10 Hidden Meanings Behind Famous Horror Movies

All too often dismissed as ‘torture porn’ for its uber-violent and gory content, Eli Roth’s second feature film Hostel actually had some meaningful things to say about the political climate in which it was produced. Released a few years into the Iraq War when allegations of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison were rife and beheading was the preferred terror tactic of Al-Qaeda the movie’s gratuitous carnage is, much like its predecessors produced during the Vietnam War, a reflection of the very real violence taking place in the world.

On an even deeper level below all the gore, Roth offers an opinion on the USA’s role in the Iraq War. In the movie, naïve American backpackers set off for Eastern Europe on a whim with little regard or knowledge for its culture, much like many Americans supported the US military’s invasion of Iraq with little understanding of Iraq or all the reasons for going to war. With the Elite Hunting Club consisting of bloodthirsty businessmen, there’s a sly jab at the corporate profiteers of war too – companies like KBR, which George W. Bush’s vice president Dick Cheney formerly had ties to, that made around $39.5 billion from various war related contracts while thousands of US soldiers and even more Iraqi civilians lost their lives.

Perhaps one of its most telling messages is that the notion of who are the heroes and villains is distorted when one backpacker decides to fight back, inflicting the same kind of violence upon his captors as the murderous, elite businessman did to him and his friends. The line between heroics and villainy is blurred and nobody really emerges as victor in Hostel, much like the Iraq War.