Hostel: Part II

While the number of horror directors who come-and-go is seemingly never ending, Eli Roth has found a way to not only maintain the buzz that he earned with Cabin Fever years ago but continue to build on it year after year. How has Eli Roth survived in a genre notorious for putting new horror icons on a pedestal and then leaving them to starve there? First, he took himself seriously - turning the humorous angle of Cabin Fever on its head and creating the most influential horror film of the last few years in Hostel.

Then he found his way into Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse. Ignore the stories about Grindhouse being any sort of failure - it's going to be watched for years to come and Eli Roth is right there in the middle of it. If Eli Roth had made Cabin Fever 2 or another indie horror release, he might have disappeared down the same road as those Blair Witch guys or even Kevin Williamson, but he made himself a part of the pop culture landscape with a horror hit and a Tarantino classic.

Eli Roth has already had a longer shelf life than many recent horror voices, but he's trying something even more remarkable this month - a successful horror movie sequel. Follow-ups are always risky, but a horror follow-up is usually even more of a bad idea. How could Roth hope to top the first Hostel, a movie that shocked fans into submission? One thing that Roth knows for sure is that he has to satisfy his fans above all else. If they turn on him, it's over.

How much does Eli Roth care about his fans? On the night before my interview with the writer/actor/director, Roth was scheduled to appear at a Q&A screening of Hostel: Part II. Bad Chicago weather forced a flight delay and, right as the movie was coming to a close, Roth was getting out of the airport miles away. Nine out of ten celebrities of any kind would have said, "You saw a free movie, sorry, but the Q&A is canceled." Not Eli. He got on a publicist's cell phone and had the moderator hold it up to the microphone at the theater to do the Q&A over the phone while he was on his way in, at which point he continued in person. Barely a single person left the theater. Critics of the splat pack might say that Eli Roth needs to be committed, but he already is to what matters most to him - his fans - and that's the kind of commitment that separates him from the failed horror icons of the past and gives one the feeling that this may be one of the few new masters of horror who's going to last.

UGO: What's the best horror movie sequel?

ELI ROTH: Aliens. Aliens is it.

UGO: Why?

ELI: Aliens expanded on the mythology of the first one. They didn't just repeat the first one. They took it to a whole 'nother level. They gave you exactly what you wanted and still created so many great new characters. You saw how much trouble one of those things gave you and then you looked around and they were f*ckin' everywhere. Everything about it, I thought was SO awesome. It was so well done. James Cameron really paid attention to the detail in the universe. That's what makes those movies so great. It's such a real universe. It's so well done. It combined Jaws, Star Wars, and 2001 and created that real environment. And the characters were awesome and the guns were amazing. I remember coming out of the theater and going, "That was the sh*t. That was better than the first one."

And that happened to me only a few times - Aliens, Road Warrior, The Empire Strikes Back, and, recently, I thought The Devil's Rejects was f*ckin' awesome and Saw II! Saw II totally got me. I was looking for a twist and I liked all the stuff with Tobin Bell. It expanded the mythology and kept me guessing. It totally f*ckin' got me. I was looking for it and they still got me.

So, I really wanted to make a sequel, but those are the exceptions. Really, two percent of sequels are better than the original.

UGO: Well, that's the follow-up. How do you avoid the pitfalls?

ELI: The key is that I watched [Hostel] with audiences around the world. I saw that film probably a hundred times. Fifty times in the U.S. alone. I sat and I watched and I listened and you can feel the crowd. You know where the movie is working and you know where certain jokes work and I watched it in France, Italy, and I saw what moments [worked]. Where did I have them on the edge of their seat and where were they kind of checking their watches? You just feel it. And I looked at what I tried to do and what worked and what didn't work. You take the most successful elements and build on it.

So, obviously the gore moments, the signature moments like the eye-gasm, the girls getting run over, the adrenalin ending, people went f*ckin crazy. So, I thought I've got to have that rollercoaster ride. I need that adrenalin. But I can't just repeat it. I've got to do something that tops that. But, also, in terms of the non-gore scenes, the section that really works the best is the scene where Jay Hernandez goes in the pub and sees the girls and they're all drugged out and he says, "Where are my friends?" It's just that change. And when they're sitting in the car and she says, "You want gum?" And he says, "No, thanks." And she says, "Too bad for you." And you can feel the audience go "oooooh." They knew what was coming. You better enjoy it because it's the last piece you're ever going to get. He looks at her and knows something's wrong. And that's just creepy. Because everyone's felt that - when someone says something that has that sinister quality to it. And that scene with Rick Hoffman - the 'how do I kill someone' scene. That look of excitement and intensity on his face resonated with audiences around the world. People tell me that was the scariest scene in the film for them and there's no scary music, no special effects, no scary set - it's just two people in a room talking. And I realized that's the essence of what worked - the psychology.

UGO: I was a little concerned going in that it would be 'all eye-gasm' because that's what gets the headlines. Did you feel the need to out-gore the first movie?

ELI: I think if people came out just saying "It's grosser" that's what everyone expects. What I don't think people expect and what I want people to know is that I want people coming out saying, "That was smarter, better, scarier, tighter, more fun, and it blew away the first one. It stands on its own as a great horror film. Not just as a great sequel." In order to do that, I don't think it's as bloody overall as the first one. It's more targeted strikes. But those targeted strikes are much more intense and horrifying. And I found that if you have too much of the gore, the movie is boring. People assume that the director's cut is going to be more bloody. Actually, when you edit the scene, it's kind of like an ingredient in cooking. If you have too much of your favorite ingredient, the whole dish isn't actually as tasty as you'd like. You've got to have just enough so it satisfies and you maybe wanted a little bit more, but you're satisfied. With too much gore, suddenly the scene's just not scary. Or if there's no gore, then you miss that gore. So, when I'm shooting, I try to shoot everything and have as much coverage of the violence as possible. But really, in editing, that's when you decide what to use and when to show it. Also, you can cut a scene and have lots of violence and you'll realize that a scene three scenes later is just kind of boring because you've seen something that topped it a little earlier. If you pull back on the early scene, the later one is that much more effective. It's all about finding the rhythm and the balance.

UGO: Were you forced to pull back at any moment?

ELI: No, I got exactly what I wanted. What is going in theaters is my director's cut. I'm really happy with it. The ratings board was terrific. I had a really great experience both on Thanksgiving [Roth's fake trailer in the middle of Grindhouse] and Hostel: Part II. A lot of filmmakers bitch about the ratings board but, with violence, the European countries are a lot tougher. In Germany, they'll go "Take that out." In Japan, they wouldn't put Hostel in theaters because a Japanese girl had her face disfigured. They put it out on DVD. In the Ukraine, it didn't come out. In Singapore, it didn't come out. It's a big hit when you lose a territory like that, but that's why I make them at such responsible budget levels. The average budget is $80 million. Very low budget is $20 million. I made Hostel for $3.8 million. If you combine Hostel, Cabin Fever, and Hostel: Part II, it's less than one star's salary on Ocean's 13. You lose a territory, but you made it for nothing.

UGO: When you wrote the first one, did you have any of the second one in mind?

ELI: Never.

UGO: When did the second one come to life? Opening weekend of Hostel?

ELI: Around there. Actually kind of right before opening weekend, I was watching audiences react and I thought there was really something here. Then when it opened and knocked out Narnia, I thought "If I'm serious about doing this, I've got to do it right now." I think what's making the movie work is that it's a film of the moment. It's reflecting the fear of the time. Whether it's images of Iraq or all the other things that are going on right now, this is where the fear in the culture is at. If I'm going to make a sequel and continue these themes, I want to explore things that are terrifying that I just touched upon in the first one. Right now. While I was touring Europe for the first one, I took my notebook and I just started writing.

It was a very daunting task. The first one was a little movie that came out of nowhere. It was a new story. I said I've got to make it better. I can't just make a sequel. The whole creative team returned. How many times does that happen? The Devil's Rejects. The Road Warrior. Even Aliens, yea, they got James Cameron. Saw II, they got Darren [Bousman]. It's really rare that the original creator comes back and directs it. So, I looked at Two Towers, Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather, Part II. I thought "F*ck man, I've got to make a great sequel."

Once I thought of it as "Part II" that really freed me up. I thought "Where does the story go from here?" Now, I don't have to educate everyone about what this place is. We can now, from minute one, as soon as you see the girls, go "Uh-oh." And I wanted them to be smarter than the guys. I wanted them to be college-educated but not necessarily street-smart. They still have a little bit of that naivete, that false sense of protection. They're smart girls but they're still a little bit out of their element.

UGO: Did you do Death Proof, before Hostel: Part II or after?

ELI: Before. Quentin was writing Death Proof while I was writing Hostel: Part II. While I'm casting Hostel: Part II, he calls me to audition for his film. I was like "Dude, I'm no actor, but, for you, I'll audition." I had to leave the casting of Hostel: Part II to go to audition for Death Proof and Derek Richardson [from Hostel] was the guy in front of me. So, I read for a video camera and I got a phone call and I got a callback. I went to his house and auditioned with him and his casting director. So, I left and went to the Fangoria convention and came back and watched a movie with Quentin and he called later and said that I got the part, to which I was like "That's awesome, however, I'm shooting Hostel: Part II, a movie that you're the executive producer on, what am I supposed to do?" So, I gave him a week. It was in my contract. I flew from Prague three weeks before shooting to Austin, shooting all night and PAs were bringing me designs and casting DVDs and conference calls for Hostel. Then I had to go back from Death Proof right into my rehearsals.

UGO: But the script for Hostel II was done? Locked down? Because a lot of people have noted the similarities between the female-driven Death Proof and the female-driven Hostel: Part II. I was wondering if any experience on Death Proof influenced Hostel: Part II?

ELI: We were writing them separately. We were both writing female empowerment horror movies at the same time. But I read Death Proof and I thought "If I'm going to make a horror movie, I have to have great characters." What influenced me was that I read Quentin's script and Quentin raised the bar for female characters in a horror film. So I thought, "The new standard will be Death Proof, so they've got to be great." Obviously, only Quentin Tarantino can write Quentin Tarantino characters, but I can write my own great characters and show people that I can write great roles for women. We had girls fighting to get in for an audition for this film. These were not just 'great parts in a horror movie,' these were great parts.

UGO: : Before we go, tell us something about Cell [Roth's next project, an adaptation of the Stephen King book].

ELI: : I'm so excited. Cell is going to be really about the collapse. It's not about the phone crazies. It's about the collapse of society. I want a total breakdown of society. I want the water to go out. I want the sewage to go out. So, essentially, the phone crazies become the least of the problems. I want people to go insane the way the phone crazies do. I am NOT filming the book. I am adapting the book. I'm taking the book and using the source material and making my version of a film out of it. I wanted to make sure Stephen King is cool with me changing things because I don't want him to be mad at me and I heard he was mad at Stanley Kubrick. But I love The Shining.

Interview by Brian Tallerico

More on Eli Roth:
:: Eli Roth on Celebrity Wonder
:: Eli Roth on Wikipedia