The creators of “Cabin Fever” return to give us the first truly twisted horror film of the year in Eli Roth’s new film “Hostel,” but unfortunately, it doesn’t manage to do much else other than make us squirm.

This doesn’t mean that “Hostel” is a bad movie; it just fails to reach its full potential. While it could be one of the most disturbing films ever made, it just winds up being another mediocre horror film.

The problem this film has is the lack of a solid plot. What plotline there is for this movie serves only to advance the characters, as well as the audience, to the few torture scenes scattered throughout the film.

The little plot there is has a group of backpackers traveling through Europe who wind up getting tortured for the enjoyment of rich businessmen.

With a running time of only an hour and a half, the film is unable to go into any real details about the characters or the people who have captured them.

While the plot of “Hostel” is a major falling point of the movie, the disturbing nature of the torture scenes and the terrified acting from the fairly inexperienced cast (this is the first major film for a large majority of the cast) does help to salvage the film from being a total flop.

All of the violence in “Hostel” is extreme and pulls few punches for the audiences, and it makes for one of the most disturbing American-made films in a long time.

While “Hostel” is far from perfect, it does offer some mild enjoyment and shows a lot of potential for horror films to go in a new and more twisted direction than we have seen recently.