Was it hard to get female actors onboard for such a graphic and violent movie as Hostel: Part II?
When the actors read the script, they're doing it for those key scenes. And the girls especially; all the girls want to go to this dark place, and they want permission to do it. Actors love to go crazy. [Laughs.] They love it. If there's a scene where they go completely insane and they're screaming and crying and losing their minds, they love it. That is their favorite thing in the world. I want to make something that's really, really terrifying and scary, but I want people to have a fun time at the movies. I want people to have a great time, and have it be a fun rollercoaster ride. I don't want people to feel like it's sick for sick's sake, I don't want people to feel like they got punched in the stomach. I want them to feel like they just got off a rollercoaster where they're shaking but they're charged.

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What do you have in store to shock fans who at least have an inkling of what to expect after the first Hostel?

Have you ever gone too far and incurred the wrath of the MPAA?
I actually work very closely with the MPAA, and they're really great. They're cool and it's a really good system. I know that directors love to bash the ratings board, and they love to complain about the injustice, but I honestly believe they're all a bunch of spoiled, overpaid, whiny brats and they should just shut up. I know that sexual movies in the U.S. get cut back, but look at America, though: You have drills going into people on 24 and it's fine, and Janet Jackson flashes her nipple and Congress is in session about it. So they're reflecting America; in America, sexuality gets punished, and violence, you get away with it. I get that.

A scene from Hostel: Part II. Click here for more stills from the movie. Photo by Rico Torres / Lions Gate

But around the world, it's different. We have a scene in the movie where we put a gun to a child's head. We're not showing anything, we're not shooting, there's no graphic violence at any point, we're just pointing it at a kid's head and it's a scary scene. And the German censors are like, "Nein!" I don't know if they're going to allow it. There are certain things in other countries, too: In Japan, they didn't even put Hostel in theaters because a Japanese woman walks around with her face burned for the last third of the film. There's some cultural shame in disfiguring your face, especially having an American do it. But think of all those violent Japanese movies that I modeled this after! So much so that I put even put [notorious director] Takashi Miike in it! They still won't allow it in theaters. So that's what I face.

But here we work out a compromise. [The MPAA] knows what I'm trying to do. They know that people who are going to Hostel: Part II are going to see more of what they liked in Hostel. It's not Happy Feet 2. No one's going to accidentally walk into this film.