- Directed by Eli Roth
- Written by Eli Roth
- Stars Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Kfp3zVBKs
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The situation is realistic except for the idea that so many people could keep the whole thing a secret. The acting and direction are very good. The effects are brutal and realistic. If you don’t mind a lot of blood and pain in your horror movies, this one’s for you.
Spoilery Synopsis
Three friends, Paxton, Josh, and Oli, leave a hostel in Amsterdam. They talk about museums, but they really just came to Europe to get high. They soon find out how easy that is. There’s a fight at the club, and the three are soon thrown out. They go to a brothel next, and Josh is pretty uncomfortable with that, but he makes do. They have a lot of fun but return to the hostel after curfew and can’t get in.
They stop at Alex’s place, and he says he knows where to get the best girls. He has photos that he uses like a catalog; he has the best girls and some stories to go with them. The Slovak girls in that place go crazy for Americans, and he tells them exactly where to find it. The story is irresistible, and they plan to go there.
They get on a train and talk to a Dutch businessman who knows the place they’re going. “You can do anything to the girls there,” he says. The strange man eats a meaty salad with his fingers and makes a whole thing of being a hands-on meat-eater.
They get off the train in a fairly desolate area in Slovakia and take a cab to town. It’s a very scenic place, and the three make their way to the hostel, which is huge and nice. It’s even got a spa, which the guys visit immediately. They meet Natalya and Svetlana there. That leads to dancing, drinking, and many hijinks.
Morning arrives, and Oli is nowhere to be found. John and Paxton check on him at the desk, but Oli checked out earlier this morning. Oli doesn’t answer his cell. Kana runs up with a photo of her friend and Oli; they seem to have run off together. Paxton doesn’t really believe that.
A bunch of kids jump out and demand bubblegum. The two guys spot Oli on the street and follow him into the “torture museum.” It turns out that it wasn’t Oli; it was just someone wearing what looked like Oli’s jacket. We cut to Oli’s head, sitting on a table, as a man in a real torture chamber whistles as he goes into a room with a screaming girl and cuts her toe off. Was that Kana’s friend?
Josh, Paxton, and the two girls go out partying, but Josh starts feeling sick and goes back to the hostel to sleep. Whatever it is takes longer to kick in for Paxton. He ends up passing out too, but in a locked storage room at the club.
We cut to Josh, who’s cuffed to a chair with something over his head so he can only see out of one eye. He sees a “surgeon” come in wearing scrubs and a mask. He pulls off the hood, and Josh gets a real look at where he is. He’s handcuffed to a chair, and the surgeon has a drill.
The surgeon uses the drill on Josh; we see it’s the salad-eating businessman from the train. “I always wanted to be a surgeon.” He toys with Josh, telling him he can go, but he doesn’t mean it. When Josh offers him money, the man says, “No, I am the one paying them!”
Paxton goes back to the hostel, and the clerk says he checked out this morning. Paxton says it must be a mistake. His room has two girls in it who invite him to the spa, almost exactly what happened the previous day with Natalya and Svetlana. The “Bubblegum kids” steal Paxton’s phone.
Paxton tracks down the two girls that he knows, but they say that Josh is with Oli now. The girls say the missing guys went to an art show, and Paxton insists on going there to meet them. They drive to what appears to be a very old factory. There are a bunch of cars in the lot, and the drivers all seem to know one another. The man at the door says admission is free for Paxton.
Natalya leads Paxton inside, and we hear the surgeon whistling as he dissects what’s left of Josh. Paxton soon sees everything, but he’s grabbed from behind and dragged away. As he’s dragged down the hallway, we see all manner of torture going on inside those rooms.
Paxton’s chained to a chair as the guards verify that he’s an American. A German man who seems very nervous comes in as he pulls out a big pair of scissors. Paxton talks German to the guy, so the man puts a gag in his mouth to shut him up. That’s when the guy starts up a chainsaw behind Paxton. Paxton vomits in terror, and the man cuts off a few of Paxton’s fingers. The man then slips in the puke and cuts his own leg off with the chainsaw. Paxton slips out of a cuff because half his hand is missing and gets loose in time to shoot the man before he can call for help.
Paxton then shoots the guard and unlocks the rest of his cuffs. He opens another room and hides on a cart under a dead body. Someone grabs the cart and wheels it into an elevator. The man takes the bodies to a “chop shop,” where he cuts up all the pieces for disposal.
Paxton knocks the man out and gets back into the elevator. He winds up in a dressing room, where he steals clean clothes and gloves to hide his missing fingers. He finds a business card, “Elite Hunting,” with some pretty high prices in the back. An American tourist comes in and wants to know what it’s like. Paxton says, “It was good.” The man’s paid a small fortune to kill someone, but he’s not quite sure how it all works. But he’s very excited to get going on it.
Paxton leaves the place and gets outside, where all the drivers are. He hears a woman screaming inside and goes back in. It’s the American, who is blowtorching Kana’s eye out. Paxton shoots the guy, but Kana’s eye hangs by a thread. He helps her by cutting it off with scissors. It oozes orange puss in a big gusher when he snips it off.
Now, the two of them work their way back outside. They steal a car and drive off. On the road, he sees Svetlana, Natalya, and Alex talking together on the street and runs them all over. Then, all the little “bubblegum” kids surround the car, and he buys their help with a bag of candy to slow down their pursuers. They are vicious little bastards. The kids, I mean.
The police have a checkpoint on the road and don’t look friendly. Paxton and Kana run off by foot to the train station. Kana sees her disfigured reflection in the glass and jumps in front of a train— on purpose. Paxton uses the distraction to hop aboard a train going the other way.
Paxton hears the Dutch businessman, the one who killed Josh, a few seats behind him, giving the same speech he made to his friends on the way into town. When the man gets off, Paxton follows him into the restroom– and locks the door. Paxton cuts off two of the man’s fingers, almost drowns him in the toilet, and cuts his throat.
Paxton then gets on another train before anyone finds the body…
Commentary
All the “travel” stuff in the beginning seems very realistic and believable. It’s all well-shot and looks really good. All the acting is flawless from all the characters. Kevin pointed out that the only thing in the film that isn’t believable is that so many people could keep this a secret.
All the bad guys dress identically, so they’re easy to spot.
There’s lots of gore and torture here, although some of it is just offscreen. Still, if you’re into this kind of film, it’s a good one.