HORROR WEEK AUDIENCE SPLITTER: Hostel

Its time to incorporate two gimmicks into one by doing a Horror Week Audience splitter, and it seems to me that there is no be Candidate to be the focus of this revolutionary new bit then Eli Roth's Hostel, which seems to split critics and fans down the middle. Obviously. SPOILER ETC.

HOSTEL

What's it about: Europeans strapping innocent Americans into chairs to torture them. This is why they never leave the States folks.

Who's it by: Blabber-mouth director/Frat boy Eli Roth, known across the world for talking. Sometimes about his films.

What's Good: Its a chilling central concept. The idea of Rich Business-men paying decadent amounts of money to kill someone without consequence is so plausible its scary. Supposedly, Roth came up with the idea after saying an advert with the same pitch on the internet. It has a couple of highly effective scares, and Roth's torture chamber is suitably atmospheric. Jan Vlasak, playing ' The Dutch Businessman' makes a memorable villain, and he under-plays well what could have been a purely functional villain and his killing of Derek Richardson's character Josh is a grisly but epic moment of proper horror.

What's bad: The final third. From When Jay Hernandez escapes from captivity onwards, this film is horrible. Total Amateur hour. From one contrived scene to the next, we see him just happen on every baddie involved in his capture. From the Femme Fatale he sees crossing the street to the Dutch Business-man at the train station It just lazily turns to impossible coincidence again and again to cover its loose ends. So if screen-writing isn't Roth's forte, neither is directing actors. Vlasak aside, the good guys are anonymous scalpal fodder and the bad guys generally two-dimensional guys. This concept of this film is potentially effective because of its grounding in reality. But the film is far too OTT to take best advantage of this.

Who likes it: The film did very well with the standard horror fan. In 2005 it signalled a more orginal direction in which horror movies good go. And this was very exciting for horror fans, who were tired of seeing rip-offs of Scream. It may have had something to do with the unstoppable Eli Roth hype-machine. Which before this movie's release went into overdrive. He sold it with such authority and enthusiasm that a lot of people were sure this was going to be a genre classic.

Who doesn't like it: It didnt go down too well with most critics. I remember seeing a lot of polite three star reviews, but practically no-one stuck out their head and said that this was a great movie in its own right. Similarly there isn't enough quality to suck in non diehards, for reasons mentioned above.

Where I stand: Sorry guys bu this is another thumbs down. The thing is badly written and beyond OTT in a bad way, so a couple of good scares does not compensate my time.

Where people stand: with only 55 on metacritic and 5.7 on imdb, the general concensus from both critic and user is a middle of the road judgement of averageness. I am agreed with.

AUDIENCE SPLITTERS: Dark City

There's nothing more galling then thinking a film's great whilst everyone else slams it, except maybe the opposite. As a hopefully regularish feature, I've decided to discuss films that have pathologically mixed reviews. First up;

DARK CITY

What it's about: A mysterious city in which something f*cked up is going on, as people perenially switch lives and experiences whilst being none the wiser.

Who's it by: Alex Proyas, who has quite a hand in Dark and Gothic Fanboy fantasies. Until he directed I, Robot anyway.

What's good: The visuals. This movie looks amazing, following in the grand sc-fi tradition of making hell from a cityscape. Both the cinematography and production design are exemplary and I should have imagined that seeing this in the cinema would have been a treat. Also to be praised are the ideas behind this film. Exploring the ideas of a fabricated reality by a malovent force before the Matrix staked a claim, a film easily dismissed as run of the mill sci-fi has solid and interesting theories behind it.

What's bad: The writing. Sadly Proyas isn't a great writer and his dialogue in this movie is banal as they come, and while the story has some interesting twists, everything is a little ham-fisted because of a script that doesn't quite do justice to Proyas' original premise. Similarly the acting isn't as good as it could be. Rufus Sewell is a no mark, and if the leading man had enough going on the film could have been held together by the strength of his performance, But Sewell is not up to that. Kiefer Sutherland's mad scientist archetype is more interesting, and William Hurt is suitably soulful. But the sparse cast of Brit-baddies act as if in a pantomime, and their over-acting does not help the film trying to find a convincing reality.

Who likes it: Fanboys and die hard science-fiction fans. This film has been resuscitated by the internet and real-life nerd, with comic book lovers across the world deeming it a lost classic. And thus it has joined the pantheon of sci-fi cult movies that includes Repo-man and Donnie Darko. The film also did reasonably well with some critics, but it should be noted that most praise is aimed at the astounding look of the film. I should imagine this movie has a decent rep in goth and emo culture as well. Also fans of strictly visual cinema.

Who dislikes it: Most people not in the above sects. For a casual sci-fi viewer there just isn't enough to suck you in, and while you may be thinking it looks good, you could give a shit about what happens to any of the characters. And while the retort may be a heart of stone is required to make a great sci-fi movie, as 2001 undeniably comes at as us from a detached perpective, it does so with an enormous amount of control, whilst Dark City is very scatty. And some credible characters or good performances may have given it the anchor it needs.

Where I stand: On the negative side I'm afraid. Its not a terrible film but it should have given as much attention to story and character as it did to production design.

Where people stand: It seems the people have spoken and told me to can it. The film scores 7.7 on imdb and 76% on rotten tomatoes. I have been told.