by Jason Lees, MoreHorror.com

A strange thing happened while I was watching HOSTEL III. Going in, I knew it was a DTV release, so I wasn’t expecting too much. I really dug the first two flicks, and still think that Eli Roth’s Part II gets way too much flack when it’s actually a pretty tight picture. Those two movies work together to form one story, so with HOSTEL PART III, I wasn’t expecting a continuation, but more of a cash in. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. A cash in would still be better than most crap floating around out there.

Direct To Video releases have come a long way since we first started seeing them in the 80’s. Back then, if a film wasn’t released in theaters, there was probably a good reason for it. They probably stank of monkey feces (sorry to get so technical there), but now with marketing costs and the proliferation of the indie scene, going out DTV is almost the smart way of doing business. Why spend 30 million bucks to compete with the latest Disney 3D re-re-release in theaters when you can find your niche in the home market and only have to compete with Netflix? And online piracy? And cable? And every other DTV release that week?

No, there is no sure fire way to release your movie these days, but there is one guarantee. If you’re making a sequel that’s coming in a bit under the radar, hire yourself a director like Scott Spiegel and you’re damned near insured to come up with some fun product.

Hostel: Part III Unrated has every right to be a stinker. It’s set in Las Vegas rather than Europe, so that’s strike against it from the start by changing up the formula so much. It’s no longer focused on the torture aspect, but rather the sensationalism of the kills, the social class differences between the victims and killers. It also has to deal with the fact that the cast is made up of no one you’ll recognize. The strengths, however, of Part III are that it’s no longer set in Europe, so now it can be a fresh start. It’s no longer a torture porn banner holder, so people can stop bitching about that sub-genre. And since you don’t recognize any of the cast, you really have no idea who’s going to live or die.

Spiegel is a local hero around these parts, as much for his work with Sam Raimi on EVIL DEAD 2 as for his own directing efforts on INTRUDER and the second DUSK TIL DAWN, and here we get to see modern Spiegel having as much fun as always parading around both gore and twists like he’s been doing it for years, because he has. Maybe next time he’ll get a theatrical release. Maybe not. I don’t care where I see his flicks, as long as he gets to make more and more often.

There’s a weird vibe to "HOSTEL III". It’s not like a sequel, but more like a spin off. For some reason, it felt like the pilot for a cable television version of the Hostel movies, and that’s not an insult. What with AMERICAN HORROR STORY and THE WALKING DEAD being the best genre fare going today, something like a weekly HOSTEL anthology series wouldn’t be that bad an idea. Each week kill the entire cast and bring back the Elite Hunters for the next episode.
That’s something I could get into, especially if Spiegel could get his sarcastic little hands all over it.

Hostel: Part III Trailer