(Note: This will not be your typical review. It is unlikely many of our readers will see this film and regardless of my opinion, I can’t really recommend this film to anyone that doesn’t already like horror movies.)

I saw “Hostel II,” the other day. Does that make me a bad person? Does the fact that I kind of liked it make me sick?

I don’t know. I hope not.

I promise you that I wasn’t cheering on the bad guys or chanting “chainsaw, chainsaw, chainsaw,” as one of the villains selected a weapon, but perhaps that doesn’t matter. Maybe just supporting these movies is bad, not because they are offensive or indecent (although it would be easy to argue that) but because horror films like this may have destroyed the horror genre irreparably and the more people go to see them, the more of these types of will be released.

In the history of film, different types of horror movies have come and gone in one big cycle. Monster movies were replaced by psycho killer movies and every few years the films changed their style a bit and made a comeback. Recently the popular horror films are zombie movies and what some describe as “torture horror.” Movies like “Saw,” Hostel,” Turistas,” etc. fit into this category and “Hostel II” might signal the genre’s flaming out. It certainly underperformed at the box office and I expect “Saw 4” will do even worse this October.

I think the main reason for this flameout is after going as far as possible in film, a director must now ask where does a movie go from here?

“Hostel II” features some nasty, nasty things. I had to turn away or close my eyes a number of times and the ending is just crazy. It was something I hadn’t seen before and I don’t want to see again. I will likely never see “Hostel II” again and, apparently, the world is safe from seeing a “Hostel III.” Director Eli Roth said this was the last one and he will now move on to direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Cell.”

“Hostel II” is a better movie than its predecessor and Roth proves he is a better director now than he was then. Before the victims get hustled in to said hostel and captured by the bad guys, Roth gives the viewer a tight movie with suspense, the development of character and the continuation of the plot of the first film, while building a unique movie with a multi-faceted focus. If “Hostel” is “Alien,” “Hostel II” is “Aliens.”

That will make sense to some of the readers out there.

As good as parts of “Hostel II” are - and believe me there are good parts, particularly the performances of Roger Bart (“Desperate Housewives”) and a beautifully directed sequence of scenes at a creepy harvest festival - the film boils down to the the scenes in the factory where innocent people are brought in to be murdered by people who pay for the privilege. It is as uncomfortable as it sounds and it is meant to be. Roth isn’t making a tongue-in-cheek film like “Scream.” He wants you disturbed and he wants that feeling to last well after you leave the theater.

Unlike “Turistas,” which had American kids getting their organs harvested in Brazil (great for tourism), “Hostel II” does offer up food for thought on a world where anything can be bought for the right price, as well as the role that America plays in the modern world. It would appear that Roth is making judgments against America, setting it up as a predator or a group of obnoxious, spoiled brats, but I believe that is just on the surface of the film. “Hostel” and the sequel are more about a global community, the gap between the haves and the have-nots and the frame of mind of everyone in a post 9/11 society.

That may appear to be a reach, but believe me there is more going on in these films than just post-adolescents getting sliced up.

Here’s the real question though. Assuming that the “torture film” goes away like every other horror genre, what comes next? Could you make a monster movie today - say a vampire film - that would actually be scary? Or will a director and studio think that to play to audiences and make its money back it has to be a vampire movie with over the top gore?

I suppose people wondered the same thing after the slew of Freddy and Jason movies came out in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it is a good question. When do we hit the saturation point for this genre of films and what comes next? Another thing to consider is the fact that aside from zombie and torture movies, the next big category in recent horror is remakes. Does that mean that 20 years from now we get a “Hostel” remake and, if so, how sick and twisted will that have to be?

I hope that torture movies go the way of the dinosaur. While some of them are unique, like the Hostel movies or the original “Saw,” too many studios are willing to put lesser films with sicker images out. Last weekend I saw a preview for “Captivity,” and it just ticked me off. Where are the clever or, at least, entertaining horror films? What’s John Carpenter doing these days?

** 1/2

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