'Hostel' - Eli Roth Q&A

The writer-director discusses the inspiration behind his new horror hit 'Hostel'.

Mar 19 2006

Eli Roth burst onto the horror scene with his hugely successful debut feature 'Cabin Fever' in 2003. His sophomore effort is 'Hostel', the horrific tale of three party-loving travellers who get more than they bargained for during a backpacking trip around Europe. The TOMB visited the set last May, and we caught up with Roth to discuss horror, torture and dodgy '80s Slovak pop.

Where did 'Hostel' come from?

I had this idea about events that I had read about happening in Thailand, where really, really poor people were selling members of their family to organised crime, then American and European businessmen would pay $10,000 to walk in a room and shoot them in the head. I was going to make a documentary about it as it struck me as the scariest thing that I have ever heard or read about. So I started researching it and quickly realised that if I ever found any of the people that were actually involved it would be terrible. I couldn’t do it.

Where did you go from there?

Mike Fleiss, who produced 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' remake, decided to make a horror movie called 'Hostel' about youth hostels and that kind of world, but had no idea what the story should be – he just had the title. I started thinking about it, and sat down and wrote the sickest, most violent thing I could. Within weeks I had it done and was ready to go. I wrote it to be set in Eastern Europe with Eastern European actors and two American characters. I flew to Prague, interviewed production people, met with a really good team of co-producers and here we are.

How did Quentin Tarantino become involved?

Quentin has been really incredible – I'm really lucky to have someone like him who can give me advice on what to do, like how he made the transition from 'Reservoir Dogs' to 'Pulp Fiction'. He's really cool about helping young directors and he's been really, really supportive of me. I told him the different movies I was working on, like 'Bad Seed' and 'Scavenger Hunt', then I told him about 'Hostel' and he said: 'That's the fucking scariest, fucking sickest idea I've ever heard – you've got to do that – you've got to do that!' So I went away and wrote it, then I showed the script to Quentin and he said he had a couple of thoughts or ideas, so I went over to his house and he did a dialogue polish. We went out for lunch and he was making all these great suggestions, and he was like: 'You don't have to use any of this stuff'. And I was like 'Come on man, a rewrite from Quentin Tarantino? Wow'. He just wanted to help me out and help me to make the best film that I can.

It sounds like it all came together pretty quickly.

That was the coolest part – when we started getting into production it moved really fast. I don't think there's ever been a studio movie that from the idea was written produced, made and released all in the same twelve months. But I knew that I could shoot it in Eastern Europe with minimal preparation.

So you weren't tempted to make a big studio film after 'Cabin Fever'?

You don't want to disappoint people on your second film but most of all you don't want to disappoint yourself. There were a lot of studio movies – comedies and action movies – that were very difficult to turn down. 30, 40 million dollar budget films, but I couldn't do it. The thought of waking up every day to have to direct those movies – I couldn't stand that. I couldn't do it. If I'm going to sell-out, I'll do it on the 'Baywatch' movie – at least I'd get laid on that one!

Are you bracing yourself for criticism that you're just exploiting the subject matter?

Yes. Any time you make a horror movie and you have any kind of violence or sex in it, people come after you. To me it's a joke – we're not really killing anyone. It's all foam latex and make-up and food colouring. And yet you look at what the US government is doing in Iraq, killing people every day, and somehow that's socially acceptable. So I welcome it. I made this movie because I want people to think about what the fuck we're doing – where society is going in terms of exploitation and pornography. Everything in the movie is set up very carefully. Anyone who criticises this movie for exploitation, I'll find a hundred reasons to shut down their argument as to why it's there. It's no accident that these guys are American, that they are very sexist in their attitude towards women, and that the things that they feel about the girls in Eastern Europe is very much based on American fantasies and stereotypes. And everything comes back to bite them in the ass. They pay for it. People don't want to talk about the ugly side of America; people don't want to talk about the ugly side of culture and exploitation and what I'm doing is simply reflecting that - reflecting what I see going on in our culture.

How do you think America is going to react to 'Hostel'?

I think Americans are ready for a film like this. I think Americans are going to get tired of lame ass horror. I mean there's no accounting for taste - Americans might go 'why does everyone have a foreign accent?' or 'how come this isn't set in my hometown? I don't understand it.' But my feeling, and my belief, is that Americans will be so terrified by this movie that they will tell their friends not to see it, and that's the greatest compliment a horror movie can have. People will come out of this movie – they'll go to see it because of Jay Hernandez or 'Cabin Fever' – and they’ll come out so upset that they'll tell their friends that it was the most disturbing experience they've had at the movies. That it was so upsetting it gave them nightmares, so don't go see it. And that's what will make it. But hopefully people will think about it and talk about it because you want to make people stop and think. Or maybe they'll all hate it and think that it's sick. I'm sure people will say 'this is Eli getting his rocks off. He just wants to cut people up.' There's always going to be those people and there's nothing I can do about that.

But you do seem to like killing beautiful women in deeply unpleasant ways?

Yeah, but the guys get it really bad as well. Guys and girls – it's pretty equal in this film. I'm an equal opportunity torturer.

Are you cameoing in this film?

Not professionally. There might be a moment where you recognise a character when a couple of really obnoxious American assholes appear on screen, maybe for a second. But we'll see. I feel like I'm in it plenty. People are unaware – it's a very strange feeling – to write something so personal and watch people act it out because you feel such a deep connection with the people and you have such affinity for them. I understand why directors get weird attachments to their cast because they're acting out and living these things you have in your head. So things that I feel, things that I've said, things that I'm terrified of, my opinion on certain things, jokes that are funny to me – when the cast is acting them out that's where my personality is in the movie.

Is it tough filming some of the more graphic horror?

Filming the scene yesterday where Josh gets tortured, I was so upset because I'd made this actor Jan Vaslick do this to someone – he really felt bad and everyone was upset, everyone had nightmares. Filming the gore and splatter stuff is always a great time – everyone loves it and gets into it. But real torture stuff is just horrifying – it's horrible for the actors and it's horrible for the crew. But everyone believes very strongly in the project and the material.

Where do you see the film fitting into the current horror landscape?

The way I think it is, you want to be the one that sets the bar. The one that everyone imitates. I'm not saying I will but that's what you go for. You want to be the movie that all other horror directors go – 'I wish I'd made that.' and you want to be the one that re-writes the book. I'm basically trying to make a movie that's too scary for people to see; that's terrifying like 'The Exorcist' was. That's the goal. I don't know if I'll achieve it but you should at least go for it. But in the horror landscape I can tell you that there will not be another film that's as intense and sick as this one!

'Hostel' is released on Friday.

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