 SPOILER: The trailers bill the movie as "inspired by true events".  Director Eli Roth (qv) says that he found a Thai website that  advertised itself as a "murder vacation," offering users the chance  to torture and kill someone for the price of $10,000. Roth later  showed the site to Quentin Tarantino (qv) and the two developed  the idea for the film. Tarantino and Roth said later on an Icelandic  talk show that they have no idea if the website was real or not.