Roth Explores the Feminine Mystique in "Hostel 2"

by | May 9, 2007 | Comments

"Hostel" took the male fantasy of orgies with easy European women and turned it into a nightmare as they were drugged and tortured to death by wealthy businessmen. "Hostel II" follows women who get lured to the torture palace, so they’ll need different tricks.

"There is a feminine side," said director Eli Roth. "I think in the first one, you’re really kind of with the guys and there were a lot of things that lured them to this place were sort of guy things. It was the sex tourism. So I wanted to explore what would attract women to go this place and how would girls get there as well? So we’re going to be following their story and we’re going to follow the story of the clients that have paid to kill them."

Eli Roth is vocal about the importance of nudity in horror films, but with female heroines, "Hostel II" is not likely to be quite as titillating as the original. "Actually, that was really much more what the first one was about. There’s some of that in this movie but this one I really wanted to make it scarier and I think I kind of toned down in guess more of the Porky’s elements of the first one because it didn’t really apply to the second one. Of course some of that’s there because it wouldn’t be Hostel II without it."

Perhaps it will be sexual for the intellectuals out there. "I think there’s inherent sexuality. Any time there’s a man committing violence against a woman in a film, there’s definitely sexual undertones inherent."