren German
Lauren Christine German is an American actress, known for her role as the hitchhiker in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as for starring in the 2007 film Hostel: Part II, in which she plays one of the lead characters...
), tough Whitney (Bijou Phillips
Bijou Phillips
Bijou Lilly Phillips is an American actress, model, and singer. Phillips began her career as a model but soon transitioned herself into acting and singing. When she was 13, she started as a model and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue....
), and outcast Lorna (Heather Matarazzo
Heather Matarazzo
Heather Amy Matarazzo is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as a geeky girl in the film Welcome to the Dollhouse . She played Lilly in The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement...
) are convinced by Axelle (Vera Jordanova
Vera Jordanova
Vera Jordanova is a Bulgarian-Finnish model and actress.-Early life:Jordanova was born in Helsinki, Finland to Bulgarian musicians. She is fluent in Bulgarian, Finnish and English and speaks some Spanish, French and Russian. Jordanova's parents relocated the family to Finland when Vera was 14...
), a nude model they are sketching to join her on a vacation to a luxurious spa. The four travel to a small Slovakian village and check into the local hostel, where the desk clerk uploads their passport photos to an auction website, and American businessman Todd (Richard Burgi
Richard Burgi
Richard William Burgi is an American film and television actor. He's best known for the roles of Det. Jim Ellinson on The Sentinel and as Karl Mayer on Desperate Housewives.-Personal life:...
) submits the winning bids on Whitney and Beth for himself and his passive best friend Stuart (Roger Bart
Roger Bart
Roger Bart is an American actor and singer.-Life and career:Bart was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, the son of a teacher and a chemical engineer, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey. His uncle is journalist Peter Bart. He made his Broadway debut in Big River as Tom Sawyer in 1987...
).
Later that night, at the village's "Harvest Festival", Lorna discovers that Beth has inherited a vast fortune from her mother. Stuart approaches Beth and the two share a friendly, albeit awkward, conversation. An intoxicated Lorna is taken for a boat ride, resulting in her kidnapping. Beth and Whitney leave the party, while Axelle volunteers to stay behind and wait for Lorna. Whitney wants to sleep with local Miroslav (Stanislav Ianevski
Stanislav Ianevski
Stanislav Ianevski is a Bulgarian actor, known for playing Viktor Krum in the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.Ianevski was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and has lived in England and Israel. While attending Mill Hill School in the United Kingdom, Ianevski had no particular acting...
) but Beth talks her into calling it a night.
The next morning, Lorna finds herself naked, gagged, hands shackled behind her back, ankles shackled, and hanging upside down in a large room, where a woman named Mrs. Bathory (Monika Malacova) enters, undresses, and lies beneath Lorna. She then uses a long scythe
Scythe
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...
to repeatedly slash Lorna's back and torso, and revels in bathing in Lorna's blood, before fatally slashing her victim's throat. Beth, Whitney, Axelle and Miroslav go to the hot springs spa to relax, where Beth falls asleep. She then awakens to find herself alone and her belongings stolen. As she looks for her friends, she notices several men approaching and surrounding her. Fearing for her life, she flees, but is ambushed by a gang of violent street children. However, Axelle and Sasha appear and ward them away from her. Sasha then murders one of the children as punishment.
At a factory, Whitney is strapped to a chair in one of the cells. She attempts to escape, however, since Paxton's escape, the security at the factory has increased significantly. Beth is taken to a mansion, where she finds a room filled with heads, with Paxton's head at the center of the room. She is then taken to a room in the factory and is strapped to a chair. Stuart enters and explains about Elite Hunting. He unties her from the chair and almost decides to escape with her but then knocks her out. Whitney is taken to Todd's cell and strapped to a chair, where he terrorizes her with a circular saw. He accidentally lets Whitney's hair get caught in the saw and rips off part of her scalp, causing him to realize the horrors of Elite Hunting. He tries to leave, but the guard explains that he must kill her if he wants to leave; when he refuses, the guards turn savage dogs loose and they maul Todd to death. The Elite Hunting representatives try to find someone to finish with Whitney, inquiring whether an Italian cannibal who is eating Miroslav alive and a man who has his victim chained to an electrified metal bed are interested.
Stuart, now torturing Beth and blaming her for Todd's death, takes the offer on Whitney and decapitates her with a machete (although the scene is edited so the fatal blow is not shown). As he returns to finish off Beth, she seduces him into releasing her from the chair, then fights him off and chains Stuart to the chair, driving a needle into his ear canal and screaming for the gun-drawing guards to "get Sasha!". Beth makes the Elite Hunting boss an offer: she will pay the full fee to become a customer. When she is told that she must kill somebody to leave, Stuart stupidly insults Beth. She proceeds to cut off Stuart's genitals, leaving him to bleed to death, as he screams in pain. Per the standard contract, Beth is given an Elite Hunting tattoo.
In the closing sequence, Axelle is lured from the village festival into the woods by the street children, where Beth surprises and beheads her, allowing the gang to play football with her head ending the film.
Cast
- Lauren GermanLauren GermanLauren Christine German is an American actress, known for her role as the hitchhiker in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as for starring in the 2007 film Hostel: Part II, in which she plays one of the lead characters...
as Beth - Roger BartRoger BartRoger Bart is an American actor and singer.-Life and career:Bart was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, the son of a teacher and a chemical engineer, and grew up in Bernardsville, New Jersey. His uncle is journalist Peter Bart. He made his Broadway debut in Big River as Tom Sawyer in 1987...
as Stuart - Heather MatarazzoHeather MatarazzoHeather Amy Matarazzo is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as a geeky girl in the film Welcome to the Dollhouse . She played Lilly in The Princess Diaries and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement...
as Lorna - Bijou PhillipsBijou PhillipsBijou Lilly Phillips is an American actress, model, and singer. Phillips began her career as a model but soon transitioned herself into acting and singing. When she was 13, she started as a model and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue....
as Whitney - Richard BurgiRichard BurgiRichard William Burgi is an American film and television actor. He's best known for the roles of Det. Jim Ellinson on The Sentinel and as Karl Mayer on Desperate Housewives.-Personal life:...
as Todd - Vera JordanovaVera JordanovaVera Jordanova is a Bulgarian-Finnish model and actress.-Early life:Jordanova was born in Helsinki, Finland to Bulgarian musicians. She is fluent in Bulgarian, Finnish and English and speaks some Spanish, French and Russian. Jordanova's parents relocated the family to Finland when Vera was 14...
as Axelle - Jay HernandezJay HernandezJavier Manuel "Jay" Hernandez, Jr. is an American actor.-Early life and career:Hernandez was born in Montebello, California, the son of Isis , a secretary and accountant, and Javier Hernandez, Sr., a mechanic. He has a younger sister, Amelia, and two older brothers, Michael and Gabriel. Hernandez...
as man with no hand - Jordan LaddJordan LaddJordan Elizabeth Ladd is an American actress. She began taking small film roles before landing her first high-profile role in Never Been Kissed . Since then, Ladd has portrayed supporting as well as lead roles in films, including Cabin Fever , Club Dread , and Death Proof...
as Stephanie - Milan KňažkoMilan KnažkoMilan Kňažko is a Slovakian actor and ex-politician. He was one of the leading personalities of the movement Public against Violence in November 1989 and one of the most popular faces of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia.-Acting:...
as Sasha - Edwige FenechEdwige FenechEdwige Fenech is a French-born Italian actress and film producer.- Biography :Fenech was born in Bône , in French Algeria to a Maltese father and Sicilian mother. From the late 1960s to early 1980s, Fenech starred in many types of European movies...
as Art Class Professor - Stanislav IanevskiStanislav IanevskiStanislav Ianevski is a Bulgarian actor, known for playing Viktor Krum in the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.Ianevski was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and has lived in England and Israel. While attending Mill Hill School in the United Kingdom, Ianevski had no particular acting...
as Miroslav - Patrik Zigo as Bubblegum Gang Leader
- Zuzana GeislerováZuzana GeislerováZuzana Geislerová is an actress best known to U.S. audiences for her role as the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam in the Sci Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and its 2003 sequel, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.-External links:...
as Inya - Ivan Furak as Big Guard
- Monika Malacova as Mrs. Bathory
Director Eli Roth
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award...
, his brother Roger, and co-producer Dan Fisner make cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
s as heads on sticks. Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.- Biography :...
makes an appearance as a cannibalistic client. Eyþór Guðjónsson
Eyþór Guðjónsson
Eyþór Guðjónsson , often anglicized as Eythor Gudjonsson, is an Icelandic actor. He stands 6'3" tall.He got his first big role in the 2005 horror movie Hostel, where he plays an Icelandic backpacker named Óli, famous for his catchphrase "King of the Swing", traveling through Europe with American...
, Rick Hoffman
Rick Hoffman
Rick Hoffman is an American actor and is best known for his roles as Patrick Van Dorn in Jake in Progress and more recently as Louis Litt in USA Network's legal drama Suits.-Early life:...
, Jana Kaderabkova, and Barbara Nedeljáková
Barbara Nedeljáková
Barbara Nedeljáková is a Slovak actress, best known for her role as Natalya in the 2005 horror film Hostel.-Filmography:-External links:*Barbara Nedeljakova's Official website...
make flashback cameos at the beginning of the film as their original roles in the first film.
Marketing
Lions Gate Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
showed the first 5 minutes of Hostel 2 before select screenings of Bug, which opened on May 25, 2007.
In one of the trailers, the narrator says "It's only a movie," which was the tagline to the controversial horror film The Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...
directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
. It was promoted in commercials on TV as having "the most shocking ending in horror movie history".
Director Eli Roth and cast member Bijou Phillips
Bijou Phillips
Bijou Lilly Phillips is an American actress, model, and singer. Phillips began her career as a model but soon transitioned herself into acting and singing. When she was 13, she started as a model and became one of the youngest people to grace the cover of Interview Magazine and Italian Vogue....
attended UFC 71
UFC 71
UFC 71: Liddell vs. Jackson was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The event took place on Saturday, May 26, 2007 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.-Background:...
during which the film was promoted.
At the date of the U.S. premiere on June 8, 2007, interviews with the Hostel 2 director Eli Roth
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award...
were released at Big Sister
Big Sister (brothel)
Big Sister is a brothel and associated voyeuristic pay site, located in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the only brothel where customers can use the women's services free, subsidized by paying Internet viewers; live video and audio streams and archived videos of the activity in the brothel are...
.
Box office
The film was considered by many a box office bombBox office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
. It opened in 6th place with only $8.2 million and went on to total $17.6 million by the end of its theatrical run. The film grossed over its $10.2 million budget. Comparatively, the original, with a more modest $4.8 million budget, opened at #1 with $19 million ($2 million more than Part IIs final gross) and went on to make over $47 million.
Director Roth blamed piracy
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
for the film's box office results.
Critical reception
Critical reaction to Hostel: Part II was mainly mixed, with Metareviews site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
showed a 44% overall (rotten) rating, with the "Cream of the Crop" scoring it at a 43% overall. The sites consensus states "Offering up more of the familiar sadism and gore, Hostel: Part II will surely thrill horror fans."
Controversy
The film has been restricted to adults in most countries. However, it has been cut in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Malaysia and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and the "German Extended Version" (in which Lorna's torture and death scene is still not shown completely) has subsequently been banned in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The court in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
decided that releasing the movie in this or the uncut version is to be punished. Only a heavily edited "not under 18" version is still available. It was banned in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, after the distributor refused to cut the scene showing the torture of Lorna to receive an R18 certificate. The film, with the scene in question edited out, was later released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on April 30, 2008.
On October 8, 2007, the film was cited in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as an example where stills from the film could be illegal to possess under the proposed law to criminalise possession of "extreme pornography
Extreme pornography
Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 is a piece of legislation in the United Kingdom that criminalises possession of what it refers to as "extreme pornographic images". The law was enacted from 26 January 2009...
". MP Charles Walker claimed that although he had never seen the film, he was "assured by trusted sources" that "From beginning to end, it depicts obscene, misandry acts of brutality against women — an hour and a half of brutality".
Writer and attorney Julie Hilden defended Hostel Part II critically and artistically in her essay "Why are critics so hostile to Hostel: Part II?".
Former Slovak
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
Minister of Culture and actor Milan Kňažko
Milan Knažko
Milan Kňažko is a Slovakian actor and ex-politician. He was one of the leading personalities of the movement Public against Violence in November 1989 and one of the most popular faces of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia.-Acting:...
played Sasha, the head of the torture ring. He also defended the first film.
Sequel
In June 2008, it was announced that Scott SpiegelScott Spiegel
Scott Spiegel is an American screenwriter, film director, producer and actor. He is best known for co-writing the screenplay for the movie Evil Dead II with longtime friend, film director Sam Raimi, with whom he attended Wylie E. Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan...
, one of the producers of Hostel and Hostel: Part II, was in talks to write and direct a third film in the series. In July 2009, Eli Roth
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. He is known for his role as Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds for which he won both a SAG Award and a BFCA Critic's Choice Award...
confirmed that he would not be directing Hostel: Part III. Total Film later reported that Roth would be involved, albeit as producer only, and that the film will abandon the European locations of the previous films in favor of an American setting. A trailer for Hostel: Part III was released in October 2011 confirming the film's Las Vegas setting.
A direct-to-DVD
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
release, Hostel: Part III is scheduled for release on December 27, 2011 (US) and January 18, 2012 (Europe).