The inspiration for Eli Roth’s Hostel from 2005 came from a dangerous website based out of Thailand, advertising “murder vacations.”
Roth’s second time in the director’s seat for a feature film, following 2002’s Cabin Fever, Hostel takes viewers on a very different trip that’s just as graphic as his debut entry. The film surrounds Paxton and Josh, best friends that decide to backpack across Europe after graduation. Along with newly-befriended fellow backpacker, Óli, the two are told about a Slovakian hostel filled with beautiful women that few tourists know about. The group decides to change their plans and head to Slovakia instead. When they arrive, they find out the seemingly charming hostel is anything but. In a way, Hostel is like a survival horror game that’s nearly impossible to win, and if someone does, there are only bad endings. The film stars Jay Hernandez as Paxton, Derek Richardson as Josh, and Eythor Gudjonsson as Óli.
The film grossed over $80 million worldwide with an estimated budget of $4.8 million. It’s since spawned two sequels, aptly named Hostel: Part II and Hostel: Part III. The first sequel didn’t fare as well in the box office compared to its predecessor, despite a larger budget, and the final entry was released direct-to-DVD. Both sequels are serviceable and add more humor than the original.
Eli Roth Studied Murder Tourism For Hostel
Back when Hostel was released in theaters, in an interview with Dread Central, Roth explained that the original idea came from a conversation he had with Harry Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News. The two were talking about weird things they’ve seen on the internet when eventually, Knowles sent him a link to a website. If someone paid $10,000, the website said they could travel to Thailand and shoot someone in the head in a private room. Roth further explains, “The site claimed that the person you were killing had signed up for it and that part of the money would go to their family because they were so broke and were gonna die anyways. It was to give you the thrill of taking another human life.”
Roth goes on to say that whether the site was real or not, someone took the time to conceptualize it for a specific type of person. He imagined a person with so much money that it means nothing to them. This type of person would be someone so numb from their own wealth, that they’d consider seeking a thrill they can’t get from sex, booze, or drugs; they want to be able to murder someone without consequences. It was then that the idea behind the website became real to him, as it wasn’t hard to believe that such a person exists.
Before the idea of the movie itself came to be, Roth originally intended on creating a documentary about the website when he found out it was indeed real, but decided not to. Getting more information would have required a credit card, and if the people behind the website were actually killing people, Roth wasn’t too keen on giving out that sort of personal information.
The inspiration of Hostel is unsettlingly real, proving that some horror stories aren’t fictitious. It taps into real fears some experience while traveling in a foreign land, and depicts what could very well be the worst scenario. Hostel was released at a time when “torture-porn” films were enjoying a lot of spotlight. From a tear of French extreme horror films like High Tension, Inside, and Martyrs, to the seemingly neverending Saw franchise, Roth’s entry not only fit in, it thrived.
More: Want To Know What Inspired Eli Roth’s Hostel Movies?