Eli Roth has been documenting the making of "Hostel: Part II" with a series of diary entries for MTV. Last time Roth discussed the rules of the "Masters of Horror" dinners. Today he talks about the healthy competition between he and the other elite horror directors today.

Right now we're at an interesting time in American horror. 2003 was the year that R-rated horror returned with a vengeance, starting off with "House of 1000 Corpses," followed by "28 Days Later," then "Freddy vs. Jason," "Cabin Fever," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." The public was hungry for violent films, and in 2004 R-rated horror went even more mainstream, with hits like "Dawn of the Dead," and of course, "Saw."

The "Saw" phenomenon fired up all the studios to make grisly horror films, and there were many rip-offs that went into production, none of which captured what made "Saw" work so well. The guys who make "Saw" genuinely love these films, and like the other horror directors, are making films that we'd want to see. People in the industry also love to declare horror dead, which is completely ridiculous. I've been hearing that one for years. Horror isn't dead, crappy films are dead. If you make a bad film, people aren't going to see it, and if you make a great one that excites audiences and gives them an experience unlike anything they've ever had before, they'll come out in droves. Read more...