“HOSTEL is about two American friends who go on a backpacking trip to Europe, and they’re looking for excitement, girls and drugs and all the stuff that you can’t find in America,” Roth explains. “Someone tells them that if they want to meet girls, they got to go to Slovakia; he tells them about this hostel where there are tons of beautiful girls who’ll have sex with anyone who’s a foreigner. So these two guys and their Icelandic friend go to this place, and it turns out to be true; but then the next day [they find themselves] in a whole lot of trouble and we realize there’s something really horrible, awful and sick going on there.”
Playing the two backpackers are Jay (LADDER 49) Hernandez and Derek (DUMB AND DUMBERER) Richardson, while newcomer Eythor Gudjonsson stars as the Icelander they meet and befriend on the way. The movie also features a cameo by cult director Takashi Miike, whose films have made a strong impression on Roth and greatly inspired him for HOSTEL. “I’d met him when he came to LA for the GOZU DVD,” Roth explains, “and I interviewed him with Guillermo del Toro for the DVD. He was so nice, and he’s just a tremendous inspiration. Now he’s doing a cameo in the film, and I can’t believe it!”
The ghastly special FX are the work of KNB, reteaming with Roth from CABIN FEVER, and the director has nothing but praise for the team: “Howard Berger told me we were going to have Kevin Wasner on set, and I’d seen his work on PASSION OF THE CHRIST. Kevin is such a cool guy; he’s doing a fantastic job. You can’t say enough great things about KNB.”
Worldwide distribution rights to HOSTEL have already been picked up by Screen Gems, and Roth hopes for an October release. As for whether fans should expect CABIN FEVER’s semi-humorous tone to carry over to HOSTEL, Roth says, “People who loved CABIN FEVER are going to go see HOSTEL and may expect it to be funny or goofy all the way through, and it’s not going to be. It’s going to start out fun, and then it’s going to get really dark and sick, and they may be upset because it’s going to be so much more horrific than they thought it would be! And then there are the people who hated CABIN FEVER, and hopefully HOSTEL will win over new fans as well.” —Axelle Carolyn
