The underground torture ring dreamed up by writer-director Eli Roth for his Hostel series appears to have more employees than Disney World. It’s quite an operation, one whose implausibility symbolizes the silliness of Roth’s overall technique. The filmmaker has his loyal followers – including, notably, Quentin Tarantino – but Hostel: Part II is a poorly crafted collection of lazy horror tropes, hokey shock effects and the usual torture porn. In one scene, Roth doesn’t just give us a headless corpse; he offers a licking cat perched on its shoulders as the cherry on top.
