It is, it appears, an exciting time to be Eli Roth. A player on the Hollywood scene for over a decade, thanks to the runaway success of Cabin Fever, Roth was propelled to notoriety by the Hostel movies, and earned himself both commercial triumph and critical censure thanks to his seeming status as banner-waver for the so-called torture-porn subgenre that boomed in the Noughties. Going into a new decade, the torture-porn phenomenon still seems to be going strong, as various film-makers continue to try and shock jaded audiences with ever more creatively-extreme shenanigans. Roth, however, seems set on diversifying his gruesome portfolio, with a spooky exorcism thriller sequel, a cannibal exploitation movie, and a horror TV show; hes even got an evil clown movie on the horizon. Having attached his name to the well-received The Last Exorcism, it looks like Roth is set upon emphasising that he doesnt need copious gore to hold an audiences attention, with the sequel just hitting cinema screens. However, he still has plenty of time for blood, both producing and acting in violent disaster flick Aftershock, and returning to directing with cannibal movie The Green Inferno, a title that pays homage to the exploitation terrors of yesteryear. The man has every reason to be buoyant; when he wears a sharp suit to an interview, its doubtless a statement of intent. First, our interview with Eli Roth and tomorrow we'll publish our catch-up with Nicolas Lopez and Lorenza Izzo.
Eli Roth: Hi there!
(Chorus of hellos)
ER: Annndgo.
Q1: Um, OK Ill startso whats happened to Nell since the events of the last film?
ER: Well, a lot has happened to Nell. The movie actually picks up right on the same night as the first one, and then kinda where Nell is found, and we make the switch from the found footage docu-style into narrative, so it right away starts narrative, with the shot of the camcorder on the ground. Um, and then it cuts toNell has absolutely, shes found and she has absolutely no memory of what happened, she has no idea what happened to her. Then it cuts to sixth months later and she is brought to, kind of a halfway home for girls, or a few weeks later where shes brought to a home for girls, for troubled girls, and she basically knows that, someone perpetrated a fraud on her, this reverend was there, making this documentary, and all she knows is it went very wrong, and her family was killed in a fire. So, slowly, you realise that what happens is the video, the film of the first one exists in the world of the second one as this viral video which the other girls in the house discover and of course theyre none too pleased to have her as a housemate
(Chorus of chuckles)
ER: Shes possessed, and shes trying to move on with her life and integrate and convince herself that this was all, yknow just some terrible thing that happened to her, but slowly the reality of what it is, it starts to seep into all aspects of her life and ruin it.
Q2: So what made you decide to do away with the found footage aspect?
ER: Well, we thought a lot about it, I mean one of the nice things about doing a movie low-budget was that we could be experimental, and as soon as the movie, opening weekend was the number one film everyone started asking, OK lets do a sequel, lets do a sequel. Um, and we thoughtwe were certainly open to it but we didnt wanna rush, and just not, just churn out a sequel, we were gonna take our time and figure it and find the story, and we kept thinking in the docu-format, it was always another documentary crew going there to eyewitness, to find out what happened, and none of us really wanted to see a movie about that. And we were all, we love Ashley Bell, we love that character of Nell and shes such an amazing actress, with such incredible range, we thought, we reallyand all the scenes of her in the mirror, contorting her face, we were like the freaking Exorcist shit thats the stuff I love, thats what I wanna see! So, what if we abandoned it, and we thought Well how can we do that and then there was the breakthrough of like, I thought OK lets, what if the first film exists as this viral video that she doesnt even know exists until she discovers it, and that was great because then you could have people going, Hey youre that chick from the thing, do the thing with your fingers, do the bending! which is, shes basically yknow, the other characters in the movie are in the position of the audience, um, but the first film was very much about, whether or not, is this really a psychological drama about a girl who might be possessed or might be crazy from some sort of trauma that shes experienced, and now that weve answered that question we could really have fun with it, with the possession.
Q3: So, going onto the more, sort of behind-the-camera details, you obviously produced this, and the original film, how is that different to, what sort of different stance do you take as director, obviously youre an established horror director, do you take much of a different stance to producer, are you hands-off or is it still very much your film?
ER: No, I definitely want it to be Ed Gass-Donnellys film. Yknow, if I wanted it to be my film Id direct it, and I want the directors to know that, yknow like with Daniel Im very involved in the script development and Im watching all the dailies as theyre coming in and making notes and then Ill look at the cuts and then if I think there needs to be more work then Ill really get in there in the editing room. But yknow like with Ed, I really wanted him to take ownership, I wanted someone to be really, really excited to do the movie, and I wasnt going to direct it but I wanted it to be a good movie so we wanted to find a filmmaker out there, that really, really wanted to prove themselves and sink their teeth into it and make a great film, and whereas Daniel s favourite filmmaker is Lars Von Trier, you can see The Idiots and all those films, thats what he was going for with the first film, Ed Gass-Donnelly loves Roman Polanski and would obsessively watch Rosemarys Baby and The Shining and say This is the tone, this is the mood, this is the kind of camerawork I want, this is the framing, this is the pace, and I just thought that was great and I fully supported him, so while he was shooting the film, I wasnt, I didnt even, I wasntit was kind of an intimate set, like the first one I didnt go on set, because I dont want him to feel like Im directing over his shoulder or that I dont trust him and I dont want the actors to feel like theres two directors. I just produced Ti Wests new movie The Sacrament, and it was the same deal, and this other film Clown that I produced where I trust these guys so much and Im very much there in the prep and overseeing the casting and the locations and how theyre gonna do it, when it comes down to actually making the film Im pretty hands-off because otherwise people feel like theres two directors on set.
Q4: Did you have any history with Ed beforehand, how did he get involved in the project?
ER: We saw his movie, yknow we were just searching for films, and we saw this film Small Town Murder Songs and we thought it was really really well done and the acting was really good and I knew he did it for no money, and thats what I was looking for, someone who could be smart and clever on a low-budget, and we dont need someone thats gonna need to spend a lot of money cos its not that type of story, its not that type of film, and he really reallyhe comes from a theatre background, hes very very performance-based and photography-based and he really really knew how to make it look good how to make it lookhe has very high standards for everything, he didnt want anything to look cheap or weak, he wasnt like Eh, thats gonna beI wanted someone who was gonna be obsessive about every detail and every shot, whos really proving their talent with the film and thats what he did.
Q5: Does Part 2 continue like the slow build-up of the scares, rather than jumping in and doing big, set-piece type
ER: Well, we like that pace. I mean, we didnt want it, I dont think you can switch gears, but I also think the first one, that first thirty minutes are so funny, until she shows up the motel and youre like Oh my God what is this? and we knew we couldnt do that again either, so you wanted, I think the first, one of the things Ed did really well was that the first twenty, twenty-five minutes are very creepy and effective and fun, so this one pretty much, if the last ended at that point thats where we wanted to start the second one and the tone of it scary and dark.
Q6: Did you purposefully avoid any clichés so it wasnt compared to any other possession films?
ER: Yknow we had a big discussion about that, because Ed wanted levitation and I was very against it, and hes like No no no, hes like dont worry, I know they levitate in the Exorcist and I know but he had a really good idea and specific reason to do it and where to go, and how to do it, and I was like OK. If he cares, hes got something in his head, that hes 1000% certain is gonna work, and if I dontI just have to trust him, and if it doesnt work we can always cut it. But he did it and it was amazing. And it worked so well in the story, that youd think yeah, yknow what, The Exorcist was forty years ago its not really a cliché, I mean its kind of a cliché from that movie, but at that point youre not even conscious of it in the way he uses it and the way he did it, in the context of the story, and it works great.
Q7 (Me): Do you see this turning into a franchise, or are you gonna wrap it up with this one?
ER: Yknow, I didnt see the first one turning into a sequel and it really, truthfully we were only focussed on this one, were not thinking about a Part 3, and I think its again the kind of thing where, Im in a position now where I can make a lot of different films, and Im only gonna make itI wouldnt do a three just to have a third one exist, wed really only do it if we had a story that we felt was worth telling.
Might need a new title as well, Last Exorcism 3 (Chuckles)
ER: We were gonna call this one Last Exorcism Part 4 but it just seemed silly so we went for Part 2, The Lastest Exorcism.
(Some chuckles) The Lasting Exorcism
I actually wanted, I remember the day after it opened I was like I got a great title, were gonna call the second one The Devil Inside! (Laughter) And everyone was like, On thats a good title, whats the story? And I was like I dunno let me think about it, let me get back tooops alright that titles gone.
Q8: Can we expect more of the same, you mentioned, its weird, interestingly enough you brought up the finger-breaking scene, can we expect more Eli Roth trademark nastiness I think is the best way to describe it
ER: WellI mean it wouldnt be a film with my name on it without that, soI mean the nice thing about these movies is that theyre a different type, its sort of tonally a bit of a shift, I mean youre not seeing people beingsadly not seeing people being hacked apart with power tools as much as I love that it doesnt fit every story, but yeah those freaky, creepy disturbing scenes for sure.
Q9: We also overheard some talk about Aftershock
ER: Yeah
Q9: Hows that going?
ER: Aftershocks amazing, no no its been an incredible year, I had the best time collaborating with Nicolas Lopez. The whole story came about when he, weI love his movie Promedio Rojo, its so funny, all his films are on Netflix, theyre hilarious, and Que Pena Tu Vida, Que Pena Tu Boda, and I was thinking when are you gonnacos I know he loves genre movies and Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino and James Cameron, I was like When are you doing an English-language movie? And I thought, now after Last Exorcism I was in a position to help him cross over, and we sat down and we wrote, we thought Lets write a science fiction movie and he started telling me about what happened in the earthquake in 2010 and it was terrifying, I mean he didnt have to make up anything, its all stuff that really happened, our friend, actually Lorenza Izzo, our actress isum, the earthquake hit at 3.30 in the morning on the last weekend of summer, so everyone was out partying in the bars, everyone was drunk, a friend of hers the bar fell and chopped his hands off, and everyone was looking for the hands but the building was shaking, so people were like running and trampling and kicking the hands and they got the hands, they tied them off, they took them out and like, Lorenza walked through a plate glass window and she was cut up and there was noall the phones were out so nobody knew where to go cos they didnt have like, Google Maps on their phones and they started, and then they, you couldnt call the fire, you couldnt call the police, and then the tsunami sirens went off so everyone started freaking out, and went running up into the hills cos of the tsunami warning, and, then they realised the prisons had collapsed, and all the, every criminal was out. Prisons were levelled, so people were just smashing and looting, people were like in shock cos it was suddenly helicopters and martial law, and there was one town where they called off the tsunami warning because people were panicking so much and going crazy, and then Japan called and were like No, it doesnt look like its gonna hit. And then two hours later (snaps fingers) the tsunami just like outta nowhere took out two thousand people. So, we just strung all these incidents together and all these things that happened. We loved the idea thatit would terrify me is the idea that here we are, were all round this table and everythings fine and the next thing you know youre looking for your hands! And a friend of Nicolas, he told me this story about this girl who was out on a date, a first date with a guy, and the rocks fell and hit him on the head, and he was paralyzed, and like from the neck down. And she was sitting there, and she had to move him in the back seat and drive stick, down the road with the boulders likethis was what everybody was going through. Its horrific! And we realised there hadnt really been an earthquake movie since Earthquake, and anything that had been done recently had been done with CG, so we wanted to do something old-school, do it practical, and really break shit and drop things. Terrifying!
Q10: So is it tonally very different to your other work then, is it more serious in tone?
ER: Yeah I mean its certainly a mixture of Nicolas sensibilities and my own sensibilities, the rom-com beginning where Immy character, we wrote a guy whose pretty much the opposite of the Bear Jew, hes not heroic, hes a guy whose recently divorced, whose trying to go and re-integrate, go out and meeting girls and realizing he cant talk to any of them, hes obviously got no idea what to say, total dork, totally striking out, and then they meet these girls and theyre having fun and everythings going great and then this earthquake hits, and suddenly, youre with these people that were these strangers; you guys are depending on each other for your survival.
Q11: How important was it that you filmed actually on location instead of using sets?
ER: Well, we had to film on location, because, first of all, the budget but we, there were a lot of, we scouted and there so many places still destroyed from the earthquake, these cemeteries the tombs were broken open, you walk around the cemeteries theres bones sticking out of the cracks. So, we shot a scene in the Santiago General Cemetery where Im on the ground and Im looking around and its like Wow, the set dressings great with all these skulls! and hes like Yeah, set dressing!
(General chuckles)
So it was really, it was incredible to be there, and even in the club that we filmed, where we dropped the ceiling and smashed it and crushed my speakers [?] they showed Nicolas the security footage and he based it on that. People were killed in the club that night and he saw it, its crazy, even if you go on video, on Youtube, look at the videos of the Chilean earthquake, its horrific So, filming on location, certainly Valparaizo its one of the coolest, Valparaizos one of the graffiti capitals of the world, graffiti artists from all over the world go to Valparaizo to spraypaint. Its amazing, the whole cities like a walking mural, so filming there was awesome.
Q12: Had you always intended on acting in that film when you were writing it?
ER: No, we wrote it, and it just so happened on my schedule that, I wanted to be there, and we thought as a producer oh we could save money if we got (trails off into mumbling, people laugh) save on an extra plane ticket
Q13: I mean, how do you balance that acting, directing and producing, cos you havent really directed since 2007, like a full feature
ER: I just wrapped The Green Inferno
Q13: Oh yeah well obviously, released yet since 2007.
ER: Yeah. Right. Yeah, It was um, well the nice thing was that I trust Nicolas, and it was his film, so I could be there as a creative producer and as an actor and talk about different stuff, and in the editing room, but it was nice to be able to focus on the acting and not actually direct, I mean it sucked at the end when youre a character, I mean, every night I was covered head to toe in fake blood, and sweat and dust. We call it MTV Dust Party, we go in a tent it was like, get blasted head to toe with baby powder, and were all coughing and its all in our eyelashes, disgusting, but it looked so good. But it was nice to get back to directing and that was on Hemlock Grove, directing the pilot, even though it was television it was more like a feature, and Steven Poster who shot Donnie Darko shot the pilot with me which was really cool, David Cronenburgs editor, Ron Sanders cut it with me, it was like fun, it was a really fun time. And then I went off to do Green Inferno which was an incredible experience and I used the whole crew from Aftershock, everybody. And Lorenza Izzo from Aftershock is the girl who gets killed in Hemlock Grove. She was so great in the movie, beautiful big expressive eyes, and just, we needed a girl that would get eaten by a werewolf in the first episode and really make you remember, that you dont wanna see get eaten and killed, that was her. And then I cast her, I wrote the Green Inferno for her, I cast her as the lead, she was unbelievable, she was like Naomi Watts in The Ring, shes amazing. So Im editing now, IveNicolas has been a great, great creative collaborator and partner, its been a lot of fun, and he certainly gets me off my ass. (Some chuckles) Come on, you lazy American! Lets go, another movie, another movie
Q14: What can we expect from The Green Inferno?
ER: The Green Inferno was a crazy experience, I mean I wanted to write, I wanted my return to directing to be a real statement, I wanted it to be worth the wait, and I wanted to do something that would be a film, that I would think would be the film that Id be remembered for, that would obliterate the others. So, we went, I found these locations in the Amazon that were unbelievable, I went farther up the river than anyone had ever gone before to shoot, and we went past where Werner Herzog shot Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
Quite cool in itself
ER: Yeah it was awesome, it was the Pongo Aguirre and we went up, we were like Werners there right, were goingand we found the last village on the river, before like absolutely, we went for hours, and it was just like jungle and jungle, and on the way back we were like, OK this is the last village, and I saw grass huts and we pulled up and it was like a little girl, washing clothes on the beach, and we were like, Can we shoot here, can we get out? and like they kinda came out of the houses and we were like, they were like, well basically (whispers) We have to explain to them what a movie is, they have no idea, theyve never seen a movie, and I was like OK and then they were like, Theyve never seen a television, conceptually they wont even know what were talking about, were going to have to slowly educate them on a movie. And so we went, and we looked around the village, and it was like the real deal, it really looked like, straight out of another time like out of one of those cannibal movies, but its also beautiful like a Werner Herzog movie, Terrence Malick film or even Apocalypto, and so we went full National Geographic with these natives, and we brought a generator and a television and we showed them Cannibal Holocaust! I thought the producers were going to show them E.T. or Wizard Of Oz, they were like Yeah we showed them Cannibal Holocaust WHAT!
(General chuckling)
ER: So I had pictures of like, they were like five-year-olds sitting here, watching Cannibal Holocaust, theyve never seen a movie before
Someone else: Thats their first movie (Laughs)
ER: Thats their first, thats their only frame of reference for what a movie is, so, and they all signed up to play cannibals, the whole village, we had dressed up
(Laughter)
ER: It was amazing, we wereto get there was like five hours travel every day, youd have to drive an hour on a dirt road, past the, to the boat, up the river, up the Amazon, I mean we were, it wasand then we brought ice, we brought coolers of Gator and ice, and the kids had never seen ice, they were like (awed whisper) Woooooooooah! It was mind-blowing to be in a village of people that were like, and the old people were liketheyd never left the village, so theyd never seen it before it was like, it was a trip.
Q15: Did you introduce them to Coca Cola?
ER: They went crazy for Coca Cola. (Laughter) We actually had to hide our soda, because they went so crazy for Coca Cola, and the kids wanted ice cream, but by the end, with the fake heads, the kids were all like, playing around with them, it was, it was amazing. (Laughter) The weirdest, the craziest thing was at the end, they all knew how to use the iPads and iPhones. (Laughter) They would all take our phones and shoot pictures and shoot videos, we totally tampered with the social ecosystem of this village, but we put, we housed, we roofed all the houses, we put metal on all the houses. They all live in straw huts, and they were like What do you want? We could pay you money but they have no way to go into town and spend it, so we were like just, we put metal on everyones house in the whole village, and they were like, Thats gonna change our lives. It was crazy.
(Indistinguishable)like fun.
ER: Yeah it was great.
Q16: Are the kids in The Green Inferno like you had in Hostel? They were a group ofyeah.
ER: Yeah there was. They were amazing. But whereas in Hostel we got it down to like, whereas Hostel like five was the youngest, we could have like two and three year old kids. It was amazing, the kids were so funny. And what I realised, that then you havefirst kids are great in movies because kids make it authentic, like we have kids (mumbles), and in this village with pigs and chickens and bulls, we had a bull like (makes animal noise), like stomping through the shot, its like Sorry! Shitting on setThe kids were so, the kids were so damn funny, and because they had never seen a camera before, none of them were self-conscious at all, whether you were filming or not or anything, they would just do it again, these extras with like 110 degree heat in the sun, never asked to go to the bathroom, they would do it again, you just have them like eating guts and fingers
(Laughter)
ER: So happy tothey were awesome. I miss those kids. But by the end like, we were there a month so by the end I knew everyone in the village, I was on a first-name basis with all of them, and everyone was crying when we left, (chuckles) really sad.
Q17: Would you go back and visit?
ER: IOh yeah. Of course. Gonna have to do a premiere there.
(Laughter) The Last Exorcism: Part II is in UK cinemas now.