Director Roth has accomplished the near impossible with Hostel: Part II: He's crafted a vastly superior sequel to a film already considered something of a classic by genre aficionados, one that supersedes its predecessor's sadistic entertainment quotient by orders of magnitude while also upstaging its own outrageous gore effects with a script that's smart, vicious, and occasionally, gleefully subversive.

Roth has managed the rare feat of actually improving on the original.

In this twist-filled sequel, the real shocker is just how smart and satisfying such degradation can be. There's no question "Part II" outgrosses the original "Hostel" in the blood-and-guts department.

Given its premise, it's hard for any Hostel sequel to be little more than a rehash.

Hostel II is far too shrewd and savagely witty to be caught engaging in higher seriousness. Roth could probably go even further with this particular franchise if he wanted to. Yet somehow, I think he's meant for grander, subtler and more intricate distractions than this.