The horror genre always moves in cycles, with every new trend lasting for a few years before the next big hit comes along and everyone else rushes to capitalize. We’ve seen it with the raft of slashers that followed in the wake of John Carpenter’s original Halloween, Scream led to a slew of self-aware postmodern horrors, and The Blair Witch Project kicked off the found footage phenomenon that saw anyone with a camera throw their hat into the ring, but most grisly of all was Eli Roth’s Hostel, the first movie to ever be slapped with the ‘torture porn’ descriptor.
After breaking out with his feature debut Cabin Fever, Hostel established Roth as one of the genre’s newest and fastest rising stars, and even despite the stomach-churning violence, it received decent reviews from critics and still holds a Fresh 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes. More importantly, it was a big box office success, raking in over $80 million globally on a budget of just $4.8 million.
Roth returned for the sequel, which cost twice as much to make and earned half as much money, while reviews also took a severe nosedive. Of course, there was a third installment as well, which saw genre veteran Scott Spiegel take over behind the camera for a standard VOD splatter film that delivered plenty of gore but zero originality.
However, because no marketable brand is ever truly over, insider Daniel Richtman claims that a Hostel reboot is in the works, although he offers no further details on what we can expect from it. Still, it’s been nearly a decade since Part III, which is a lifetime in terms of the horror genre, and having already scripted the Cabin Fever remake, there’s every chance that Roth could end up becoming involved if the project indeed materializes.
