eli roth
Born April 18, 1972 in Newton, Massachusetts
By the time Eli Roth was eight years old he was already shooting movies on his Super 8 and continued to make short films in film school at NYU where he won a student Academy Award. Never losing sight of film, Roth continued to work in the film industry and gained experience wherever he could. He co-wrote Cabin Fever in 1995 but had to wait until 2002 until its release. The film went on to be Lion's Gate's most profitable film that year. The story follows a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. The film put Roth on many major horror directors' radars and captured the grit and horror of 1980s slasher films. However, his divisive film Hostel (2005) is credited for starting a new trend in horror known as torture porn. Although many critics found the torture scenes in Hostel too brutal to bear, the film went on to gross $80 million at the box office worldwide. Roth has stated that his violent imagery in Hotel: Part II was inspired by the photographs of Abu Ghraib and that the film's social commentary is about American arrogance and their ignorance about the rest of the world. Steffen Hantke writes, "While Hostel was enthusiastically self-promoted by Roth as a gruesome allegory of human rights abuses perpetrated by Americans in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, any hint of political critique is soon undermined by the rabid xenophobia and casual misogyny that characterizes both films. [...] both Hostel movies dubiously cautionary tales that insistently warn domestic audiences of the apparently regressive dangers of the Old World" (Hantke, 79). Roth has become the token director to be associated with selfish and immature youthful masculinity, the lack of spirituality and the lack of social commentary or contemplative horror. His style has been described mostly as purely visceral, hyper-visual gore, with no room for any reflexivity or contemplative thought. Of course, one may note that many classical horror film directors were once described in the same way, albeit not by other horror film enthusiasts, but whether or not Roth's films stand the test of time remains to be seen. (Interestingly, it appears that Roth is rebranding himself as a more sensitive person with his endorsement for PETA. See the shocking video below.)
Follow Eli Roth on Twitter @eliroth
Hantke, Stephen. American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Century. University of Mississippi Press: 2010, pp. 79, 88, 156
Konow, David. Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred Year History of Classic Horror Films. St. Martin's Press: New York, 2012, p. 532, 533.
Sarracino, Carmine and Kevin M. Scott. The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What it Means, and Where We Go From Here. Beacon Press: Boston,2008, p. 162, 163
By the time Eli Roth was eight years old he was already shooting movies on his Super 8 and continued to make short films in film school at NYU where he won a student Academy Award. Never losing sight of film, Roth continued to work in the film industry and gained experience wherever he could. He co-wrote Cabin Fever in 1995 but had to wait until 2002 until its release. The film went on to be Lion's Gate's most profitable film that year. The story follows a group of college graduates who rent a cabin in the woods and begin to fall victim to a flesh-eating virus. The film put Roth on many major horror directors' radars and captured the grit and horror of 1980s slasher films. However, his divisive film Hostel (2005) is credited for starting a new trend in horror known as torture porn. Although many critics found the torture scenes in Hostel too brutal to bear, the film went on to gross $80 million at the box office worldwide. Roth has stated that his violent imagery in Hotel: Part II was inspired by the photographs of Abu Ghraib and that the film's social commentary is about American arrogance and their ignorance about the rest of the world. Steffen Hantke writes, "While Hostel was enthusiastically self-promoted by Roth as a gruesome allegory of human rights abuses perpetrated by Americans in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, any hint of political critique is soon undermined by the rabid xenophobia and casual misogyny that characterizes both films. [...] both Hostel movies dubiously cautionary tales that insistently warn domestic audiences of the apparently regressive dangers of the Old World" (Hantke, 79). Roth has become the token director to be associated with selfish and immature youthful masculinity, the lack of spirituality and the lack of social commentary or contemplative horror. His style has been described mostly as purely visceral, hyper-visual gore, with no room for any reflexivity or contemplative thought. Of course, one may note that many classical horror film directors were once described in the same way, albeit not by other horror film enthusiasts, but whether or not Roth's films stand the test of time remains to be seen. (Interestingly, it appears that Roth is rebranding himself as a more sensitive person with his endorsement for PETA. See the shocking video below.)
Follow Eli Roth on Twitter @eliroth
Hantke, Stephen. American Horror Film: The Genre at the Turn of the Century. University of Mississippi Press: 2010, pp. 79, 88, 156
Konow, David. Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred Year History of Classic Horror Films. St. Martin's Press: New York, 2012, p. 532, 533.
Sarracino, Carmine and Kevin M. Scott. The Porning of America: The Rise of Porn Culture, What it Means, and Where We Go From Here. Beacon Press: Boston,2008, p. 162, 163