Jun 28

Jun 28 [Pride 2021] The Triumph of a Queer Final Girl in Hostel: Part II

dreadful, Gayly, Gayly dreadful, Gayly Helpful, LGBTQ, Movies, Pride 2021

A lot of things have changed since 2007. But one thing that has not changed, despite all common sense and decency, is my love for Hostel: Part II and its queer final girl Beth Salinger.

Like many Millennials, Scream was a formative movie for me becoming a horror movie fan. My love of horror really came of age as I did during the 2000s when slasher remakes and “torture porn” movies really took over the genre following 9/11. Movies like the Saw films and Hostel were those “edgy” horror films me and my friends just had to watch, and I wasn’t expecting much from Hostel: Part II.

Given my low expectations, I was shocked to see a sequel so flawlessly exceed its predecessor. Hostel: Part II expands the scope of the first film while keeping its key elements and smoothing over its rougher edges. I was equally surprised when I realized early on the lead protagonist was clearly attracted to another woman. I had watched and cheered on plenty of non-queer final girls over the years as a budding horror fan, always feeling a tad removed from the excitement. Beth made me feel like I was the final girl for once, complete with sarcastic quips and a triumphant turnabout sealing her victory.

When we are first introduced to Beth, she is a college student studying abroad in Europe with her friend Whitney. They decide to go on a weekend trip together, and Beth ends up inviting their lonely roommate Lorna.

Immediately, it’s refreshing to see how likeable these characters are, and how genuine their friendships feel. Lorna is naive and a bit needy, but she is clearly a kind person whose struggles with mental health are treated with a remarkable amount of restraint for a horror movie. Beth is thoughtful and responsible, while Whitney is the outgoing and sarcastic “bad girl”. But there is a camaraderie between Whitney and Beth that smooths away the tropes and leaves us with characters who feel like they are legitimately friends with different personalities, unlike some horror films where you are left wondering how we are meant to believe this group of people are actually friends. Beth and Whitney’s friendship is one of the first ones I saw that really reminded me of the close friendships I have with my straight friends, and it’s the kind of dynamic I wouldn’t see again till 2019’s Booksmart.

Beth’s queerness becomes apparent in an early but crucial moment in the film. While on a train to Prague, Whitney’s rejection of a stranger leads to a disturbingly realistic sequence where a group of men stalk and intimidate the main characters. Fortunately a beautiful woman named Axelle comes to their rescue. Beth is clearly smitten with her. Axelle mentions an amazing spa she is traveling to, and Lorna mentions wanting to go to the spa too. And it's at this moment that the queer subtext became delightfully explicit to me. Beth purposely looks at Whitney and says, “it could be nice. I’ve had enough gross guys for one weekend.” The weight Beth puts on this seemingly innocuous suggestion carries an unspoken desire, and her look says, “go with me on this one because I am into this person.” Again, I was reminded of similar glances exchanged between my friends and I, willing each other to go along for the ride.

Unfortunately, Axelle is part of the network of bad actors who lure unsuspecting tourists to their deaths at an expensive torture site run by a sinister organization called the Elite Hunting Club. Beth’s fury at being deceived is palpable at the end of the film as she seeks vengeance for her friends’ deaths. But to fully appreciate why Beth’s triumph feels so satisfying to me as a queer woman, it is important to appreciate the film’s commentary on toxic masculinity and patriarchy run amok to its deadliest ends. In Hostel: Part II, we get far more insight into the people who patronize the Elite Hunting Club through the lens of American friends Todd and Stuart, who have paid significant sums of money to torture women to death. Although Stuart seems reluctant, Todd insists that killing someone will make them the ultimate alpha males.

Stuart still seems to reluctant when he approaches Beth in the torture chamber, trying to calm her down and assure her that even though he is meant to kill her that, “someone brought me here, the same as you.” His empty assurance of their equality in this moment, while she sits before him in chains, is one of the best inadvertent metaphors for privilege I’ve ever seen. Although Beth seems to reason with Stuart, reassuring him that “he’s not that kind of guy,” she inadvertently sets off his desire to be that kind of guy. Out of options, Beth pretends to want to have sex with him before knocking him out and tying him up in the chair she was in.

The camera begins stalking along with her as she moves around the room like a caged predator. In this moment, she has completely reversed their power dynamic. Security realizes what has happened, and the room is swarmed by guards, dogs, and the leader of the Elite Hunting Club organization himself.

I was riveted watching this scene. This was the nihilistic aughts, where it seemed just as likely that she would be killed as actually make it out alive. And yet, this is where not one but two Chekov’s Guns pay off: allusions to Beth’s wealth and her intense dislike of being called a cunt.

Beth offers to buy her way out of the facility. At first they laugh, but she assures them she inherited an obscene amount of money from her mother, and shouts that she could “buy and trade everyone in this room.” Now she is speaking the Elite Hunting Club’s true language. After she easily outbids Stuart for her freedom, they give her one condition: no one leaves without killing someone. Stuart laughs and calls her a cunt, assuming she won’t have the fortitude to do it and not realizing he just gave her the last little push she needed.

Hostel: Part II culminates with our protagonist, a queer woman, castrating a murderous misogynist and feeding his genitals to a dog after buying her way into being the final girl. The whole audience is meant to cheer for Beth as she makes literal dog food out of Stuart's genitals. Later, we are cued by the soundtrack to cheer when Beth decapitates Axelle after successfully escaping the torture site. Once again in order to defeat the darkness, our final girl has become it.

The movie is not without faults. Some of its banter has not aged well. It critiques capitalism and the George Bush era of the United States, only to have Beth’s access to wealth be her ticket out of danger. The movie goes from “aren’t these rich and connected people messed up?” to “that’s right show off your generational wealth!” But I think focusing entirely on that discounts Beth’s intelligence prior to that moment, including turning Stuart’s misogynistic garbage against him. And Beth is certainly one of the only protagonists I know whose victory lap includes a castration meant to elicit applause.

Until this movie, I didn’t realize how great it would feel to see a queer final girl kicking ass and taking names in a mainstream studio release. For Pride Month, I can only hope that my headcanon of Beth taking down the Elite Hunting Club and going through years of therapy before eventually settling down with another woman comes to pass. In the meantime, I think Hostel: Part II is a masterpiece in its own perverse way, and something I will continue to revisit thanks to Beth’s triumph.