10 Things You Definitely Googled After Watching These Horror Films

10. Hostel – Do These Places Actually Exist?

Eli Roth's 2005 Hostel is one of the movies cited as being the launching point for what would become known as torture porn. Gratuitous violence from every angle, the horrors at play in Hostel and its subsequent two sequels (yes, there really was a third...) are enough to turn the stomach of even the most staunch of horror hounds.

This trio of films largely centres on the Elite Hunting Club, with this organisation offering the chilling service of auctioning off young tourists to the highest bidder. Upon winning these auctions, the successful bidder then gets to do whatever they want to their traumatised victim - be that drilling holes in their knee caps, taking a circular saw to their head, cutting out their internal organs, or hanging them upside down from the ceiling and slashing away at them with a scythe.

After a first watch of the original Hostel, you may find yourself having the urge to Google just whether something as ludicrous-sounding as the Elite Hunting Club could ever possible exist.

The chilling truth is that, yes, similar organisations exist across the globe. In fact, writer/director Eli Roth was inspired to make Hostel after discovering such 'murder holidays' online. Why Roth was searching for that sort of thing, who knows - but either way, the grim reality is that similar antics to those seen in the Hostel trilogy really do happen.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

First Posted On: 19th Nov 2020

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