When I first saw Hostel in the theater, it was an experience that I won't forget any time soon. My thoughts at the end of it were "Wow, Hostel makes Saw looks like a Disney Film." I am still of that opinion. I do love horror films, and I definitely loved Hostel. Hostel takes horror to a new level, though. Instead of being a "traditional" horror like any of the Freddy or Jason movies where your fear ends more or less when the movie is over, Hostel will leave you with a sense of unease for quite a while. It's not that it is so bloody or gory that you can't stand it. It's more that Hostel plants a seed of distrust towards humanity in general. It makes you realize that you cannot trust anybody, that you are not safe anywhere.

The story in Hostel follows two American tourists, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson), and an Icelandic backpacker, Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson), who they met in Paris before the film begins, as they backpack across Europe after their college graduation. While in Amsterdam, they are told about a hostel in Slovakia that they cannot resist checking out. It is way off their original path and in the middle of nowhere, but they are promised that they will not regret it.

Once they arrive there, they truly believe they have found heaven. The women are all beautiful and easy. The beginning of Hostel has copious amounts of fully naked women. When the tourists meet Natalya (Barbara Nedeljakova) and Svetlana (Jana Kaderabkova), life couldn't get much better. Unfortunately, it soon gets very much worse, though. The women serve as a distraction to keep them from finding out the true purpose of the hostel until it is too late.

Just in case you have not seen Hostel before this release, I'm not going to spoil the ending by going into details. But I will tell you that the torture scenes are graphic, very graphic. Personally, I watched the whole movie without closing my eyes or turning my head to avoid seeing anything, but like I said, I watch a lot of horror. Blood, guts, and gore do not bother me. I was curious to see how much Eli Roth would show, how far he would take it before they cut the camera away.

Hostel: Director's Cut has a full "All-New Bonus Disc" of features which were not included on any previous release. There are 10 deleted scenes running about 18 minutes total. In between each is a comment as to why they were cut from the final movie, which I thought was great since usually when I'm watching deleted scenes, I want to know why they didn't leave them in there.

There are also five new featurettes. Music & Sound is a tour through the basement studio of the man who created the music for Hostel and the many, and I do mean many, instruments that he uses to create music and sound effects. The glass harmonica was my personal favorite. Hostel Dismembered is a 30 minute interview with Eli Roth and many of the cast and crew about the movie. There's also a featurette on the set design and another one on the special effects they used. Also included is "An Icelandic Meal with Eythor Gudjonsson." Personally, I found this meal more disturbing than the movie! The most interesting new feature on the Director's Cut is the original ending. It really does give the end a completely different feel. I didn't really like it as much as I did the theatrical ending though.

Every time I watch Hostel, I notice something that I didn't see before. It is not a movie that you just sit down and put in to have something on the TV though. It is not a movie that I recommend everyone must see. Hostel is disturbing. But it does make you stop and think, it does alter your idea of reality and your concept of humanity.