7. Hostel (2005)
Hostel is a very famous horror film and it was very controversial upon its release. It seemed to be part of a new breed of extreme horror films which used scenes of protracted torture as the main feature. A couple of American students are backpacking across Eastern Europe and they come cross some hot Slavic babes. These sneaky women drug them and they pass out. Josh wakes up to being tortured by a business man who cuts his achilles tendons so he can't walk. He tells Josh he dreamt of being a surgeon. Paxton his mate wants to know where Josh is so he is taken to the slaughterhouse where he sees the businessman dissecting Josh's body. Paxton is quickly ambushed and put in a cell where a German man comes in to kill him. He fights back, makes a run for it and gets the hell out of there with some very violent capers along the way. Hostel has been accused of starting the whole torture porn craze - by making gory incidents in movies something fetishised - to be ogled over like pornography by the viewer. It is an interesting film with an interesting premise but I do think it has led to a certain new extremism and desire to shock in the world of Horror films. Whether this is healthy as it pushes boundaries or whether it is unhealthy as it may lead to movies pandering to the lowest common denominator remains to be seen.