Hostel at 20: The horror movie’s legacy is so much more than ‘torture porn’

In the years following the United States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, plenty of movies attempted to key into the psychology of soldiers, politicians, and other figures involved in contemporary Middle East boondoggles. This included movies looking back to the first Gulf War (Jarhead), examining antiterrorism operations (Body of Lies; Green Zone), or observing soldiers in the aftermath of their Iraq tours (Stop-Loss; In the Valley of Elah). Most of these projects were ignored or quickly forgotten by audiences, leaving an unlikely hit to serve as a lingering (if more obtuse) reminder of that era 20 years later: Eli Roth’s Hostel.