Hostel: Part II (2007)

I enjoyed this movie, it was a bit more interesting the first one. I was disappointed that Jay Hernandez gets killed right away, but it also it makes sense since no witnesses/survivors can be left or else the whole operation is at risk. What really put a new light in the movie were the two male characters who are new to the club. There we get to see two different characters at play, one who is eager to taste evil and one who has to be dragged into the situation. The one who is eager has fantasies of how killing somebody will make him gain a characteristic that will intimidate others, a characteristic that does not need to be mentioned yet perceptible. What he fails to consider is that the characteristic that he years for, might not come from killing an innocent and defenseless victim, or killing without need or killing out of curiosity. The other clients of the club are truly evil, they indulge in their dark pastime as the goal, for pleasure, and that is how and why they can kill not only without remorse but with pure pleasure. At the end I did feel sorry for him, very little effort was needed (even a simple matter of just sit and wait) to complete his contract and he would have survived. For Stuart, the character who has to be dragged into the situation, on the other hand, he does not want to be "that guy" yet slowly but surely when presented with the proper opportunities and motivations, he turns out to embrace the darkness and evil. Stuart's repressions and frustrations come to surface and he will project them into anybody who is in front of him. His transformation from the hesitant/undecided guy is extreme and very convincing. This also left me thinking about his friend, maybe his friend couldn't transform because he did not have any repressions or frustration. Being a wealthy and physically attractive man who probably got his way most of the time, there was probably very little to brew evil feelings. The transformation to evil is also extreme for the surviving girl, Beth, who turn herself into a ruthless killer, too. But at least she did have a very good reason for that. Payback is a bitch, indeed. I guess it was good for Stuart to embrace evil, the audience had to abandon any sympathy for this character for the ending to work. There was really no way out of that room without somebody murdered and had Stuart remain his old self and tried to save the girl, they both would have died. Probably what I have mentioned was not the main idea of such a movie, but it was interesting to me.