That's certainly the philosophy of one Eli Roth, and the film made 20 years ago that birthed a new era of Hollywood horror. Hostel was also released the year after Saw, which divided critics with its extreme violence but won over a legion of horror fans. Hostel inspired a brief rise in “torture porn” movies, before they retreated back into the margins. There was a genuine demand for this level of extreme horror, one where violence is, frankly, cool. During this time, gore-nography and torture porn were commercial safe bets, but it didn’t last long.