Along with Saw, Hostel remains the go to example for what now refer to a the “torture porn” era of the 2000s.  In many ways, Hostel’s literal torture scenes are the epitome of how gruesome these movies can get.  And while it’s remembered infamously, for many the second movie was superior in every way.

It has more interesting characters, it expands on the lore, and shows more of the behind the scenes of the Elite Hunting Club.  So in honor of its 15th anniversary today, we thought it would fun to look at 15 facts about Hostel II…

1. In the film’s opening sequence when Paxton is killed, Eli Roth’s head is visible among the many severed heads on spikes.

2. According to Heather Matarazzo (Lorna), upon arrival in Prague, producers offered her pills to help with jet lag.  Being a recovering addict, she didn’t want to break her sobriety, and she even alleged that Bijou Phillips (Whitney) even threw her up against a wall.

3. Shot on location in Iceland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

4. Both Edwige Fenech (the art professor in Rome) and Luc Merenda (the Italian detective who interviews Paxton) came out of retirement from acting to perform in this film.

5. Because the first Hostel was criticized for its overuse of female nudity, Eli Roth opened the sequence in Rome with a shot a naked male art model.

6. The Hunting Club leader Sasha was played by Milan Kňažko, the former Minister of Culture in Slovakia, turned actor.

7. Lorna’s gruesome and iconic death scene was based on the real life “Blood Countess”, Elizabeth Báthory.  Báthory was a Hungarian noblewoman who was purported to have killed hundreds of young women between 1590-1610, bathing in their blood to capture their youth.  She was eventually arrested and sentenced to house-confinement (essentially house arrest) until her death in 1614.

8. Heather Matarazzo prepped for the scene by hanging upside down in increasing intervals for two months.  According to her, she was more nervous about falling out of the harness and breaking her neck than she was about being completely naked in front of the whole crew.

9. Lauren German was on set during Lorna’s death scene, and said that it gave her terrible nightmares after watching them film it.

10. The brothel that Stuart and Todd visit was a real life brothel in Prague.  They didn’t charge anything for customers to sleep with the sex workers, since all their money came from recording and livestreaming the sex on the internet, for thousands of subscribed customers.

11. Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato has a cameo as the cannibal feasting upon his victim.

12. Paxton’s severed headed corpse was later used in his fake trailer “Thanksgiving” in the movie Grindhouse.  The trailer itself was shot during one of his days off shooting Hostel II.

13. While this film didn’t reach the box office levels of the first Hostel (which grossed $82 million on a $4.8 million budget), Hostel II managed to gross $35.6 million on a $10.2 million budget.

14. The movie was considered so gruesome and offensive that it was banned outright in Germany, with a Munich court even ruling it was punishable by law to release it there.

15. Nominated for Razzie Awards for “Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie” and “Worst Prequel or Sequel” but ‘lost’ to I Know Who Killed Me and Daddy Day Camp, respectively.

Which of these did you already know?  Which ones surprised you?  Let us know in the comments!

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