Ultraelectromagnetic violence

Review by Vives Anunciacion

State of the art horror in an obscure European hotel beats the crap out of a futuristic, effects-filled battle between humans and pseudo-vampires. Two movies exploiting the use of violence – and miles apart in quality, story and style.

Hostel
Written and Directed by Eli Roth
Starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson
R18/ 95 minutes
Lions Gate Films

Three American backpackers spend their after-college vacation touring Europe, when they are informed that a specific town in Slovakia is populated by beautiful women lusting for American men. Libidinously incensed, the three scurry to the obscure town and check in an equally obscure youth hotel where guests share rooms co-ed. After a night of pleasure, two of the Americans, Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) discover that their friend Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) is missing the next day. Things get out of hand when Josh becomes missing as well, and Paxton suspects that the town has dark secrets that would explain the absence of his friends. What he discovers, at the expense of his two fingers, is a horrific torture-for-fantasy modus hatched by the town’s populace.

Ultraviolet
Writen and Directed by Kurt Wimmer
Starring Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright
PG13/ 88 minutes
Screen Gems

Set in the future, an unsuccessful military biological experiment to create the super soldier unleashes a deadly virus that spreads worldwide. Infected humans, called hemophages, mutate into vampire-like beings with heightened senses and physical abilities. Designated as threats to the survival of normal humans, the fascistic medico-military establishment has developed a biological weapon to exterminate all the hemophages. Their chance for survival is to fight back as rebels, led by ultra-assassin Violet (Jovovich). But Violet’s objectives are thrown into a conflict of interest when she discovers that the biological weapon is hosted inside the body of an innocent boy and she decides to save him.

Vile, Violet and Violent

In terms of filmmaking execution, Hostel is very effective as a horror movie, with a mild weird-Asian-horror flavor. Once the tortures start, the movie doesn’t flinch in depicting 1001-ways-to-torture-the-hotel-guest in all manner of blood spurts and metal tools and well-made prosthetic effects. Effective camerawork help build up tension, complimented by proper music scoring and editing.

Comparatively, Ultraviolet has more body count and wields guns and swords ceaselessly but refuses to show blood to keep its PG13 rating. A cross between Underworld and Aeon Flux, Ultraviolet is amateurish in plot and in execution, drowning everything in “style” but draining it elsewhere. Technically, the only thing commendable in this obviously Hong Kong production is the music by Klaus Badelt, who also did Pirates of the Caribbean and Constantine, and the lone arnis action sequence near the beginning.

Hostel feels like the teen-slasher movie for horny male geeks that producer Quentin Tarantino missed out making 20 years ago, but in contrast, Ultraviolet looks like it was made by a group of inexperienced teenagers with enough budget for chroma-effect computer-aided filmmaking.

Ironically

What is surprising is that no matter how bad Ultraviolet is as a movie, it represents a certain Asian incursion into Hollywood filmmaking (or specifically, distribution) that Filipinos filmmakers should look into. Hostel, disturbingly violent as it is, apparently is against violence. Unlike other movies which glorify violence in beautified, glamorous shots, Hostel purposely makes its audience squirm in order to remind people that violence is vile and disgusting

Ultraviolet was supposedly shot in High Definition (HD) digital video, which is important in terms of producing a movie for Hollywood distribution, especially here where digital movies are making waves. The lesson is that Hostel, with a budget (US$ 4.5M) minuscule compared with Ultraviolet’s (US$30M) and shot decently in more expensive celluloid, is lightyears better as a theatrical experience. It’s not the budget, nor is the technology used that matters – garbage in is garbage out.