Eli Roth, the writer and director of last year's in-your-face horror hit Hostel, got himself a pile of hate mail from Slovakia after shooting the film in these parts. This time around, someone just may try to run him over.

"This is like the high-roller suite," he says, walking around chillingly convincing torture cells constructed at Barrandov's sound stage 6. "There are actual theme rooms. They've upped the ante here — security's improved. There's no escaping this place."

As fans know, Hostel, the exteriors for which were filmed in Český Krumlov, tells the tale of unwary backpackers who are lured to Bratislava, where they hook up with fabulous women ostensibly dying to meet Western men. Instead, these sirens are in the pay of rich businessmen whose latest thrill sport is backpacker torture and dismemberment.

For some reason, the Slovak Tourist Authority was not amused — although millions of others, Slovaks and Czechs among them, were. The film hit No. 1 at the box office last January, and its recent DVD release has just pushed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe out of top place.

Now back in town to shoot Hostel II, which wraps this week, Roth explains his motives behind a film the Daily Mirror in London called "the goriest, sickest, bloodiest movie you'll ever, ever see."

"I felt like American horror was going soft," he says. "I wanted to step it up. We're not doing cartoon violence. We're doing real violence and it's very horrifying."

Spreading torture, different sex

In Hostel II, the victims are college girls (Lauren German, Bijou Phillips and Heather Matarazzo) in Rome who foolishly take the advice of an exotic Slavic woman to try a lovely spa vacation in — you guessed it — Bratislava.

What's more, Milan Kňažko, the former Slovak culture minister, plays one of the heavies this time. And the torture business now looks to be booming, with chambers now appearing all over the world.

The story is not groundbreaking, of course, but Roth's filmmaking and ability to unnerve the most cynical audiences are. The secret is just in doing your homework, he says.

Roth, a New York Film School graduate with an encyclopedic knowledge of his craft, points to the greats of American horror from the 1970s: Jaws, The Exorcist and The Shining. He says the key difference between these and the slasher flicks of the 1990s are compelling characters and tales.

"Those films had top actors," he says. "We're about making real movies. Nothing is a throwaway."

Roth became inspired by Japanese horror maestro Takeshi Miike, whose films such as Gozu and Ichi the Killer have set the new gold standard for gut-wrenching violence on film — in fact, he talked Miike into a cameo role in Hostel.

The first time around, he also cast one of the greatest actors of the Czech stage as a demented Dutch torturer. Jan Vlasák, who speaks no English, had to learn his lines phonetically but so impressed Roth that he had to cast him.

If there's a moral to Roth's filmmaking success, in fact, it's that there's still no substitute for taking risks.

A tough sell

Two independent film professionals who set up shop in Prague four years ago have also seen the rewards of taking chances: Briton Philip Waley and American Dan Frisch.

Last year, they gambled on Hostel. Their small, specialized production company, aptly named International Production Company (IPC), wasn't sold at first on the merits of a film like Hostel, Waley says.

"Dan and I thought, 'Do we really want to do this?' "

Although Quentin Tarantino had encouraged Roth to pursue his idea about young people kidnapped and sold off to rich sickos, the concept made many an industry insider uneasy.

In the end, Waley and Frisch were won over enough to help Roth secure financial backing Roth brought his own production company, Raw Nerve, to Prague and shot the first Hostel installment in 38 days in 2005 with a budget estimated at $4 million (89 million Kč) but far less in actual production costs.

With the respected horror effects master Howard Berger on board and using Prague's famously cost-effective crews, the result was a little film with major-league punch that is alternatively terrifying and hilarious.

What's more, says Frisch, Hollywood — or at least its indie filmmaking community — has seen what kind of return is possible for minimal startup cash spent smartly in Prague.

Although Roth already had done well with cult film Cabin Fever, no one expected the Hostel idea to take off like it did, Frisch admits.

"Sometimes, yes, it's pretty stressful having a lower budget," Waley says. "But it's creative. You're not just throwing money at a problem."

Hostel II, with a $10 million budget, has given IPC far more to work with than last year, but it's still considered low-budget by Hollywood standards.

Yet it's evident in the first five minutes on set that cast, crew and producers are having the time of their lives — particularly Waley and Frisch.

Roth, who goes on to shoot an adaptation of Stephen King's The Cell next year, has all but committed himself to shooting Hostel III in Prague, although the timing is still not set in stone.