6WH: September 30th

Hostel: Part II (2007) directed by Eli Roth
It started out as a promising follow-up to the original. The lone survivor of the first film is killed of at the beginning of this one, as is proper in horror sequels. Instead of three male protagonists, we follow three females traveling to Slovakia. Since we already know the secret from the first film, we also follow two torturers from America as well. One of them seems as though he's not really into the idea of torturing and killing someone and is just going along with his psychotic friend. Good ideas for mixing things up.

But, I think Roth wussed out on this one. Instead of ratcheting up the horror, which is what a good horror sequel should do, I think the fact that his protagonists were female this time held him back. He might've been right. Even as it is, he was still accused of misogyny. Still, that doesn't excuse the extreme ridiculousness of Beth's escape from the torturers. She essentially turns into a super hero at the end of the movie, over-powering her captor, torturing him, and buying her way to freedom with her Bruce Wayne-ish inheritance. Worst, she paid no price at all; Paxton from part 1 had to give half of his hand in order to escape. Bah. (5/10)