CLICK HERE FOR EXCLUSIVE VID CLIPS

Just over a year ago, when I spoke to Eli Roth for Bizarre regarding the first Hostel, he talked about his love for graphic 1970s Italian horror films and about how much he admired their excesses. Those films were clearly a major inspiration for the sequel.

From the start, it feels and almost looks like one of them, with a much rougher style than most contemporary American horrors, and when we eventually get to the first big gore sequence, Roth’s influences are blindingly obvious – it’s an amazingly brutal scene, unbelievably excessive and outlandish, and without giving too much away, I will say that it features about as much blood as I’ve ever seen on screen.

The man from Heat magazine was sitting in front of me and was having an awful time of it, shrinking into his seat with his hands over his eyes. Success.

Hostel 2 delves a bit more into the people-trafficking world surrounding the Slovakian torture factory, and follows two American businessmen who go there to kill. With no major plot revelations this time, the sequel lacks the suspense of its predecessor, and ultimately, these films are pretty dumb; Roth briefly explores masculinity, but it’s hardly deep, and the businessmen are not subtly drawn characters – it’s not exactly thought-provoking stuff. But these films exist for a specific purpose, and much of Hostel 2 is a great ride, with impressive set-pieces.

And some of the content is so unpleasant, a couple of times I thought Roth was verging on the wrong side of sadism (chiefly because of the performances of the lead actresses, who convey proper terror and really make these scenes work). However, when the film suddenly ended, much too soon for my liking, I felt robbed and was hungry for more nastiness, craving the gory, violent, adrenaline-fuelled action finale of the first film. I guess I’m just another sucker feeding the supply and demand.