What Are the Limits to Our Depravity

What Are the Limits of Our Depravity: Hostel
There has been times documented throughout history of how far human beings will go in appeasing their depravity. Whether it was the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, or even today's question over torture of terrorists, human beings walk the fine line between torture for information vs. torture for pleasure. It's this depravity that is brought up in Eli Roth's Hostel.
Hostel, released in 2005, tells the story of two American backpackers along with an Icelandic friend that back pack all over Europe. The Americans are sowing their wild oats before settling down into their careers or the end of their education. They soon learn about a place where the women are virtuous and will not say no to foreigners. The three do not realize that the place they're going is a place where business men pay to torture and kill other humans. It is this idea of paying to be able to inflict physical pain to appease their masochistic and depravity that make Hostel on the few truly horrific films to come out in the last few years.
One of the main themes in Hostel is a very anti-American sentiment throughout the film. The two Americans: Paxton, played by Jay Hernandez and Josh, played by Derek Richardson, are seen as very naïve in the countries they visit. The two get into a fight at one of the disco's and pick a fight with a guy who was defending his girlfriend. Roth paints the picture that is felt throughout the world where America is viewed as a country that uses violence to solve their problems. Roth portrays Paxton and Josh as the aggressors and the indigenes as the passive ones.
Roth uses a slow buildup to reinforce what his audience is in for; a kind of pseudo-torture for his audience. The first half of the movie Roth is portraying his characters having the time of their lives and the lighting of the film reflects the mood. It's not until the three arrive in their final destination that the lighting and sound change the tone of the film. When they arrive in Slovakia, the surroundings are harsh and uninviting. They travel into the country where there is not much color there. When they check into the hostel they pass a TV showing a scene of Pulp Fiction whose infamous scene contain images of abject depravity. Everything has a harsh appeal to it. Roth has said that he didn't mean for the film to be offensive to Slovakia, even though it was shot in the Czech Republic, but to show "American's ignorance to the world around them." What is ironic in Hostel is how the moral choices the three characters which some say is evil is what leads them to their torturers.
Some can argue that Hostel can be compared to a show like 24 for the common theme of torture. The only difference is that in 24 torture is used to extract information where Hostel torture is used for pleasure. An argument can arise whether or not Hostel is a growing sentiment about the Bush Administration and its use of torture. The question still remains whether torture is the right technique to gain information. In a way, the torturing to gain information is a different kind of pleasure than in Hostel.
There are various images contained in Hostel that reinforce whether we have gone to the limits of depravity. As the story unfolds, the Icelander Oli, played by Eythor Gudjonsson winds up missing ending up in a dark and wet basement. We are then shown his fate and as the camera pans back we are shown the blurred image of a woman and all we hear is her screams. We know, now, what is going to happen to her. As the film moves along, Paxton and Josh, meet up with their two female roommates who take them to another disco. Josh gets up to leave feeling very dizzy and then cutting to a scene where he is laid down on his bed. We are shown Josh full framed, but at the bottom we see someone coming into frame giving its audience an uneasy feeling. The next scene is from Josh's point of view which is just through an eyehole focusing on a person dressed in a cross between a butcher and a surgeon. The room that Josh is in has a very harsh tone to it. He pans down to see a tray of surgical and non surgical tools which are also very harsh looking. The camera pans back as he sees who is doing the torturing and recognizing him as someone he has met before. Josh's realization makes this scene even more horrific and unnerving.
When Paxton goes to find Josh, he is led to the place where all this torture is taking place and there is nothing but silence as Paxton and his female roommate Natalya is riding in the back of a car. Paxton makes eye contact with a Japanese man, played by Takashi Miike, who is well known for his masterpiece Audition. Audition (1999) is using torture to gain revenge for wronging a right. Miike uses a slow buildup to one of the most famous scenes of torture in film. The silence gives the audience a feel of emptiness and helplessness because we know what is in store for Paxton. When Paxton comes across the German businessman, played by Jan Vlasak, and realizes what he is doing to his friend, Paxton backs out and all we get is Natalya laughing which reverberates through the hallway giving a feeling that Paxton is now trapped in this hellish world.
Paxton is strapped into a chair and enters a bodyguard showing someone who he might be torturing. The man is dressed in the same garb as the German businessman. What makes him more ominous is that he revokes images of the Nazi's and their use of torture of the Jews in the concentration camps. He is just this frail man who is conflicted on how to torture and what to use to do the torture which makes the audience uneasy.
One of the most horrifying scenes in Hostel is the scene where Paxton meets up with a businessman, played by Rick Hoffman. What is horrifying is not that his is going to torture someone, but his attitudes towards it. Hoffman is very gung-ho in wanting to do it right that his masochistic needs are already satisfied. He questions Paxton on how he should do it. He holds up a shiny silver gun and says, "Yea, yea, no, no fuck that shit. Fuck this. This is too American. I'm going old school" Again, Roth displays an anti-American sentiment that the world sees. The fact that Hoffman's character is getting so much pleasure in the thought of how he is going to torture makes this scene so terrifying. He is also so impressed with the fact that Paxton says he paid for an American and that Americans are worth more gives off more of the same anti-American sentiment.
Hostel is not about the notion of paying for the right to torture, but evokes an ever growing question of how we would go in satisfying our masochistic and depraved needs. Would we ever pay for the right to torture? The vast majority would say no, but there are some who could not fully answer that. What are the limits to our depravity? Are they just rolled up in a dark fantasy that would not see the light of day? Have we seen the limits of depravity?