A queasy-does-it guy

Given all this, you would expect Roth to be a creepy guy, but he isn't -- which, come to think of it, may be the creepiest thing of all. Roth is 35 and comes off as a sunnier Ben Stiller, or maybe Carson Daly's perky brother. He is more film nut than nut job and more fan boy than bad man. He gets excited about going to horror-fan conventions. He also has some weird medical history: He endured a painful skin disease that flared up in his early 20s -- it directly inspired the flesh-eating virus story of his first film, "Cabin Fever," in 2002. He doesn't live in a cave, though. Last year, the bachelor was named "fittest director" by Men's Fitness magazine and he has a horse named Bara that he keeps on a ranch in Iceland.

But to most fans his name is synonymous with grisly, sexualized horror. That's why a young woman walked up to him not long ago and rubbed her bloodied hand on his shirt as a flirty overture. "It was so disgusting," Roth recalled. "She said, 'You like blood.' I shouted at her, "I like fake blood, not real blood." I mean, c'mon. The bad thing too, she was really hot."

Even horror fans are divided. When "Hostel" hit No. 1 at the box office in 2005, movie critic (and self-proclaimed horror fan) David Edelstein wrote in New York magazine that he was alarmed by the flurry of torture films. "Some of these movies are so viciously nihilistic," he wrote, "that the only point seems to be to force you to suspend moral judgments altogether."

Rose McGowan, an actress who had a gun for a leg in "Grindhouse," surveyed the influence of the Splat Pack and spoke for many when she told Rolling Stone: "All they do now is think about ways to torture women, primarily. I don't really get that. What is this, a manual for young, budding serial killers?"

But to dismiss Roth as a hack would ignore the opinions of some impressive peers. "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson hailed "Cabin Fever" as "brilliant" and invited the then-unknown Roth to the New Zealand set of "Rings." Quentin Tarantino saw that same film, labeled Roth "the future of horror" and signed on as a producer for both "Hostel" films.

Young movie-goers are certainly buying in and, according to audience surveys, the crowds are split fairly evenly by gender. Hollywood is on board, and no company more so than Lionsgate, which is the brand behind the "Hostel" and "Saw" movies. A turning point for the company was "Cabin Fever," which cost $1.5 million to make and has grossed over $20 million in the U.S. alone. Its success led the studio to expand significantly and specialize in horror.