A DISUSED Slovakian factory where rich businessmen can pay to torture and kill kidnapped backpackers. Sounds like a fantastic concept for a horror film, doesn't it?

But writer-director Eli Roth - just as with his debut, the flesh-eating blood fest Cabin Fever - buries this concept under tons of gross-out gore and odious characters.

American backpackers Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) hot foot it to Slovakia from Amsterdam with Icelandic pal Oli (Eythor Gudjonsson) after hearing about a hostel promising dozens of hot babes.

On arrival the trio are surrounded by semi-naked women and enjoy a hedonistic night of sex and drugs.

But the party ends when they start to disappear and Paxton finds himself handcuffed to a grimy chair in a dingy basement with a chainsaw-wielding German standing over him.

After a ridiculous Frank Spencer-style accident, Paxton is free to exact his revenge on the torturers.

Quentin Tarantino is billed as one of Hostel's executive producers, but don't let his name trick you into thinking this film is any good.

There's no mounting terror or real scares, the central characters are so obnoxious you don't care if they suffer, and the horror is disappointing.

The Hills Have Eyes and Saw 2 have screened far more inventive demises.

But the real horror of Hostel is its xenophobic overtures.

Some reviews have cited this as 'satire' but its lack of subtlety or humour rules satire out.

According to this film, Europeans are unhygienic, violent and sex-crazed.

And apparently gangs of Slovakian kids are happy to batter strangers to death for a bit of bubblegum.

Emma Stewart