I am going to begin this piece with a statement that might be controversial:Eli Rothis good, actually. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “No, he isn’t.” Or, “I dunno, he’s fine.” Or, “Of course he is, was this ever in question?” Allow me to respond to that by saying that I feel like Roth gets written off as just a blood-and-guts guy doing his best to imitate 1970s Italian horror for a modern audience. Aspects of that are undeniably true (this is a man partially responsible for reviving the “torture porn” subgenre of horror, after all), but there’s also an equally undeniable level of intent behind his filmmaking.
Hostelturns 15 this month, and while Roth already had somewhat of a buzz thanks to his 2002 indie hitCabin Fever, this is the movie that put him on the map and defined him as a director, for better or worse. To be clear, Roth loves gore, and he’s damn good at shooting it. But as much asHosteland its sequel are remembered for being intensely violent, sadistic films designed to shock audiences into being terrified, both films showcase his respect and enthusiasm for the genre and an impish habit of manipulating the tropes of said genre to subvert our expectations with some truly wild third act turns. Rothknowshorror, and he likes to play around with it.
Cabin FeverandHostelboth begin as cliched stories about a “nice guy” either trying to finally get together with his dream girl or get over a brutal breakup. InCabin Fever, Paul (Rider Strong) is pining over Karen (Jordan Ladd), long the object of his unrequited affection. Meanwhile, inHostel, Josh (Derek Richardson) is backpacking through Europe with his uber frat bro friend Paxton (Jay Hernandez) to try and forget the pain of his recent breakup. But after luring you in with identifiable college film tropes of the aw shucks decent kid begrudgingly going along with his hard-partying friends, Roth rips the rug out like bathroom surgery stitches and reveals he’s stolen your kidneys. (This analogy works, I swear.)
Paul isnota nice guy – he discovers that Karen has been infected with the flesh-eating virus by literally assaulting her while she’s in a feverish, barely conscious state. I won’t go into the finer details, suffice to say that the would-be date rapist doesn’t stop his assault until he realizes that he’s mistaken a gaping open wound on her upper thigh for something else. From that point on, we’re suddenly rooting for the crass, oafish Bert (James DeBello), who genuinely tries to save his remaining friends, and the bizarre townsfolk who posse up to put Paul down. When the movie ends with Paul getting dumped unceremoniously in a creek bed, we’re upset that his infected blood is leaking into the local reservoir, not with the fact that he’ll soon be an anonymous skeleton in the woods.
Hostel’s Josh, on the other hand, is indeed the sweet, heartbroken kid he appears to be. However, Roth flips the script halfway through by abruptly killing Josh and switching the film’s focus to stereotypical college dude Paxton, a character you fully expected to die early on who then becomes the movie’s heroic avatar of vengeance. Sadly, Paxton battles his way out of the titular hostel only to be immediately murdered in the opening minutes ofHostel Part II, an equally well-made movie that further demonstrates Roth’s love of subversion by bucking what would’ve been the obvious Hollywood format for aHostelsequel. Rather than simply focusing on a new group of impossibly attractive young people getting kidnapped by Eastern Bloc Torture Disneyland, it splits its focus to include two members of the “Elite Hunting” club who are gearing up for a weekend of co-ed mutilation.
WithHostel Part II, Roth plays less games with the three college student protagonists – shy, nerdy Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), party girl Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and obvious heroine Beth (Lucifer’sLauren German) all meet fates according to their respective horror stereotypes. However, the two hunters, aggressive alpha male Todd (Richard Burgi) and meek punching bag Stuart (Roger Bart) completely upend your expectations. Todd gleefully plans the “vacation,” outbidding several other millionaires for the privilege of torturing Beth and Whitney to death in an extremely well-done sequence. Todd literally enters his winning bid in between strokes on the golf course, emphasizing the cruelly detached way in which the fate of these women was decided like a transaction on eBay.
But after behaving like every dipshit meathead handed a six-figure job by his parents after college, knocking back shots and bragging about what he’s going to do with his helpless captive, Todd becomes utterly horrified after accidentally scalping Whitney with a buzzsaw and tries to flee the Elite Hunting club, only to be comically mauled to death by dogs. (I say “comically” because the dogs turn him into bony cherry pie filling, it’s absolutely wild.)
Stuart, exuding extreme “nice guy” energy that should’ve been a massive red flag for fans of Roth’s previous two films, is extremely reluctant about the whole “paying money to murder people” getaway that Todd has arranged for them, and even meets Beth beforehand in a charming casual encounter. Later, when Beth wakes up tied to a chair in an industrial tomb, Stuart reveals the entire “Elite Hunting” gig and frees her, only to do a Degeneration X heel turn and immediately knock her out. Yep, it turns out that Stuart is, in fact, a sadistic maniac; he dresses Beth up as his estranged wife, with the intended goal of murderously taking out his marriage frustrations on her.
Despite Stuart spending most of the film as a sympathetic character whom we hope will ultimately do the right thing and save the day, his third act descent is foreshadowed in his introductory scene – we see Stuart sitting at breakfast with his wife and family, who do not speak to him or even acknowledge him as they leave the table. A milk carton with a conspicuously displayed missing persons ad is parked in front of him like an albatross, both foreshadowing his participation in the abductions of the Elite Hunting club and emphasizing the fact that he is stuck in a life in which he feels unappreciated and emasculated. (Appropriately, Bethliterallyemasculates him at the end of the film.) Roth tips his hand early, but in a way that isn’t necessarily obvious until after a rewatch.
The Green Infernois more of a by-the-book love letter to Mondo horror films (specificallyCannibal Holocaust), but the subversion here is in the film’s giddily satirical and almost slapstick tone. For instance, one dude meets his end by just dopily walking into a propeller. Later on, the characters manage an escape attempt while the cannibals are catastrophically high after being tricked into eating weed. The cannibals eventually wake up with the literal munchies, tackle one of their captives, and eat him alive. In the film’s finale, the ecosystem-destroying loggers effectively become the heroes, rescuing our clueless activist heroine from the indigenous tribe she wanted to protect.The Green Infernodoesn’t play with horror tropes the way Roth’s previous films do – the heroine is clearly the heroine, the douchebag turns out to be a douchebag, the geek dies horribly – but it has fun with them. Similarly, 2018’sThe House with a Clock in Its Walls, Roth’s most successful film to date and his first not to receive an R rating, revels in the rules of the genre without breaking them. It’s probably the best children’s horror film sinceJoe Dante’sGremlins, and likeGremlins, there’s some genuinely horrific shit in this picture that will make kids ten years from now ask their parents why the hell they were allowed to watch it.
Now, I can’t sit here and praise Roth for the things he does well and not mention the stuff that he’s… less than great at. 2015’sKnock Knock, a remake of a sexploitation film from the 1970s about two women who randomly terrorize a family man for no discernable reason beyond being sexy psychopaths, is a bad movie. Like, very,verybad. The unbelievable premise paired with Roth’s notoriously clunky dialogue and an absolutely incomprehensible performance byKeanu Reeves(we all love Keanu, but the man has a limited and specific range) makes every “chilling” moment of the film hilarious. It ends with Keanu buried up to his neck in his backyard and screaming at an iPhone, and folks, that is deeply funny.
Roth scored another misfire with 2018’sDeath Wish, starringBruce Willisas a fantasy Bruce Willis has absolutely had. Willis plays Dr. Paul Kersey, who vows revenge on criminality after his family is brutally attacked in a home invasion. Reimagining Kersey as a doctor is a potentially interesting idea, as you could play with the juxtaposition of Kersey’s duty as a surgeon to save lives with his vigilante need to take lives. (In the original novel he’s a CPA, and in theCharles Bronsonadaptation he’s an architect.) Disappointingly, Roth really only explores this idea one time, in a split-screen montage of Kersey assembling his arsenal alongside Kersey performing surgery on a gunshot victim. It’s showing us the glorified fantasy of vigilante violence side-by-side with the devastating reality of gun violence. However, that’s the only time Roth attempts any kind of statement, and instead plows ahead with Kersey as a heroic figure dispensing fatal frontier justice to those who wronged him. This is not entirely Roth’s fault, however, as Hollywood has been completely missing the point ofDeath Wishsince the 1974 Bronson adaptation. (Death Wishthe novel is an indictment of the vigilante “one good guy with a gun” fantasy, and ends with Kersey essentially a deranged psychopath murdering people who commit minor property crimes.)
Roth’s next film is a big-budget adaptation of Gearbox Software’s gonzo black comic sci-fi shooterBorderlands, and as a fan of both Roth and the game, I have to admit I’m looking forward to this. First of all, it’s reuniting him with hisThe House with a Clock in Its WallsstarCate Blanchett, and I am beyond ready to see Blanchett blast her way through wasteland gangs in a chaotically irreverent version ofMad Max. Also, Roth is kind of a perfect choice forBorderlands, a hyper-violent video game that exists in the world of fantasy sci-fi but gleefully molds the genre into its own bloody sandbox. Furthermore, the script was written byChernobyl’sCraig Mazin, which is exciting both because of how dang goodChernobylwas, and because it means Roth will not be responsible for the dialogue.
