Scott Spiegel
Hostel: Part III

With the opening sequences, this third chapter of the Hostel saga somewhat connects to the previous episodes, perhaps not to disappoint their fans, as the depicted situation seemingly represents the classic unsuspecting tourist ending up with the wrong company around the Carpathians/Balkans; only to then twist everything by reversing the roles of good and evil, as well as the location, which will turn out to be the United States... the same thing will also happen to what would have appeared to be the first murder of the film, when one of the three guys who came to Las Vegas for a bachelor party is suddenly hooded by force; then turning it all into a prank when, after the hood is removed, he finds himself with a stripper in the midst of the crowd at a casino.

Sticking to the stripper/escort theme, it will be noted that compared to the previous chapters, they no longer play the role of harpies dedicated to luring future victims of the gruesome torture game that is the subject of the saga, but rather become victims themselves. However, in line with the second chapter, we will also find a torturer playing darts with one of the unlucky ones. Apart from the few mentioned details, however, the rest of the film proceeds in perfect sync with its predecessors: this should be understood negatively, as if there's nothing to add, it's pointless to propose further chapters. Thus, one of the unfortunate ones kidnapped by the secret society of sadists manages to escape from the cage; another is unexpectedly given the chance to defend himself to entertain the audience watching the gruesome show from behind a glass (another addition compared to the previous chapters), creating thriller situations seen thousands of times before. Consequently, aside from this self-referentiality towards the previous chapters used as a means to create repeated suspense during the first part of the film, interest completely wanes in the second part. Even at the level of splatter sequences, it significantly loses ground compared to the others, in which on more than a couple of occasions I averted my eyes from the screen, and where some viewers at the cinema would have certainly left the theater disgusted/bored.

So, the third chapter is without praise and with much infamy and virtually useless (except, in my opinion, for a few jokes) as it was also for "Saw" and "House of 1000 Corpses"; whereas for other productions like "The Hills Have Eyes" or "Wrong Turn," one can find something similarly scary even beyond the first film. There's nothing left to hope for except that the third is also the last, though there's reason to doubt that.