Hostel
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All actors and roles (10)
All team (115)
Short description
Hostel follows two American college students, Paxton and Josh, travelling across Europe with an Icelandic companion they meet along the way, Oli. More interested in drugs and parties than sightseeing, the three are drawn toward Slovakia by talk of a hostel where attractive women are said to welcome foreign men. What begins as a hedonistic detour turns into something far more dangerous once they settle in and their companions begin to disappear.
Eli Roth wrote and directed the film, which was released in January 2006 and runs 94 minutes. It sits second in his directing career, arriving after Cabin Fever in 2003 and before Hostel: Part II and Grindhouse, both in 2007. Jay Hernandez plays Paxton, Derek Richardson plays Josh and Eythor Gudjonsson plays Oli, with Barbara Nedeljakova, Jana Kaderabkova and Jennifer Lim also in the cast. The production involved 65 credited cast members and 115 credited crew, and was made for 5 million dollars.
The film's commercial performance far outstripped its modest cost, taking about 82 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 across roughly 203,000 votes, and on TMDB 6 out of 10 from a much smaller base of about 4,000. A critics' rating of 6.3 out of 10 from 110 reviews places it close to the audience scores rather than sharply apart from them.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Oli was written by Eli Roth specifically for Eitor Gudjonsson after they met at a press conference during the promotional campaign for "Fever Pitch" in Iceland in 2002. Eli was so impressed with the Icelander's charisma that he promised him a role in one of his future films. Eitor initially took this news with skepticism, but when Eli contacted him and invited him to one of the key roles in "Hostel," the young man immediately agreed.
- Eli Roth hired ordinary children from the street to play the roles of members of the "Bubble Gum" gang.
- Eli Roth presented the film at the Reykjavik International Film Festival in 2005. During the festival, Roth and Quentin Tarantino were inducted into the Viking order in a ceremony organized by Eitor Gudjonsson. Each of them received their Icelandic names: Roth became Eli Sheldonsson, and Quentin became Quentin Connisson. The entire process of making the film – from script development to release – took 12 months. The average Hollywood film requires three times as long.
- Filming took place in a functioning psychiatric hospital in Prague, built in 1910, in a wing that had been closed for over 50 years. Most of the scenes were shot in the so-called building No. 10, which housed the most unruly patients. The location was so creepy that Eli Roth invited a string quartet to the set. The music of Vivaldi helped the filmmakers overcome the primal fear in this terrifying place.
- Rick Hoffman, who played the role of the American businessman, suffered a concussion and seriously bruised his head during the filming of the scene in which his character decides how to kill his victim.
- All the trailers for the film contain the inscription – “based on a true story.” Director Eli Roth explains the situation as follows – once on the Internet, he found a Thai website advertising rather specific services. For $10,000, anyone could have the opportunity to torture, torment, and ultimately kill their victim in any way possible.
- Eli Roth officially apologized to the President of Iceland for portraying the Icelander Oli as a sexual maniac and alcoholic in his film. In response, the President simply laughed and said that the people of his country had never been depicted in such a light in a movie before. Eli also apologized to the Icelandic Minister of Culture, believing that his film could seriously damage Iceland's reputation.
- Approximately 150 gallons of blood were used in the making of the film. This is about three times more than was used in Roth's previous film, "Fever Pitch."
- Inspired by the “bloody idea,” Eli showed this website to Quentin Tarantino, and the two men began preparing the screenplay. Later, Quentin and Eli admitted that they still don't know whether such services were actually provided or if it was someone's cruel joke.
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