Hostel: Part III (2011)

The Hostel series may only be three movies (as of writing), but it too entered that stage franchises tend to fall into where the original creator leaves and has nothing to do with later movies. Mr. Eli Roth chose not to work on Hostel: Part III, but didn’t stop production or anything. Instead it’s a film that has elements of Hostel, but enough differences that the whole thing feels… off. Also it now takes place in Las Vegas, because sure, why not. Welcome back to Saw-mhain!

The movie opens with two Ukrainians sharing a hostel room with an American, but the twist is that the couple are the victims and Travis the American is actually an operative for the Elite Hunting Club, which is apparently what the organization from the first two films was called. This also happens in Las Vegas, setting things up for our main story. Scott (Brian Hallisay) is having his bachelor party hosted by his best friend Carter (Kip Pardue), but instead of going to Palm Springs with the gang–including nice guy Justin and human scum Mike–they head to Vegas for a night of debauchery. But Scott doesn’t sleep with escort Kendra (Sarah Habel) because he had previously cheated on his fiancé, Amy, and didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. Meanwhile Mike hooks up with an escort and the two go missing. They end up at the EHC’s Vegas branch, which has people tortured in front of an audience. Mike gets his face cut off and presumably dies, while the escort dies after… huh. A bunch of cockroaches get poured on her and they all decided inside her mouth is the place to be, leading to her asphyxiation. You know, like cockroaches do. Anyway, it’s eventually revealed that Carter is a member, feels Amy was stolen from him, and paid the club to abduct Scott so he could kill his “friend.” But Scott survives the attempt on his life, kills Travis, and starts fucking up enough shit that the Club evacuates its members and rigs the building to explode. Scott is presumed dead and we cut to some time later where Carter is there for Amy in her time of mourning. But oh no! Scott survived and both he and Amy are furious enough with Carter that they kill him in their garage.

Oh, right, and Justin was shot to death by a lady in bondage gear with a hand crossbow. Sucks to be him.

I think it shows that not only was Eli Roth not involved in this one, but also that you can tell this was a straight-to-DVD release. It’s not offensively bad, but it’s not anything special and only sort of fits in with the previous two movies. The gore is toned down and the Elite Hunting Club is named, operating differently, and is now stationed in the USA–but still run by men with thick European accents, of course. All in all it’s a middling sequel from the director of From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money and the writer of I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer and The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power. Hey, sounds like they’re experts at middling sequels!

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