Stuart, this is not like going to a whorehouse. You can't just back out.
-Todd

Is the sequel better then the original? I'm not sure, but Eli Roth manages to put together a film that is both similar and very different to the original. Way to often are horror movie sequels just more of the same. What Roth does here is while the first film treated the viewer like the protagonists and kept us in the dark, it instead pulls back the curtain and shows us how the Elite Hunting Organization works. This gives him opportunities to set up more disturbing scenes that have nothing to do with gore.

You still have the victims that are partying about unaware of the fate that is to become them, but even that is done differently. First of all they're women instead and the film seems to suggest that they are harder to entice with frivolous pleasures then men are. Imagine that. Having two different stories that are the opposite sides of the same coin make the movie chug along at a faster pace then the original until they eventual converge on each other.

Like I said in my Hostel Review, these films are hard to rate. Someone who is really into gory grindhouse horror would give it a high rating because like the first one, the acting is above average for the genre, the special effects are top notch and the entire set up is original. Someone who doesn't enjoy these kinds of films is going to hate it because it is as gory as an R rating permits it to be. So again a subjective 3 Star rating to try and find a happy medium. If you're into this sort of thing you'll love it, if you're not then why would you waste your time?