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| Interview: A "Hostel" Audience with Eli Roth |
by Peter Sobczynski
If you ever wanted to know what kind of person would come up with something like the blood (among other fluids)-soaked horror film "Hostel," this is your golden opportunity. BYOBB. (Bring Your Own Barf Bag)
“Ready for some blood?”
This is Eli Roth, the guy behind the 2003 cult horror film “Cabin Fever,” speaking before a crowd gathered for an advance preview of his latest work, the gorefest “Hostel.” God help those who aren’t because the film is one of the bloodiest and ickiest to ever gain mass distribution in America–if you can think of a grotesque way to abuse the human body, it can probably be found somewhere during its 90-odd minutes. In the film, which has been executive-produced by none other than Quentin Tarantino, a trio of students (Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson) on a sex-and-drug-fueled backpacking tour of Europe are sent to a remote Slovakian city where the women are gorgeous and willing to satisfy every possible desire. When they arrive, the town seems to come exactly as advertised but the place has a dark secret–the women are bait to lure people into a terrifying trap in which they are sadistically and brutally tortured and murdered for reasons that we shall not go into here.
Early on the morning after this particular screening, Roth is eager to talk about “Hostel,” his formative horror experiences and his surprising encounter with the MPAA ratings board.
Right after seeing “Hostel,” I was on the phone with someone and they asked what I had just seen. I described and her immediate reaction was “Who would want to pay to see something like that?” Speaking as both the director of “something like that” and as a obvious longtime fan of such films, what do you see as the attraction for audiences to graphic horror films such as this or “Saw II”?
When I was a kid and I would go to see horror movies, you’d come out of the movie wondering about which scene was the one that everyone would be talking about. In “Scanners,” you saw the dude’s head blowing and the vein exploding. It was even in the ads–a movie like “Screamers” would have an ad saying “You will actually see a man turned inside-out!”--
Which they didn’t even have in the movie at first . . .
–which they didn’t even have in the movie, but it was a great poster nevertheless. I think that people want to see these things. I think people are pretty numb to violence in movies. There isn’t a lot you can do that hasn’t already been done before. I was thinking, during the course of writing this movie,--how can you do a movie that’s worse than what is going on in the Gulf right now? How do you make a movie that is worse than the stuff that you can see on the Internet? I think you need to come up with stuff that is so sick and fucked up that they come out and tell people about it. Everyone has seen everything now and we are so numb to it but you want kids coming out going “This is so fucked up and sick!” People love it. People love seeing violence in movies because it is not real. I don’t like seeing real violence on television–stuff like war footage is very upsetting. I don’t think anybody enjoys seeing that but with movies, it is like watching a magic trick. As a kid, I loved watching the lady getting sawed in half and this is the same way. You know that the actors from “Hostel” are still alive–they are doing press for the movie. It is more like the thrill you get from a roller coaster–everyone has a fascination with death and people love to see it.
Were there any particular films that you saw in your youth that particularly influenced you? Obviously, “Cabin Fever” had its roots in stuff like “The Evil Dead” and watching “Hostel,” I was reminded of the immortal “Bloodsucking Freaks,” a legendary 1970's grindhouse epic that you provided a commentary track for when it came out on DVD.
That is interesting. Alan Jones, the British critic, made reference to that to–he called “Hostel” “Eli Roth’s ‘Incredible Torture Show’”, which was the original title of “Bloodsucking Freaks.” I love “Bloodsucking Freaks,” but it is a totally different experience. This movie is very much influenced by “Audition” and “The Vanishing.” Those were the movies that really inspired me.
Your tastes change and evolve. When I was a kid, “The Exorcist” was the most traumatic experience of my life–it really fucked me up and I couldn’t sleep for about two years and had this horrifying thing where I was scared that I was going to be possessed by the Devil. Then I started to go see horror movies and every time I would go, I would throw up. My dad took me to see “Alien” and I puked. I saw “Outland” and I was running up the aisles projectile-vomiting, as my parents are fond of reminding me. I saw “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and I puked. I saw the John Badham “Dracula” with my mom and I was so nervous that I was going to throw up that I threw up before the movie even started. Finally, my parents had enough and said that they weren’t taking me to any more violent movies because they made me sick. Then “Raiders of the Lost Ark” came out and my parents wouldn’t let me see it–it was the first time that they wouldn’t let me see something because I couldn’t handle those movies and it had the faces melting. To me, “Raiders” was like the next “Star Wars” and I finally convinced them, as I was pretty good doing, and I didn’t puke.
After that, I just started looking at them as magic tricks and special effects. I started watching the most violent movies I could–“Pieces,” “Faces of Death” and anything with gore. I loved “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” and “Pieces”–I was a huge fan of “Pieces” because you got to see a woman cut up with a chainsaw and the effects were incredible. I got into splatter movies but after a while, they got cheesy and people stopped trying to make them good. After “Cabin Fever,” I started going to film festivals around the world and I started seeing Asian films. I saw “Dark Water” and “Audition” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” and I thought that these were the films that were exciting to me now–they were realistic and horrifying and you felt like you were in the hands of dangerous filmmakers and that anything could happen.
Coming off of the cult success of “Cabin Fever,” how did “Hostel” come about and develop?
Coming off of “Cabin Fever,” I sort of became the “It” boy in the film world for horror. I don’t mean this among fans but with the studios–they are looking for something young and hip that the kids will be into and when “Cabin Fever” hit, they would say “What about Eli?” I started getting sent these scripts for horror movies and they were just awful–just the worst pieces of shit, many of which have since gone into production and have been released. You think you are getting access to the best scripts and you think, “These are the best scripts? Are you kidding me?” Then you talk to the executives and they have never seen the films that they are ripping off! They remake a movie and they have never seen the original. You begin to realize that the people making these movies really don’t understand them or even care to–they just know that they are making money.
I was talking to Harry Knowles about what the sickest thing was that you could find on the Internet. I talked about seeing Japanese girls vomiting into each other’s mouths in a bathtub. He said that he found this other site and showed me this thing where you could walk into a room in Thailand and pay $10,000 to shoot someone in the head. The site claimed that people were signing up for this as if it was a kind of life insurance policy–that they were so poor that since they were going to die anyway, they would do this and the money would go to their families. We looked at the site to see if it was bullshit or not and I thought that it didn’t matter if it was real because the concept–the fact that someone thought of this–was so sick. The fact that someone thought of this was fucking sick and if someone thought of it, someone else is probably doing it.
I started thinking about it and at one point, I thought about making a documentary about it, but how could you get to anyone who would sign up for this? It was impossible to get to anyone connected with it and if killing was their business, I might get into danger. I just started writing a bunch of things and got involved in different projects. After making a movie, you have to do press for it and after “Cabin Fever,” I went around the world to festival to do press–this was my mark in the film world and I had to make sure it had its best chance. After the press died down, I realized that it was almost two years since I had made a film. Then I saw “Saw” and I thought, this is great. I’d been holding out for the dream of this $30-40 million-dollar studio film and I thought, fuck it, I’ll just do another low-budget horror movie. I’d do it for $4-5 million so that I would have more resources than “Cabin Fever” and if I shot it in Prague or Bulgaria, I would have the equivalent of $15 million because it is much cheaper to film there. We could find some incredible actors over there that nobody has discovered yet and whom no one has any associations with so that people will buy them as the characters. Now that I have done it this way–two movies that I have written, produced and directed–I am spoiled and I don’t want to do a movie any other way now because I am happy doing my own thing.
Well, nearly all the great horror movies–particularly in the last 20-30 years–have been produced outside the studio system–“Evil Dead,” “Halloween” and “Saw,” though I would hesitate to call that great–while the studios come out with homogenized stuff like “House of Wax.”
The very nature of horror is to shock and provoke and the last thing that studios want to do is upset people. They test everything–if “Hostel” is a hit, I can get testing eliminated from my movies for good. Testing is the death of movies. They will show a movie to an audience and ask who their favorite character is and who the least favorite character is. What if the character is an asshole and you aren’t supposed to like him? They’ll say that it is boring in the middle part–it is supposed to be boring for those five minutes or so because there is really exciting part coming up and if you cut the boring part, the exciting part won’t be as exciting. They never sit with the audience and feel the movie. I got in a huge fight with them because they started testing and fucking around with “Hostel.” They said that people weren’t going to recommend the movie and I told them to stop asking that and ask if they would recommend it to a horror fan. When they did, every single hand went up. They think it is getting low recommends but not that many people like horror. Horror movies made by studios are going to be made safe to play to the widest audience possible and that is the very thing that kills horror films–watering them down.
Was there any part during the making of “Hostel”–either in the screenwriting or during the shooting–where you felt that you might have pushed things too far?
No. I don’t think about that when I’m writing. I don’t think about where it comes from–I’m just following the story as it happens.
Well, what disturbs you personally?
I saw one of those al-Queda videos of a journalist being decapitated. I clicked on the link and it was so upsetting–I wished I hadn’t seen it because it burned into my brain and I couldn’t get rid of it. I thought, what if you were in a room with someone who was going to kill you and no matter how much money you offered them or what you say, they were still going to do it. Now take away the webcams and the political aspect–what if they were just doing it to get off? Then you are really fucked and just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was hearing stories that during the Baltic wars, people were going over there and paying money to be snipers and shoot people. That stuff terrifies me–there is hunting on the Internet where there is a camera in a room with a lion and you can shoot it. I look at what is going on in the real world and it is so much worse than anything I can think of. It is human nature. For centuries, it has been something that man just does–he tortures other men–and I think that is why the film is upsetting to people. It is exploitation but it shows that within everybody is the capacity for violence. Everybody has it in them to kill someone–what does it take to bring that out of them?
For a film like this that is chock-full of nudity and graphic violence, how difficult does the casting process become?
Well, anyone who doesn’t want to do this kind of movie isn’t going to do it, so a lot of people are weeded out immediately because it was an extreme script. Actors like to show their range and they liked the fun and the comedy stuff and then it slowly turns into a weird mystery-drama and then the full-on horror comes on. When they were auditioning, I didn’t have them do the torture scene because I had to trust that they could do it. There actors wanted to do it. Look at Derek Richardson–he is a fantastic actor but he was in “Dumb and Dumberer” and it really hurt his career. He kind of got blamed for that movie–which is ridiculous because he is funny in it but it was just a bad movie–and he was eager to reinvent himself. Jay Hernandez started off with “crazy/beautiful” but has mostly done ensemble movies like “The Rookie” and “Friday Night Lights” and he was looking for a movie where he has the lead. Everybody had something to prove.
In Prague, we saw about 300 actresses and nobody came close to Barbara–she came in and had this incredible mystery. I didn’t want them to feel like American girls in the way they walked or talked–they needed this kind of otherworldly beauty that these guys have never encountered before but underneath, they needed this ability to turn cold and dark and evil. In the audition, Barbara was warm and sweet and when she switched to the cold part, it was terrifying. You wanted someone like Monica Bellucci or Emmanuelle Beart–someone who has that European beauty and those levels to her performance–and she certainly does.
Considering the levels of violence and gore on display, what was the experience of taking “Hostel” before the MPAA like?
Tarantino was great about how to deal with the MPAA and how to talk and handle them. He said that you have to approach them in a very friendly way and be cooperative and open-minded. The truth of the matter is that the MPAA has changed and the ratings board is a different place than it was even two years ago. They realize that if you are making a violent horror movie, people are going to want to see violence. When I approached them, I said that it was a film with my name and Tarantino’s name on it and that people were paying to see blood–there is no parent that is going to take their child to see this movie and be shocked that there is gore in it. That is what our fans want and that is what I have to deliver. They got that and understood both that and the movie–they felt the violence wasn’t inappropriate or gratuitous. There are things you can do to tone it down a little but they really didn’t have much of a problem with it. I put violence in thinking that they would ask me to cut it and they were cool with it. They get it–they know that “Saw II” had severed fingers and “There will be blood” and people came out in droves. They know how we are going to sell the movie–they know we aren’t going to sell it as a kid movie and no one will see a trailer and think that it isn’t as bloody as it is. People are going to see it for the gore. The print that you saw was the one that got the “R.”
link directly to this feature at http://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=1679
originally posted: 01/05/06 23:53:27
last updated: 01/14/06 12:32:45
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