Viscerally Disturbing, Round 1: Hostel vs. City of the Living Dead

[Cena's Little Helper]

Hostel (2005, Directed by Eli Roth)

Synopsis: Two American buddies and a slacker they meet in Amsterdam decide visit Slovakia to lay pipe to some Eastern European hotties. Little do they know that they will be kidnapped and auctioned off to people who seek their ultimate thrill: to take the life of another.

Why This Film Was Chosen: I needed a film people had heard of, but I did enjoy Hostel.

Key Disturbing Moment: The main protagonist cuts off a burnt eyeball hanging from an Asian girl's eye socket.

vs.

City of the Living Dead (1980, Directed by Lucio Fulci)

Synopsis: The suicide of a priest causes the gates of hell to open, and it's up to a reporter and a psychic to find a way to close them.

Why This Film Was Chosen: Lucio Fulci is quite possibly the greatest horror director to ever live.

Key Disturbing Moment: Some poor guy's head is vised to a workbench and explicitly drilled through.​

 

[INDYjon22]

Hostel was probably the first super violent film I ever saw, and is in fact the only film to ever make me want to throw up while watching it. Props to it for that and also that is why I wanted this film in the tournament and will be supporting it, at least for awhile. Hostel embodies the torture porn genre. It was gritty, and disgusting. Everything we have come to expect from most main stream horror films of the last decade. Tdizzle's most disturbing moment was exactly the scene that made me sick. I remember watching the eye ball scene and watching the puss pour out of the eye. It makes me sick just thinking back on it. I nearly threw up then and there. I have yet to rewatch this film in its entirety and have never rewatched the eye scene. Hostel gets my vote.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

City of the Living Dead (AKA The Gates of Hell) holds a very special place in my heart, so there's no way I could vote against it (at least not yet). Although Eli Roth's a joke, Hostel was a well-made slasher film. Ultimately, though, what makes Hostel lose here is the fact that Roth's films are devoid of any atmosphere. City of the Living Dead was not only just as gory as Hostel, but its intensity made its violence seem much more worse than it actually was.