Eli Roth's Hostel might not be the most sophisticated horror movie of all time, but sometimes what a film lacks in nuance and depth it more than makes up for in raw, disgusting shocks. While many of the so-called "torture porn" movies released since Hostel came out in 2005 are terrible movies, Roth's trend-setter remains worth watching. A group of backpacking friends encountering a sadistic organisation which people pay to torture and murder to their hearts content might sound like a recipe for endless violence, and for the most part this is exactly what Hostel delivers. Whether it really does contain a political subtext about the break up of the former Soviet bloc or a critique of modern consumerism as some critics have suggested is perhaps immaterial - if you're after shocking violence Hostel has this by the bucketload.
