As for the gore, I was surprised by what they got away with. It's so refreshing to see a horror movie that actually makes you feel uncomfortable and one in which you have no idea what's going to happen next. It's a sign of well thought-out script and a filmmaker who cares about the fate of his characters.For horror fans, this is an absolute must-see. Instead of being merely reactive like the characters in Cabin Fever, the survivor makes several decisions which change the course of the story.

When you realize that there is no hope for the character, no way to escape, no 'buddy' who's gonna turn up at the last minute to save the hero, and not a shred of humanity or compassion to the antagonists, real fear begins to set in.Another great element in the script is how the 'survivor' makes moral choices that define their character.

You begin putting yourself into the character's situation and wondering what you'd do. The more you think about it, the more horrifying it becomes. This isn't a movie where you turn off your brain to enjoy it. He provides the dark setup, throws in a sympathetic character, and begins twisting the screws and ratcheting up the suspense. Yes, there is plenty of gore, but it's relevant to the story and doesn't exist just for it's own sake.One of the aspects of this film that made it so powerful was how Roth created a sense of helpless and inevitability. He's more interested in scenes and ideas that move the story forward. And this is where I think it shows how he's improved as a filmmaker. The torture scenes are brief and to the point. Contrary to what you might've heard, this is not a 90 minute film on torture. This, I learned during the Q&A afterwards with Roth, was intentional.If you've read some of the other reviews posted here from people who saw it at the Toronto Film Festival, you get the general idea of the story. But in very subtle ways, the blandness gets washed away and as our heroes enter the threshold of Hell, the style of the film changes as well. The style was typical of the what you'd see in crap like I know what you did last summer. Roth succumbed to some unseen studio pressure to make a normal-looking horror flick'.

The scenes introducing the main characters were blandly shot and edited. Director Eli Roth has taken a big step forward in becoming a better storyteller and filmmaker.Admittedly my heart sank when the film began.

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