The premise of Hostel is simple. Two American college students Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Dumb and Dumber's Derek Richardson) are touring Europe. Along the way, they meet up with Icelandic party boy Oli (played to hilarious effect by newcomer Eythor Gudjonsson) and get the idea to head to Amsterdam for a little women, fun and more women. They have their fun but soon find out that Amsterdam is also home to some people who are out to have a different kind of fun.

The acting is very good, but that doesn't mean that the characters are. Some of the dialog is humorous (even causing a few laugh-out-loud moments) but, in the end, the three main characters come across as stupid drug-addled fools. It wasn't long before I was rooting for them get to the terror that I knew was headed their way. To the credit of the actors, Derek Richardson was nominated for an MTV music award for "Best Frightened Performance".

The gore effects are done by by the KNB crew that seems to work on every horror movie to hit the screen in the past few years. I think Greg Nicotero is secretly a top secret test subject for human cloning. There's no way he can be in that many places at once! As usual, the FX are a horror fan's wet dream. The torture scenes make you cringe and various body parts are scattered everywhere...but only in the second half of the movie. Here's hoping Hostel 2 has more gore.

Despite the bad reviews I'd heard, Hostel was a great gorey hoot! I have yet to watch with any of the 4 commentary tracks included on the DVD or to view much of the behind the scenes footage but I'd recommend buying this one. Sure. I'm sure the first half will turn some fans off since the blood is slow to start but the old saying stays true this go 'round: "Good things come to those who wait."