FEARSmag Checks in with director Eli Roth.

Saturday, 07 January 2006

BY Joseph B. Mauceri Full of adventure and fun, two American college buddies Paxton (HERNANDEZ) and Josh (RICHARDSON) backpack through Europe eager to make classically hazy travel memories with new friend Oli (GUDJONSSON), an Icelander they meet along the way. Paxton and Josh are eventually lured by a fellow traveler to whatís described as a sort land of milk and honey for American backpackers ñ a particular hostel in an out of the way Slovakian town stocked with Eastern European women as desperate as they are gorgeous. The two friends arrive and easily pair off with exotic beauties Natalya (NEDELJAKOVA) and Svetlana (KADERABKOVA). In fact, too easilyÖ Initially distracted by the good time theyíre being shown, the Americans quickly find themselves in an increasingly sinister situation that theyíll discover is as wide as the vast web of post-Communist government corruption and as deep as the darkest, sickest recess of human nature itself ñ if they survive. Taking a much more macabre tone than did Eli Rothís feature debut ìCabin Fever,î HOSTEL is an amalgamation of many of the most terrifying things about human nature and the world at large, culled from lots of pulpy-but-true stories of international organized crime, human trafficking, and sex tourism. Relentlessly graphic and deeply disturbing, the film is sure to delight hardcore genre fans. FEARSmag caught up with Roth as he just was returning home to the States prior to the filmís opening. FEARS: ìCabin Fever,î was a great title. HOSTEL, is a great title. What came first, the memory that surfaced of your backpacking exploits thought Europe or the title? Eli Roth: The title came first, in this case. After ìCabin Feverî I sat down for a meeting Mike Fleiss, who produced ìThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre.î Mike and his friend Chris Briggs were talking about doing a ìChainsawî sequel; they both liked ìCabin Fever,î and felt we should all figure out something to do. Chris had this idea about doing a horror movie set against the backpacking world. Iíd done backpacking and though it was a great idea. And then he mentioned something about a hostel, and I thought, ìOh my god, that is such a good title because of the double meaning of hostel.î When I asked what he was thinking he told me that he didnít really have an idea because they hadnít been able crack it. He didnít want it to seem like an evil hostel, he wanted it to be more about the environment and the different people. It was one of those ideas where you had this great title, but they were going to put it on the back burner for a bit. A year before, I had talked with Harry Knowles from ìAint It Cool News,î and he sent me a link to a website that advertised a trip where you could to Thailand and for $10,000 you could walk into a room and shoot someone in the head. Their whole spin was about if you wanted to experience what it was like to walk into a room a kill somebody. It was so disturbing, the thought that someone would actually do this, I originally wanted to make it as a documentary. Who would do this? The site claimed that the person you would kill was willingly signed up for it and part of the money would go to their family. It was really fucked up! I sat there and thought, ìIs this real? But it doesnít matter if itís real or fake, or if this place actually exists. What matters is that someone built a website about it.î Somebody actually thought that there is some businessman thatís so numb that strip clubs donít do it for them, drugs donít get them off anymore, and hookers mean nothing to them. They want that next level of stimulation. That I thought is real because Iíve met and know people like that. Then it hit me and I know what HOSTEL is! HOSTEL is a combination of these two things; itís a movie about exploitation. Iíve talked to a lot of guys who go to Vegas and Europe, and all they want to do is fuck European girls. Nothing is ever enough for them. Itís a fun to them or itís like this joke. Thatís why I purposely make Amsterdam look like a X-rated Disneyland. Everything is neon, bright, colorful, and the girls are essentially just a ride that these guys are paying to go on for half-an-hour. Theyíre not even looking at the girls like theyíre human beings. I purposely made the guys sexist in the beginning. Theyíre not as fun and likeable as you think, theyíre making fun of these hookers in the window. Eventually they end up as the hookers in the windows, someone is walking into a room and paying to do whatever they want to do to them. The slaughterhouse in the third act mirrors the brothel in the first act. FEARS: You get the script up to speed and you head to Europe to make HOSTEL. ìCabin Feverî was guerilla filmmaking, you, a script, and some special effects by KNB EFX Group. Where you prepared to tackle shooting this film in Europe? Is there a film machine in Europe? Eli Roth: The film industry in Prague is far more sophisticated than the film industry in North Carolina. FEARS: Isnít Prague the Porno capital of Europe? Eli Roth: Itís the capital of many things! There is a lot of porno that comes out of there, but I think thatís only a small amount of what people see of Prague. There are so many great studios and facilities there. I had the same crew that worked on ìDoom,î ìHellboy,î and ìBlade.î These guys are top and better than any U.S. crew I ever worked with, plus itís non-union. This whole movie was made with the same spirit as ìCabin Fever,î except now I actually made it with money instead of credit cards. We purposely kept our costs low because I wanted to make this movie extremely violent, with lots of nudity and sex, and no studios would let you get away with that if you were making it for fifteen to twenty million dollars. After ìCabin Fever,î I got sent almost every horror movie that got made to direct. I turned all of them down because I thought the scripts were just terrible. I told this idea for HOSTEL to Quentin Tarantino, and he was like, ìThis is the sickest idea Iíve ever heard. You have to write this, Eli. And make it low budget, for three-million, with your production company, Raw Nerve.î (Raw Nerve includes my partners Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel.) I drove home, unplugged my phone, shut down my e-mail, and started writing. I burned out the first draft in 2 ? weeks. I showed it to Boaz and Scott, and they loved it. I showed it to Quentin and he went crazy, he loved it. I spent my own money to go to Prague and met with producers to budget the movie, because Iím also a producer. So I budgeted, scheduled, interviewed crewmembers, went location scouting and found every location we shot, what I found was incredible and so much better than what I had in my mind. When I came back that January I did castings sessions in Iceland. At that point Screen Gems already wanted to pick it up for distribution. I told that I wanted to make it independently, and they offered us a better deal. I had poster boards of all the scenes and locations so I could show them where we were shooting, what the locations would look like, what the scenes would look likeÖ I had the whole thing figured out. I told them how much it would cost and that I would shoot it in 38 days. I had everything broken down, an all on my own dime. ìCabin Feverî made a lot on DVD, but not much of that went to me, it went to the distributor. But I still spent my own money on this. I was like, ìFuck it, I donít care.î I wanted to make this movie. I was possessed. The next thing I knew it was February and I was flying back to Prague and we started shooting in the middle of March. FEARS: An amazingly quick turn around time! Eli Roth: Most movies take 3 to 5 years to make. I wrote, raised the money, shot this movie, edited it, and marketed it all within a 12-month period. FEARS: Because you mentioned Screen Gems, and what point did they say they didnít want to be involved with them film and not distribute it? Eli Roth: Theyíre still involved, absolutely! What happened was that Screen Gems saw the dailies, and saw how unbelievably violent the film was. They were releasing movies like ìEmily Roseî and ìWhen a Strange Calls.î FEARS: PG-1 rated horror movies. Eli Roth: And Clint Culpepper, the head of Screen Gems, he loved the script and he is very smart. He knows that his bosses, the heads of Sony, are going to have a problem with a film this violent coming out under Sony. I had the great idea to bring in Lions Gate. They know how to sell ìSawî and ìSaw 2.î They get these movies. Where at Sony, even though he gets it, the studio heads might go, ìWhat the hell is this!î FEARS: Exactly, how can they go from a film like ìThe Mask of Zorroî to HOSTEL. Eli Roth: The other thing being that ìSaw 2î crushed ìZorroî opening weekend. They were like, ìWhy donít we make movies like this?î Dah, you did! Remember the one you all freaked out about. FEARS: Exactly! Eli Roth: Sony owns it for international; Lions Gate just has it for domestic. So theyíre still involved, itís just that in the United States Lions Gate is the front man of the operation. We brought the movie in on time and to the dime. Clint Culpepper saw the movie and loved the movie so much that I told him that what I would really love to do is a huge sound mix so it sounds really killer. I wanted to record with an orchestra so it sounds like a twenty million dollar movie. Lets get a 75-piece orchestra in Prague and do a full orchestral score. And he gave me another million dollars to put into the movie. FEARS: I know, itís amazing what you can get in Prague musically. I just worked on an independent film, ìHeadspace,î and Ryan Shore recorded the score there. Itís phenomenal what you get can for your money over there. Eli Roth: And in terms of crew! FEARS: So I came across this poster in the subway for HOSTEL that says, ìThe scariest American movie in a decade!î First of all, when I saw the film the first act reminded me a lot of ìAmerican Werewolf in London.î But, the overall fee of the film reminded me of Hitchcock, Mario Bava, and Lucio FulciÖ Eli Rothî Thank you so muchÖ FEARS: I was grooving on all of it! So when you look at the credits, other than yourself and the two leads, would you consider this an American movie? Eli Roth: I went out of my way to make it a truly international horror movie. Quentin says, ìI make movies for the planet earth, not just for America.î There is a reason why I wanted to shoot this movie in Europe. Iím one of the only American directors, working with a studio that hired a Czechoslovakia director of photography and a full Czech crew. I brought over KNB EFX and my production designer, but everyone else is Czech. This is the first film this d.p. has ever shot. He worked second unit on ìBrothers Grimm,î ìAlien vs. Predator,î and ìDoom,î heís one of the top operators but he never had his own starring gig. Quentin was like, ìGet a European d.p. American d.ps. are great, but a European will give you Poetry.î Heís right! He also told me to get European actors. One of the things is that weíre not faking Prague for America. Weíre faking Slovakia, so Prague is close enough. That was a great thing because I didnít want familiar faces. I wanted to find new actors. Barbara Nedeljakova, who plays Natalya, when she walked in she reminded me of a young Monica Bellucci or a Maria Snyder, one of these European goddess that is so natural and beautiful, and she can really act. She wasnít afraid to make herself vulnerable. She did the nudity and she made herself look disgusting, and it took a lot of makeup to make it look like she was drugged out. I wanted HOSTEL to look and feel like a European film. ìCabin Feverî was all about my love for the American horror films of the 70s and 80s. Then I started going to film festivals and seeing all these films like ìAuditionî and ìSympathy for Mr. Vengeance.î I wanted to make one of these films; I donít want to make an American movie. I want to make a movie feels international. Thatís why we have nine languages and no subtitles. This is a slow burn movie. I love ìAudition,î where you think this guy is so nice but than you get to see what a sexist he really is and how everything comes back to bite him in the ass. Thatís why Paxton, Josh, and Oli are such sexist pigs at the beginning in Amsterdam. Theyíre making fun of the hookers and they end up as hookers. That slaughterhouse is the mirror image of that weird brothel. Itís this hell that you have to end up in and the color slowly gets drained out of the movie. I was filming on European train stations, with that string score, doing tracking shots, and I love that stuff. I love that Hitchcock and De Palmer, but I wanted something that was that mixed with Takashi Miike, with a dash of ìLast American Virgin.î FEARS: Speaking of Takashi Miike, how did you get him to do a cameo in HOSTEL? Eli Roth: I asked him and he made himself available. I met him in L.A. when he was going press for his movie Gozu. He knew that I got made up as Kakihara for the ìCabin Feverî premier. He knew that I was also taking about his movies in my interviews. I just think that he thought it was cool that so freak American director was basically just talking about him in every interview. We met, heís such a sweet guy, and I asked him to do it and he said, ìEli, of course Iíll do it.î I was totally blown away. FEARS: So with HOSTEL down are you already looking at your next project? Eli Roth: Iím being offered a lot of projects, but my feeling is this, I want to travel around the world and see how this movie plays. I want to go to Europe, I want to go everywhere and watch this movie with audiences. Then I want to go to Iceland and ride my horse. I want to spend some time chilling out. I feel like I went crazy for a year, non-stop. Now itís time to see what happens with the movie and take a breath. If the movie tanks, you bet your ass Iíll be on the directing floor shooting another movie quickly to try and make up for it. If the movie does well, and I can afford to, Iíd really like to take a step back so I can plan my career. I need to recharge my batteries. Before I use to think that I had to keep moving, but eventually you burn out. I want to make movies, whether they fail or succeed at the box office that I care about. Right now Iím running out of gas and I need to rest up. FEARS: If HOSTEL does the numbers and they court the idea of a sequel would you be involved with a sequel? Eli Roth: While I was shooting I said that I wouldnít do a sequel to this. Then after is saw ìSAW 2î I thoughtÖ humÖ and itís not because it made a lot of money, but I had a lot of fun with watching ìSaw 2.î I just came off the best year of my life, and I had the bets time shooting in Prague, I love my crew, I love the storyline, why the hell not! Iím absolutely open to doing a sequel. BUTÖ Iíd have to do it my way. I think that since I got to do the first one my way that it should be a problem. LINK THIS ARTICLE

 

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