10 Most Shocking And Strange Facts About Famous Horror Movies

Back when it was first released in 2005 Eli Roth's Hostel was one of the first of a new wave in horror, a sub-genre referred to as "Torture Porn" or "Gorno". Roth's graphic visuals were generally influenced by the VHS and grindhouse horrors of his youth, movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Pieces. But the story of Hostel actually drew direct inspiration from something he discovered online.

For those who haven't seen, Hostel is about a group of backpackers who are travelling Europe when they are captured by an organisation called Elite Hunting. This organisation provides wealthy people with the opportunity to torture and kill other human beings for thrills. A disturbing concept with some similarity to "The Most Dangerous Game" and the various other movies that inspired, although these had nothing to do with Hostel's conception.

Roth was actually drawn to make the movie after coming across a website offering package deals much like those enjoyed by the Elite Hunting clientele. In Roth's words: "It started with a conversation with Aint It Cool News' Harry Knowles. Harry and I were talking about sick stuff we'd seen on the internet, like that guy in Texas who set it up so you could control a gun and hunt lions and wild game online.

I thought, 'Jesus, why wouldn't they just put a human being in a room?' And Harry said 'Well actually I found something like that.' and he sent me a link to a site."

The site promised that for $10000 a person could travel to Thailand to execute someone. It claimed that the victim would be someone who has signed up willingly as they were broke, and that part of the $10000 fee would be given to their family.

Roth never found out if the site was real or not.

"I was at the point where I wanted to do a documentary about it, and it's like, to get any further I would have had to give personal information and I figure these people kill people for a living, I'm not gonna find out."