Eli Roth is Despicable- Page 2

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:43pm

I worded the sentence wrong. I meant to say they eventually got tired of public killing in general...it didn't end with the colliseum.

But getting enjoyment out of watching someone tortured, dismembered or killed is just sick. Defend it until you turn blue in the face. Fiction or not, if you enjoy watching it...there's something wrong there.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:44pm

Gore was also celebrated in the Grand Guignol style of theatre. Humans have ALWAYS been attracted to the bloody. Just look at the rubberneckers at car crash sites.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:47pm

From an LA Times interview of Roth: "I had been looking for stuff you could do to girls that would be awful but not so horrifying that you felt like you couldn't watch it or you felt like you had been kicked in the stomach. I want people to be scared and walk away upset, but I don't want them to feel like they need to take a shower."

Umm... That first sentence is truly, truly upsetting to me. The fact that he specifies "girls" and not "people" makes me very uneasy.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:47pm

Well thank you for informing me that I have something wrong with me.
I wonder what qualifications you have to make such a bold statement.
And are you aware that many film critics also find much to praise films such as this? There are several books written on the subject. A cursory stroll through B&N or Amazon will yield some very surprising results.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:51pm

I always go back and forth on this issue.

Some days I think, it's not my cup of tea, but if others enjoy watching the (fictional) mutilation of another human being, well, so be it.

But some days I really think there is something scary about the detachment and desensitized state someone must be in to enjoy that sort of thing, much less make films like this.

ETA: Roger Bart is in Hostel: Part II?? Random.

Updated On: 6/4/07 at 04:51 PM

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:52pm

But some days I really think there is something scary about the detachment and desensitized state someone must be in to enjoy that sort of thing, much less make films like this.

Couldn't agree more.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 4:58pm

The thing is, as I've said before, I really like gorey movies. For instance, I own copies of The Descent and 28 Days Later and I'm always putting "gross" stuff on my Netflix queue. But Hostel didn't seem to have any respect for humanity and that's what really upset me and why I have such distaste for it.

I didn't get to know any of the characters in it (except that they were all really horny) and therefore didn't get to care for them. Basically, the whole movie was just a setup to watch anonymous people be hurt. I winced in pain when, for instance, the drill was being poked into the first guy, but I didn't really FEEL for him and so there was a distance between me as the viewer and the characters.

It left me feeling unclean, like I had just been peeping into a window, watching an anonymous couple have sex.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:01pm

I can stand violence in a film depending how it is used. I went through my phase of gore-fascination just like any other Junior High kid (I was addicted to Fangoria in the early 80s). I still enjoy a thrilling slasher flick from time to time. But there is a fine line between camp gothic horror and relentless sadistic torture. When the film's primary purpose is to glorify realistic sadistic torture as the core of the film, it personally crosses the line for me. Even when it is not so much the graphic violence, but the extended fixation on human suffering as a form of non-educational entertainment, I cannot watch it and have little-to-no respect for it.

I would have made a terrible Roman.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:03pm

I want to see Hostel so I could have a more informed opinion.

But I won't do that to myself.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:14pm

Priest-- That's how I felt when I asked a coworker to lend me a copy of an Ann Coulter book. I couldn't even make it halfway through. It's certainly a noble idea, but damn! There are some things I just don't want in my head.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:19pm

Roth's a hack. I really really really disagree with his notion of what horror is. Plus, his films are visually ugly and unpleasant to look at.

THANKSGIVING was decent but that was a two-minute short trailer and probably the weakest of all of them.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:23pm

The Thanksgiving trailer was fantastic, in my opinion, but I doubt he could keep up that level of awesome for 90 minutes.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:28pm

I still haven't seen Hostel but I hated Cabin Fever. I hear Hostel is even worse.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:31pm

Eh, don't waste your time, sweetness. Go rent something from 1992 and call it good.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:38pm

Also, the lead male of Hostel was quite likely gay, wrestling with his sexuality the first half of the film. Then as soon as he got some hot p****, he was A-OK. Now MAYBE that wasn't Roth's intention, but it's how the film reads. I know Tarantino is not a homophobe, so I'm curious how he would explain the matter given that he presented the film.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:44pm

Roth succeeds because people go to his movies

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:47pm

also, the lead male of hostel was quite likely gay, wrestling with his sexuality the first half of the film.

huh? am i that oblivious to the nefarious gay agenda that i failed to notice this?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:49pm

Horror films have been extremely awful lately but there was one time during the past two months when I was absolutely genuinely scared in a movie. It came during David Lynch's masterpiece INLAND EMPIRE...

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

When Laura Dern is shooting at the phantom at the end of the film, she sees...for a brief...horrifying flash...a grotesquely distorted vision of her own face glaring out at the camera. *Chills*

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 5:52pm

Roth's worst offense is that he is a talentless hack. He knows nothing about creating tension, pacing, character development, and his screeplays are embarassing. Cabin Fever had it's moments but was ruined by the uneven tone. There was nothing inspired about Hostel. I'm upset he got hired to direct Cell...because I'm sure he's going to ruin it.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 6:02pm

Papa, in the bar scene, the older man makes great allusions to his being gay and to recognizing that the guy is, too. Do they say it? No. But, it's pretty clear what they are getting at. And the movie toys with that being the guy's problem. This all following all the "fag" stuff. At first, I thought the film was trying to sneak in a pro gay subtext. But, like I said, the guy got some hot p**n and was fine. Problem solved. It was very offensive and the folks watching the film with me called the film on it before I did.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 6:40pm

I thought Hostel was a piece of garbage, yet I really enjoyed Cabin Fever a lot. I thought it was more well-written than the other and actually a very decent horror movie.

[romantico]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 7:06pm

Is it me or does he look like Sylar from heroes?

Eli Roth :



Sylar :

Updated On: 6/4/07 at 07:06 PM

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 7:17pm

Roth was hired to direct Cell??? Crap. Another Stephen King story down the toilet.

*sigh*

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 7:23pm

I know. And he's already said in interviews he can't wait to show world wide carnage when the pulse goes off. Part of what made the book scary is that you had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world...it told the story through the characters eyes. But of course, Roth is just interested in showing as much gore as possible, because that's all he knows how to do.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 7:38pm

Looks likes Roger Bart gets his thing chopped off in number II.

Glad I get to see it for free. I love free movies.