WHAT does it take to shock us these days?
The question came to mind as I watched "Hostel: Part II," the sequel to Eli Roth's horror film. The original was such a big hit last year that its distributor, Lionsgate, is putting out the new thriller Friday in the midst of a crush of summer behemoths. Whereas the previous installment featured college boys being butchered by lowlifes who pay top dollar to kill a human being, "Hostel 2" spices up the formula with a trio of comely coeds who are lured to a Slovakian hostel, where a pair of American businessmen are preparing to torture and murder them.
Though that description may make the film sound like a grade-Z splatter picture, "Hostel: Part II" comes armed with a fancier pedigree, thanks to Roth's cult reputation among Comic-Con fan boys who view him as a cross between Quentin Tarantino (who has a "presented by" credit on the film) and George Romero. The critics will have their say on the gory R-rated film's merits. What fascinates me about the film is its marketing campaign, which brazenly uses disturbing images of torture, nudity and depravity to attract attention for the film.
The campaign is the brainchild of Tim Palen, Lionsgate's co-president of marketing, who has become a master of guerrilla marketing for the studio's popular horror films. The studio's "Saw" series, for example, was promoted with billboards featuring two severed fingers with the tagline: "Oh yes, there will be blood." Some of Palen's most arresting material is seen only at Comic-Con conventions and youth-oriented Internet sites, allowing it to pass under the radar of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which governs studio marketing material in the U.S.
In an era when most movie marketing material is dreary and unimaginative, Palen has quietly built a reputation as Hollywood's most daring impresario. Filmmakers rave about his work, which he often photographs himself. When the Hollywood Reporter announced nominees for its 36th annual Key Art Awards, Lionsgate, for the second consecutive year, earned the most nominations of any studio. Rival studios have paid Palen the ultimate compliment, either by trying to hire him away or doing knockoffs of his material.
But after seeing the images Palen has created for "Hostel: Part II," you have to wonder -- is it art or is it exploitation? Or some unsettling combination of the two?
