Eli Roth Fans

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:21:43 GMT

Eli Roth and RZA Teaming for The Man with the Iron Fist
July 4, 2008 | Alex Billington

An interesting tidbit of news was unearthed today surrounding Wu-Tang Clan's The RZA and Eli Roth over on SlashFilm. In an interview on Billboard, The RZA said that he has "developed a martial arts film with Hollywood pal Eli Roth called The Man with the Iron Fist." He also mentions that the project has "the blessing" of his teacher Quentin Tarantino. Roth is an outspoken fan of chopsocky and The RZA worked closely with Tarantino on the Kill Bill soundtracks as well as provided the score for the "Afro Samurai" anime series, so we know this is somewhat of a passion project for both of them. As for what exactly it might involve, who knows? Either way, the prospect of Roth, RZA, and Tarantino working together to create a martial arts film sounds incredibly awesome no matter how you look at it!

I'm amazed that this hasn't really been mentioned, but it sounds like a project in the very early development stages. Although RZA didn't reveal very much, I'm certainly interested just for the badass factor. Ever since Tarantino and Rodriguez opened my eyes with Grindhouse, I've become a fan of all sorts of grindhouse fare, from chopsocky to motorcycle flicks like Hell Ride to old school exploitation films. And The Man with the Iron Fist definitely sounds like something in that same vein - so bring it on! The RZA also recently partnered with Hans Zimmer for the Babylon A.D. score - another awesome collaboration. We'll start some further investigation into this project further and update it once we hear anything from Roth, RZA, or Tarantino.

Source!

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:04:43 GMT

There has been word of a Hostel 3. All I can say is OH GOD NO.

Thankfully, Eli is apparently not writing or directing this one. This is good because Hostel 3 is a horrible idea. HORRIBLE.

New blog.

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:19:43 GMT

Celebrating Friday the 13th

I love how Friday the 13th has been appropriated into an offshoot of Halloween. Granted right now the only thing we do to celebrate is watch horror movies, but maybe one day every time the calendar hits Friday the 13th people will dress like whores, get plastered, and parade the streets making out with anyone who gets within three feet of them. Actually, Prague is kind of like that. I do miss it.

There are two horror films opening this weekend, "The Happening," and if you live in Los Angeles, the Troma extravaganza "Poultrygeist." My friend Gabe Friedman had dreamed of this movies years ago when he was working at a chicken cafe on Martha's Vineyard with my brother Gabe. It was all he talked about, how he wanted to make Poultrygeist. And then Gabe (Friedman, not my brother) got the job as the editor at Troma in New York, and after something like six or seven years there he convinced Lloyd Kaufman to make it. I have seen clips from it, and it looks amazing. This is true, raw, totally un-PC independent exploitation cinema at its finest. To see a Troma movie in the theaters is a rare thing nowadays. Most of the independent cinemas are gone, and their films are too insane for mainstream audiences, so if you are in Los Angeles it's playing at the Laemmle's Sunset 5, and Lloyd Kaufman will be there tonight at 7:00 for the showing. The shows in New York and Minnesota sold out, so get tickets on line, and if you're in Los Angeles I will probably see you there. And yes, I am going to see "The Happening." I like M. Night, I like his films (I didn't see the Lady Water mermaid film...) and I hope it's gruesome and violent. I've been on lockdown writing, so I haven't seen "The Strangers," "Indiana Jones," or even "Sex and the City" if you can believe that (I know, fucking crazy, right?), but I will put "Poultrygeist" ahead of all of them. Gotta support the indies!

A lot has gone on since I last wrote... there was an earthquake in Iceland - right at the farm where I keep my horse in Selfoss. Everyone was fine, things just got knocked off the shelves and none of the horses were injured, but it was pretty scary apparently. I've become obsessed with yoga and can finally get into a headstand, forearm stand, and handstand. I think it was the moment I was at the Whole Foods life and style store looking at the different embroidered yoga bags and fancy mats that I realized I can never again claim I'm East Coast. I have transformed into one of those Los Angeles yoga hippies. I stopped shaving, I grew out my hair. I tend to do these things when I'm writing, like I won't get a haircut or shave until I finish. Originally growing the hair was for a cameo in a film (which I'm not allowed to reveal yet) and now I kind of like it. I know that reading about my hair is fucking fascinating, but there's a lot of stuff I want to talk about but can't say yet because the deals aren't 100% tied up yet. Soon... Oh, yes, and the Celtics dismantled the Lakers in the greatest comeback in NBA finals history. I think I got more exercise watching that game than in all the yoga classes combined. It felt like 1986 - as soon as the game was over all my Masshole friends were calling each other, just reveling in the fact that the Celtics turned it on and the Lakers self-destructed. Now I know the finals are far from over and one day I may eat this blog, but being a Masshole at heart (despite my rainbow yoga mat and embroidered green bag) I have to gloat and be kind of a dick. That's what we Boston fans do.

Oh - one more thing, I caught "Cabin Fever" on Sci Fi the other day. It was the first time I'd seen it censored. It was fucking hilarious. I had heard they cut the swears and the nudity, but to see it like that was a trip. When we were shooting some of the investors had requested we shoot a "PG-13" take so that there could be a "TV Version" of the film. I explained to them that there was no way in hell this film would ever run on television, and that we didn't have time to shoot the R rated version, let alone a PG-13 version at the same time. I also knew that I didn't want any such footage to exist, because then someone would use it. So every single scene we went out of our way to put as much swearing as we could, so that the film could never get bleeped. But I felt that the kids would talk that way, and that watering it down would make them seem like idiots if they were yelling "Oh Gosh!" and "What the hey?!?" That kind of stuff. But it was fun to see what they cut and what actually made it. I like that the word "Fuck" isn't okay for television but you can show a girl shaving her legs off. That makes me happy.

I also watched a beautiful DVD of "Pandora's Box." Louis Brooks was 20 years old when she made that film. She could be my favorite actress of all time.

Blog.

Eli's new blog.

Mon, 05 May 2008 16:46:52 GMT

The other week at the N.M.E. awards I did an interview with a journalist talking about what projects I'm currently working on. He asked if I was making any more "Hostel" films, and I said no, I was kind of bled out at the moment. Having gone back to back to back with 3 very violent films and a very violent trailer, I suddenly found myself thinking of new ideas. I have a pretty good idea of where my ideas come from, but I don't really know. One minute it's just there, fully formed, and you see it in your head. And suddenly, it's all you can think about. It's like some other being has possessed you and is controlling your thoughts, making you think only about this one thing that didn't exist anywhere in your conscious brain fifteen minutes ago. The journalist asked me about the trend of PG-13 films, and I said that my new film is PG-13, and that it was not a horror movie, it was action/sci-fi. He looked very surprised. How could I possibly make a PG-13 film? Especially one that wasn't a horror movie???? I explained to him, that it's not that I wanted to or set out to make a PG-13 film, but that the idea best lent itself to a PG-13 rating. I said the mistake that studios make is that films get watered down or castrated to fit a certain rating, and that rating doesn't necessarily best serve the story. "Hostel" would not have worked as a PG-13 movie, because a very important ingredient to the story is the violence. A film like "Cloverfield", in my mind, was the perfect PG-13 movie, because it was really scary, it had a good amount of violence, but just the shot of the girl's chest exploding in the tent was all you really needed. It wasn't about the gore, it was about the monster. We got in a conversation about "Transformers," which I loved. Those are two films that had mass destruction and chaos and were very fun PG-13 films. "Iron Man" is the latest example of a great PG-13 film. I told the reporter that I was really inspired by these films, and that I had an idea that was in that genre that I was getting ready to announce.

And then this story came out. While the reporting was fair and I like the journalist, I can just see some editor coming up with a spin about how I "ditched horror," just to get people to read the story. As soon as I saw that headline I just thought "I should've kept my mouth shut." That one headline went all around the internet. A headline that nasty is not only untrue, it makes it seem like I'm like spitting in the face of everyone who's ever supported me. It was really frustrating to read that, even though I know my real fans would know a headline like that is bullshit. And then I realized that no matter what I say, people are going to put some kind of "spin" on it, true or not, to get people to read the story. All I would ask of you guys is to be wary of any headlines about me, because until my next film comes out, we're going to see more of them. If I made Hostel 3 they'd say I was repeating myself, and if I said I'm doing anything different they say that I'm "ditching" horror.

I'm only going to make ideas that excite me. Period. Some of those ideas are R rated, some of them are G rated, and some of them are in between. Some ideas are horror, some are comedy, some are sci-fi, some are animated. Some ideas are feature films, some are shorts, some are not even film ideas. I've never locked myself into making one thing except the ideas that excite me. I'm in a very fortunate position that I have the luxury of choosing what project I do next, and I'm only going to do an idea that I'm so fired up about it won't let me sleep at night. And I've had crazy insomnia working on this new project. Major announcement coming soon. Stay tuned.

*Special Thanks to Mr. Disgusting for putting up the G4 Icons episode about me*
From here.

If you have the time for G4 Icons, it's very much worth the watch. Here are parts two and three.

Happy Eli Day!

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:11:55 GMT

HAPPY 36th BIRTHDAY TO ELI!

Let's hope his year is full of happiness and success and all that nice shit!

Uwe Boll, the douche bag.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:00:35 GMT

Hey, just thought I'd repost this from Eli Roth's myspace.

Uwe Boll took a cheap shot at Eli in a recent youTube video.

So, if you want to join the other 200k signers of this particular petition, you can sign it here.
http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html

Just thought you'll should know whats going on.

Popular Underground Interview

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:58:33 GMT

Interview from popularunderground.com about the war in Iraq.

Have you seen the movies Cabin Fever, Hostel or Hostel II? Well, no matter what your answer, Eli Roth is the writer and director of each of those films. Popular Underground's own Karma Jensen had the opportunity to speak with the horror mastermind about the war in Iraq and the media's reaction to it.

PUM: With the war in Iraq continuing as long as it has do you feel that there is a decline in interest by the American public, with not only the overall matter but more importantly the military personnel involved?
I think people are tired of hearing the same thing. It's not that we don't care about the war, it's that nobody, and I mean NOBODY, trusts the information that the government's sending us. We're getting first hand stories from the people we know who are returning and who are still stuck over there, and none of it lines up with what we were told for years on the news. So I think people are sick of this administration and wish there was someone in charge who had the genuine interests of the country at hand, and not the interests of the oil companies. It's disgusting.

PUM: What role do you feel the media is playing in this?
After Vietnam there was a real clampdown on any media allowed out to the public. I saw this when I started traveling internationally with "Cabin Fever" and got a very, very different picture of what was going on when I saw uncensored news. This is another reason there are violent movies, because people are thinking of all this stuff and we know it's being kept from us. The government is so concerned with winning a PR war that they don't want people to see how horrific it really is or there'd be more of a public outcry. So because they downplay it or report statistics so we see numbers and not images, people do not really have a realistic idea of how horrible this is. That essay by George McGovern in the Washington Post last week said that 4,000 Americans have died and an estimated 600,000 Iraqi people. It's genocide. And why are they over there? For what? War should be a last resort, but we were rushed into it

PUM: Should the public feel responsible to be more involved and/or more knowledgeable of the situation? If so, how?
I think people should speak up publicly about it, and vote these people out of office. You get what you vote for, and if you're lazy and you don't vote, you're going to get guys like Bush and Cheney and they're gonna bring in people like Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. They should be tried for war crimes.

PUM: Do you feel after watching Redacted that we have an even bigger responsibility to be concerned with the men and women involved in the war and it's environment? Those involved in the true life crime were prosecuted, however, do you think preventative measures could have been, should have been taken to prevent the crimes in the first place?
I cannot comment on that because I've never been in a war zone, so I don't know what circumstances would lead to a situation like that. But films like Redacted are getting made in part because people just don't trust what they're seeing on the news. People I know, intelligent educated people, didn't believe anything we read about the Iran boat incident because we don't trust what we're being told. It's all done to rile us up against "the enemy." It's really frustrating. We have all these brave soldiers risking their lives for us, and you feel like it's all really being done for Bush and Cheney and their big business friends.

PUM: Do you feel that the wounded soldiers, whether physically or mentally are being properly cared for and/or treated?
NO. NOT AT ALL. England; other countries, they have programs for reintegration into society. My father is a psychoanalyst so I grew up knowing all about mental health and what people go through to integrate into society without having gone to war. We're not even allowed to see the bodies of soldiers on television on Memorial Day. Think of how sick that is. These people are damaged mentally and physically and we have no health care system or social system to help them get on with their lives. None. And we're the richest country in the world and we're free, BECAUSE of these brave soldiers. It's disgraceful.

PUM: What are your hopes for the resolution of the war?
I hope we can get our soldiers home in a way that allows Iraq to once again flourish as a culture. But nobody had any plan as to how we could accomplish this. It feels like it will never end.

PUM: What would you like to say to your fans in the military who are missing the comforts of home, family and friends to serve?
I want people to know that I do support our troops, and I believe very strongly in our military, and they have my deepest gratitude. Thank God for our military, the strongest army on the planet. But I feel like our military, like the country, like the economy, has been abused by power hungry people who just feed their own personal interests, and I feel for them. I want them all home safe, and I'm happy if my films can provide a mental break and a little entertainment while they're over there. I think the value of horror films is that it allows people to feel terror and fear in a controlled way that allows them to let it out, and they don't feel like a coward for having done it. The soldiers have to bury all these feelings of fear, and the movies are a healthy way to scream it out. These people are brave in ways I will never know, and I admire anyone who has the guts to get over there and defend our country. They should also know that many people here feel the way I do, that they're thinking of everyone over there and we want them home.

PUM: You have traveled extensively, what do you feel are the best traits of the United States and it's people?
Our sense of independence. For example, in some countries their governments used to support their movies and now no longer do, and their film industries have dried up. They all say, "The government won't support us anymore, it's a shame," and my reaction is, "None of us use the government to make our movies over here." Americans depend on themselves, and most other countries they get stuck at a certain economic level because they depend on their governments. We show them how it's done because they don't inherently think that way. Our freedom and independence is an amazing quality that the rest of the world greatly admires.

PUM: Any additional comments?
I always have more to say, but for now I'll just say that we're all thinking of you guys over there, and just because we are against the war, we are not against you. We feel for you and just hate to see your bravery wasted defending Dick Cheney's oil. We wish we could hear your stories personally but they censor the news from us. It's something we should all work to change immediately, but people can only do it with their votes.

"The Greats of Roth"

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:20:35 GMT

The New Beverly Cinema is doing a film festival called "The Greats of Roth." This will include two weeks of his favorite movies.

February 17, 18, 19
TORSO (1973) (a.k.a. Carnal Violence)
Sun: 3:50 & 7:30; Mon/Tue: 7:30

PIECES (1982)
Sun: 5:40 & 9:20; Mon/Tue: 9:20

February 20, 21
MOTHER'S DAY (1980)
7:30

CREEPSHOW (1982)
9:20

February 22, 23
CARRIE (1976)
Fri: 7:30; Sat: 3:30 & 7:30

ZAPPED! (1982)
Fri: 9:30; Sat: 5:30 & 9:30

February 24, 25, 26
THE APPLE (1980)
Sun: TBA; Mon/Tue: 7:30

STUNT ROCK (1978)
Sun: TBA; Mon/Tue: 9:20

February 27
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)
7:30

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980)
9:20

February 28
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
7:30

CANNIBAL FEROX (1981) (a.k.a. MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY)
9:20

February 29, March 1
BACHELOR PARTY (1984)
Fri: 7:30; Sat: 3:25 & 7:30

CADDYSHACK (1980)
Fri: 9:35; Sat: 5:30 & 9:35

Information from Eli's blog.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:35:51 GMT

Eli has posted a new blog.

"Well, I finally made one of those 2007 Top Ten lists. Ebert and Roeper voted "Hostel Part II" as the WORST FILM OF 2007. Actually, I lied, I share the honor with my friend Chris Sivertson, because Roeper voted "I Know Who Killed Me" as his worst film of the year, while guest critic Michael Phillips gave me the esteemed honor. Roeper actually goes out of his way to say that he would have put "Hostel II" and other "torture porn" films on his list, but they were never screened for critics, so he didn't waste his time watching them, because they're just trash where women get tortured, and he doesn't find that entertaining. It's amazing he's not wearing a Pope hat, splashing holy water on the DVDs. Richard Roeper - whose job is to watch movies last I checked - wouldn't dare pollute his eyes by lowering them to the sewer of our movies...movies he has let others define before he even sees them himself. I feel sorry for Darren Boussman, whose film "Saw 4" wasn't even given a chance to be on this list, because Richard Roeper was too decent a human being to even watch it. Thank God we have people like him keeping us safe by warning us against such evil. We should all write him a thank you note, but please don't tell him that torture porn is a ridiculous term made up by critics who don't understand or watch these films and that that sub-genre actually doesn't exist.

What's so unbelievable about the show is that this guy Michael Phillips actually goes on to say how talented I am, and that I could actually be "adding something to the horror genre instead of settling for dreck." It's pretty incredible - he says I'm "going to have a very successful career" and that if I want to "get myself out of the basement" I can do it, but that it's up to me. It's the weirdest compliment ever - it's as if he chose my film so he could single me out and teach me a lesson. My question is: why would I ever want to leave the basement? The basement is a very special place for me. The basement at our house was where we all hung out. Every day we'd play Atari for hours in the basement after school, it's where I watched every horror movie imaginable, and more importantly, it's where I shot all my first films. My super 8 movie "A Clickwork Orange" was made in that basement. When I was 11 I chopped up my brothers with a circular saw in "Splatter on the Linoleum" in that basement. We shot probably 50 movies down in that basement. We were allowed to make as much noise as we wanted down there. We could blast our music. We could put up any posters we wanted - Jim Rice, Iron Maiden, "Mother's Day", St. Pauli Girl, all those cheesy posters we won throwing darts at carnivals in Maine - as long as there was space you could just tape it up. The walls were peeling, but instead of repainting, we'd hang a poster for "Pieces" over the spot where it was crumbling. It was great. Every weekend in high school at the end of the night - no matter what we were doing - EVERYONE went back to our house and hung out in the basement. I'm very close in age to both my brothers and all our friends would hang out together pretty much every weekend from 1:00 AM on. We'd raid the kitchen, fire up some Celeste pizzas, grab the cookies, and stuff our faces. We'd be down there all night watching horror movies and Skinemax, playing Nintendo NES, rocking out, filming movies, and playing street hockey with our dog Atlas. Atlas was the most amazing German Shepherd, and everyone knew him, and he knew everyone. You could take slap shots from across the basement and Atlas would catch the ball in his mouth. He loved playing goalie. Even yesterday I was hanging pictures in my basement in Los Angeles and Gabe said to me "Are you sure you want so many posters up?" and I said "I want it to be just like the basement." He agreed. I actually went back to my parents house in Boston and got my torn up "Mother's Day" video poster so I could frame it and hang it up in my have a piece of The Basement with me in California. So when Michael Phillips says that I could get out of the basement if I wanted to, to him I say: fuck that. I love it in the basement. The basement's where you can relax and have fun and there are no rules, no bullshit, you can blast your music, hang any posters you want, trash your furniture, throw a football or play hockey indoors, and just hang out and have fun with your friends. And I would much rather spend my life in the basement than where this former theater critic is: up his own ass. That's a dark, depressing place to be, and I feel sorry for the people who are stuck there because they'll never get the enjoyment of watching these movies in the middle of the night with a group of friends."

I know Hostel: Part II isn't the greatest film in the world, but worst of '07? That's... not accurate. That's just about as accurate as Norbit and Juno being nominated for Oscars.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 06:47:35 GMT

Eli posted a new blog. There wasn't anything earthshakingly important in it, but there were a couple of things that may interest you guys.

"Happy New Year! This is fucking awesome. Two researchers at U.C. Berkely and U.C. San Diego have done a study showing that violent movies reduce crime by 1.2-1.3% when watched between 6 PM and midnight, and even higher numbers AFTER viewers have seen the film, during Midnight and 6 AM. The study estimates that on weekends 1,000 violent crimes are prevented when people watch violent movies. So that means that between my three films I've prevented probably 10,000 violent crimes, so if someone in could print out the report (it's included in the link above) and kindly shove it up the New Zealand censor's ass I would greatly appreciate it."

"We had lunch with the mayor of Reyjkavik. The Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur joined us, and was talking to the mayor about building a movie studio in Reyjkavik. Quentin and I loved the idea, and I told them I'd be happy to help in any way I could. The mayor was very excited about the idea, and soon it was all over the news."

Other than that, he goes on about going on a ladybug killing rampage and setting things on fire. This can be read here.

The "Fun with Torture" Survey

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:30:52 GMT

Hey all. Since we all belong to this group, I figure we're all interested in horror/torture movies for whatever reason, and I'm trying to glean answers from as many horror fans as I can about why they enjoy horror movies, if they enjoy torture in movies why they think that is, and how they feel about the dichotomy between horror as a genre and the primarily fundamentalist Christian assertion that enjoying watching sin IS a sin. Since I'm getting tired of justifying myself and my love of Eli Roth and the other splatstick directors, as well as horror movies in particular, I wanted to try and come up with some definitive answers once and for all. At first it was just an idea for a column (since I write a monthly column for the website http://www.cinema-crazed.com) but the idea has ballooned to almost 30 pages of manuscript so I'm shooting for a book now. Anyway, this was all my long-winded way of saying that if you want to answer these questions, you can reply here or email me at edwardnortonfan at gmail dot com. I'm crediting everyone who answers questions for me, so if you want to be identified please include your full name with your answers, otherwise I'll credit you as "anonymous." I got permission from a mod to post these questions here, and I hope they can spark some discussion. A lot of times it may sound like I'm asking the same thing in different words, but since each of these questions is something I've been asked and each question, even the similar ones, twists the focus a little bit, I think they all have the capacity to be helpful. anyway, thanks in advance for helping me out.

When did you first start watching horror movies?

What first attracted you to horror?

If someone said "watching movies where people are killed tortured and degraded means you support killing torturing and degrading other people" what would you say and why?

Do you consider yourself a religious person? Why or why not?

Many fundamentalists say watching horror movies is condoning sin at best, committing sin at worst. Do you agree or disagree?

Do you think religion and an interest in horror and the macabre are mutually exclusive? Why or why not?

What do you think attracts you to movies that feature the dark and horrific aspects of life?

Do you consider yourself someone who has experienced abuse and degradation, and how does this affect your view of horror movies?

Why do you think there are so few women who advertise and admit their interest in horror movies?

Does it excite you to see women tortured and murdered onscreen? Why or why not?

Do you think it's harder for you to watch women being hurt or tortured than it is to watch the same things happening to men? Why or why not?

If you or anyone enjoy watching horror, rape, and torture on film, do you consider that a sign of mental illness? Why or why not?

Do you think it's wrong for someone who's been abused in his or her own life to enjoy watching the same thing happen to a character onscreen? Why or why not?

If you became interested in horror at a young age, can you tell me what it was like growing up interested in horror?

Did you ever have a hard time explaining to others why you are interested in horror? If so, please explain.

Why do you think it's harder for some people to understand why anyone would be interested in horror movies than other subgenres of film like action movies and romance movies? Do you think religion has any affect on people's perception of horror? Please explain.

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:29:38 GMT

Artist on Artist: Josh Brolin and Eli Roth

Add to My Profile | More Videos

There are some Trailer Trash spoilers at the end, and I take back anything I've ever said about it sounding like a horrible career move. It sounds insanely amazing. I mean, Farmageddon? What is that? That's brilliant. I love it.

All will be carved!

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:12:02 GMT

So I waited in vain today to see the rampaging serial-killer pilgrim of Mr. Roth's Thanksgiving run slicing and dicing through the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Alas, there was nary a beheading nor a knife-penetrated cheerleader in sight...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:21:45 GMT

Hot Topic is now selling Thanksgiving merchandise. Eli posted the followed blog about it.

"Exciting holiday news!!!! You demanded it, so here you go: I have partnered with NECA Toys to create "Thanksgiving" merchandise. The first step towards turning a fake trailer into a real movie is to convince the unsuspecting public that it actually exists, and what better way to do that than with a Thanksgiving t-shirt and poster of the Dan Frisch turkey?? They will be for sale at Hot Topic, and if you don't live near one you can order them on line where I put the links.

We're planning on doing more stuff, including action figures, depending on what the demand is. And who knows? It may even turn into a real movie one day... Until then there will be a 2nd helping of Thanksgiving in "Trailer Trash." Why make a whole movie when you can just go film the best parts?

And THANK YOU ALL for your amazing support with the Hostel 2 DVD and Blu Ray!!!!! The film's doing great, and I love hearing all your comments on my page. Yes, it is me reading them all, not some assistant, so THANK YOU!!!!

White Meat. Dark Meat. ALL WILL BE CARVED!

Eli"

Those three links lead to the merch, one tee shirt and two different posters.

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 13:15:50 GMT

Eli posted another myspace blog a couple days ago with a couple of articles.

Eli Roth Presents the Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen from rottentomatoes.com
November 1, 2007
The title says it all. He mentions the following films: Torso, Who Can Kill a Child?, Night Train Murders, Perversion Story, Nightmare City and Spirits of the Dead. At the end, he also gives an update about what he's working on. (Basically, Cell is still being done, Trailer Trash is being done with "full-on Monty Python silliness" and it sounds like Heroes: Origins will be done, too. Then again, he did say all of this before the WGA Strike.)

Earthbound: Ten Questions with Eli Roth from ekwimmer.blogspot.com
November 2, 2007
Just a short, ten question interview with a few questions about things other than his films, which is pretty cool, since a lot of the articles in the past seem kind of... you know, you've read one, you've read them all.

Eli Roth VS. The C.Z.A. Q&A from renerd.com
November 7, 2007
A very short questionnaire about the zombie apocalypse. If you're going to read any of what I'm posting right now, read this one. I mean... oh, c'mon. Zombies!

This one's older and I found it by accident via google, but I thought I'd add it in here, anyway.

How To Sell Horror Post-Captivity from nymag.com
June 11, 2007
A short article talking about advertising Hostel: Part II after the problems with the Captivity billboards.

Eli also appeared on TMZ.com a few times within the past week or so. The first time was in a video from Heidi Klum's Halloween Party (which seems to currently be unavailable). The second time was in a short video from a party thrown by wrestler Chris Jericho, also featuring Hal Sparks.

Just because I like attempting (unsuccessfully in most cases) to start discussions when I make these posts, what are you guys thinking about the WGA Strike?

Eli Roth LEaving the Horror Genre?

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:23:35 GMT

So I came across this in a few places today (http://joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=9811 and http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/exclusive-eli-roth-moving-on-from-horror-to-more-ambitious-artistic-projects/). Eli recently said this:

"As far as violence goes, I think at this point I've pushed the boundaries of horror as far as I can, and it's someone else's turn to take over spilling blood and guts. I have new challenges and much more ambitious ideas that are not horror related that I'm working on, as well as other artistic endeavors outside of film. I love directors like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, who pushed the boundaries of gore and horror in their early career, and then took that same energy and aesthetic and applied it to other genres. I'll always love horror and I'm sure I'll make more horror movies, but once you've spilled that much blood, you kind of have it out of your system and look for other ways to make audiences scream and cheer and vomit."

So what does everyone think? Personally I think that as much as I love Roth he does tend to run off at the mouth a bit and make ridiculous statements sometimes. I think he might want to move on from horror, but saying he wants to find other ways to make people "scream cry and vomit" is a tad much. I can understand wanting to make people scream and cry with movies other than horror, but VOMIT? Usually when your movie isn't a horror movie and it makes people vomit, that isn't a good thing, Eli.

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:36:30 GMT

If anyone watched the Spike TV Scream awards, you'll know that Hostel: Part II unfortunately did not win anything. Awesome show, though. If you didn't catch it, it's on again a few times tomorrow, I think.

Also, anyone pick up Part II and the Director's Cut today? Lots of interesting shit on both DVDs, so if you get the chance, pick that shit up. Best Buy is offering them both for twenty five dollars. It's definitely worth it.

Featurettes on the Part II DVD include a documentary on the history of torture, which was pretty cool. And both DVDs have featurettes about KNB effects, which was also really cool to watch. If you don't buy the dvd, at least rent it and check out the special features.

just curious...

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:43:42 GMT

Watched "Death Proof" recently and got me thinkin':

Are Eli and Jordan Ladd together?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:19:46 GMT

Head soccer, anyone?

Of course, reminding you guys of two things.

One, tomorrow both Hostel: Part II and the Director's Cut of the first Hostel will hit stores. I've actually heard a few times that it was changed to today, but I'm not sure if that's true. Either way, pick that shit up!

Two, tomorrow at ten o'clock, the Spike TV Scream Awards will be on. Hostel: Part II was up for a couple of awards. I know the outcome and if any of you cared enough to check, you probably do too, but I guess I shouldn't ruin it.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:46:32 GMT

Eli Roth Confirms 'Trailer Trash' Date, New Details!

October 12, 2007 - After Eli Roth's faux trailer, THANKSGIVING (watch it), stole the show in Dimension Films' Grindhouse this past April, Roth confirmed rumors that he was working a feature length film entitled Trailer Trash. Not much was revealed other than it would be a full-length film consisting of fake movie trailers that all tie together. Today Roth confirmed that MGM will be releasing the film on August 22 and sent in a little bit more.

Eli Roth writes into Bloody-Disgusting:

"...that's the date (August 22, 2008)! TRAILER TRASH was inspired by the two days we filmed "Thanksgiving," which was the most fun I've ever had filming anything.

Trailer Trash is not a horror film, it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with Mike Fleiss (who I did both "Hostel" films with), and writing it with my friends Jeff Rendell (my "Thanksgiving" co-writer, who also played The Pilgrim), Noah Belson (my co-creator on "The Rotten Fruit,") and my brother Gabe, who's collaborated with me on everything I've ever done.

I want to make a film like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," which I consider to be the greatest achievement in the history of cinema. The best part is I get to shoot some new THANKSGIVING scenes, as well as other holiday slasher films I've always dreamed of making but never would because they'd completely ruin me. I can't wait to shoot!"
From Bloody-Disgusting.

Also, according to his Myspace blog, he's going to be doing some publicity shit in New York and London next week. Check out the blog for specifics. He also mentions that in England, it may soon be illegal to have stills from Hostel: Part II, which is fucking crazy.

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 04:44:42 GMT

Heroes: Origins Gets Hostel

Tim Kring announces Eli Roth to write and direct an episode of the spin-off series.

September 21, 2007 - Tim Kring, in an interview with G4 TV, announced some more directors and writers that would be coming aboard for an episode of the self-contained Heroes: Origins series. While Kevin Smith was announced at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, the show had been keeping other possibilities under wraps. Now Kring has revealed that Hostel writer/director Eli Roth shall be filling both of those duties on an episode of Origins.

The other two names were John August, writer of Big Fish and writer/director of the independent film The Nines, along with Michael Dougherty, who was co-writer of Bryan Singer's X2, as well as Superman Returns. It appears that Kring may have jumped the gun in the interview however, as NBC has not confirmed the involvement of anyone other than Smith. However, they're not denying it either. And as far as details about Heroes, there are probably few sources as credible as Tim Kring. What he may not have known was the details of the particular deals for each of the writers or directors, so anything can still happen at this point.

And to be clear, in the interview, Kring said that Dougherty and August will only be writing an episode, with no director named as yet to get behind the camera for their scripts.

From this article which I got from Eli's myspace blog.

P.S. Death Proof came out a couple of days ago. I bought it, but I actually haven't seen it yet. Thoughts on it?

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:32:36 GMT

Why Torture Porn Isn't
By LUKE Y. THOMPSON

http://www.laweekly.com/film+tv/film/why-torture-porn-isnt/17170/

It cannot be denied that torture porn exists.

Pony up about 70 bucks, find the right Web site or adult bookstore, and you can get yourself a video of a professional dominatrix beating someone up. There are people who watch — and make — these videos for sexual thrills. Torture and porn: Not my preferred combo, but it’s out there.

What torture porn is not is mainstream horror movies like Saw or Hostel. But critics who can damn sure tell the difference between Basic Instinct and actual pornography seem unable to make the distinction between fantasy and reality when it comes to some of the best contemporary horror films.

Many of the criticisms are familiar: Movies like Hostel are called misogynistic, degrading, sick and socially unredeeming, or deemed entirely unworthy of discussion, as opposed to such “classics” of yesteryear as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist — both of which faced the exact same kinds of criticisms in their day. The New York Times’ Vincent Canby, for one, complained about the latter film’s “splintery cross-cutting” and an audience “getting their kicks out of seeing a small girl being tortured and torn, quite literally,” before adding, “The audience watches as if attending a porno film.”

Some wonder aloud why anyone would want to watch torture in a movie when there’s enough of it in the real world, but such questioning reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of horror. Horror movies allow us to confront our fears in a safe setting, and many of the best have reflected the biggest threats of their time. The giant monster movies of the 1950s were rooted in phobias of nuclear power; zombie movies frequently satirize consumer culture and the military; and the contagious curses of recent Asian horror movies like The Ring reflect the modern fear of biological weapons, stemming in part from the Aum Shinrikyo cult’s 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo subway passengers, six years before we started worrying about plastic sheeting and duct tape.

All of this presupposes that what one sees in so-called torture-porn movies even qualifies as actual torture. Dictionary.com defines torture principally as “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.” By that standard, pretty much every action or horror movie in cinematic history contains “torture.” As does every Three Stooges short.

Ironically, by that same standard, the Saw movies contain less torture than most horror movies, in that most of the excruciating pain experienced by the characters is self-inflicted. John “Jigsaw” Kramer, the bogeyman of the series, places his victims in death traps that are usually fast-acting and can only be stopped by an act of self-mutilation or the murder of another human being. These are definitely nasty things to do to someone, but Jigsaw does them out of a deranged kind of philanthropy — he believes those who survive will be stronger people for it — as opposed to the prolonged information-getting we usually associate with torture today. The only real torture scene in the Saw movies takes place in Saw II, when Detective Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) beats up the cancer-stricken Jigsaw in hopes of obtaining a confession, breaking his fingers one by one. Jigsaw gives him one, but it turns out to be false (which is, of course, the primary real-world criticism of torture as a tactic). Matthews, in fact, has been made Jigsaw’s pawn precisely because the mad genius disapproves of the way the dirty cop has used torture and trumped-up evidence in the past.

Now, there’s certainly an argument to be made that fans of the Saw series enjoy seeing each new and elaborate trap Jigsaw has created. It’d be a stretch, though, to think that they get any kind of sexual thrill, save perhaps for the trap in Saw III that involves a naked woman being frozen to death. It would also be a stretch to assume that this is the only reason people watch the Saw movies. The hook of the first film — the dilemma of whether or not to saw off your foot to escape leg shackles — is taken directly from the ending of Mad Max but is more deeply rooted in the kind of hypothetical playground debates young boys engage in, about whether you’d rather burn to death or drown. The plots of all three Saw movies are puzzle boxes, webs of mini-challenges and tangled motivations that are only fully unraveled at the movie’s end. Not to mention that Tobin Bell’s performance as Jigsaw is a wonder; he’s the best “real-world” horror antihero since Anthony Hopkins first played Hannibal Lecter. (And if you think that Jigsaw is somehow less realistic than Lecter, watch The Silence of the Lambs again and tell me how “realistic” it is to wear a dead man’s face without anyone noticing.)

Another thing many detractors miss is that the Saw movies are heavily rooted in the industrial music culture of the early ’90s, drawing heavily from the kinds of uncensored videos that bands like Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and Danzig were making back then, from the porcine imagery (derived from the Manson family’s frequent use of the word pig) to the decaying-warehouse production designs and the original scores by music producer and NIN member Charlie Clouser. That’s okay — most of them are too old to like music that’s too loud. But mark my words: Some day, parents will be decrying some new slasher movie by saying it isn’t as worthy as the good old horror classics they remember, like Saw.

Eli Roth’s Hostel movies are a slightly different story, and quite different from each other, too. The first is an unabashed exploitation movie primarily influenced by Takashi Miike, the cult-favorite Japanese filmmaker who cranks out as many as three new movies a year, frequently marked by incoherent plots and over-the-top cartoonish violence, but who’s best known here for the more artful and restrained Audition (which nonetheless culminates in a guy getting his feet cut off with piano wire). Hostel, which features a cameo by Miike, begins with about a half-hour of ridiculously beautiful naked European girls, then sends our heroes — a couple of dumb-ass, college-aged American backpackers and their Icelandic companion — off to be tortured and slaughtered by rich businessmen who have paid for the privilege. None of what follows can be called realistic — a guy slips on blood and accidentally chainsaws himself; a Japanese girl has her face melted until her eyeball hangs out — but it’s worth noting that never once is the audience invited to take pleasure in the pain of the heroes, or feel sympathy for the villains. Unlike Jigsaw, or Freddy Krueger, there’s nothing appealing about Hostel’s bloodthirsty bourgeois, and we root for their comeuppance, which they mostly get.

The recent Hostel: Part II plays things less campy than the first and does invite us to see things from the villains’ point of view, even if it ultimately ends up mocking them. The idea here is similar to the thesis posited by the Tyler Durden character in Fight Club: When the real world traps you, you can learn how to feel alive again by committing violence. Roth goes further, by giving us characters — once again, wealthy Wall Street types who have placed the winning bids in an underground Internet auction — who believe that killing someone will make them “real” men, only to realize, after it’s too late, that it only makes them crazy. Roth has said that this is a satire of the military mindset in Iraq, but Hostel: Part II also makes an allusion, midfilm, to Elizabeth Bathory, the infamous Hungarian countess who bathed in the blood of young virgins in hopes of staying young. It proved just as futile, of course, as the kills our misguided businessmen make in the hope of reinvigorating their own fading youth.

For all the howls of contempt Hostel: Part II has received — after watching a bootlegged copy, Movie City News’ nominally liberal David Poland ranted about a “coarsening of the culture,” like some puritanical televangelist — there actually isn’t much gore onscreen, especially relative to Roth’s previous Cabin Fever, a disease movie based on several mysterious, life-threatening illnesses Roth himself purportedly contracted over the years. Roth does a lot with sound and cutaways in Hostel: Part II to make you think you’re seeing more than you are, and though the climactic act of violence is quite explicit, it still isn’t torture.

Director Roland Joffé’s Captivity is less defensible, as it isn’t “about” anything more than the psychological torture of a victim who must fight her way to freedom. But it’s notable that many of the film’s tortures — being force-fed eyeballs, getting buried in sand, crawling through tight spaces — are only slightly more extreme than many of the stunts on TV’s Fear Factor, where contestants do such things voluntarily.

When Paris Hilton went to jail, people cheered and mocked her screams for her mother, yet in Captivity, when a similarly vapid supermodel is imprisoned and tormented, those of us who enjoy watching it are called misogynistic and sick. Funny, I didn’t hear anybody say that about those who enjoyed Paris’ real-life captivity, but god forbid someone should make (or like) a movie in which Elisha Cuthbert acts like she’s being abused in a fictional setting, because that would be sexist.

Every successful horror movie that comes to my mind features the same basic formula — a character, or group of characters, is terrorized for most of the movie by something dangerous or evil. The terror may not take the form of actual torture, but it’s certainly no shopping spree either, whether it’s merely ghostly noises keeping a person awake all night, or an evil demon possessing bodies and committing mass murder. Invariably, one or multiple heroes survive the torment, figure out the key to overcoming it, and get a big cathartic moment in which he/she/they triumph over the adversary. Such moments may be fleeting — nowadays, especially, the evil thing/person is likely to turn the tables on our hero(es) once more at the very end. But in all the best horror movies, the cathartic moment is there, which in turn allows us in the audience to exorcise our own fears. One of the reasons David DeFalco’s ultra-unpleasant 2005 Chaos — in which teens attending a rave in thewoods get brutalized by evil rednecks who look like pro wrestlers — doesn’t work is that there is never any hope for the victims: The villains’ triumph is inevitable, and they never once show any vulnerability, serving no purpose other than to commit atrocities like force-feeding a girl her own nipple until she vomits or killing her and then having sex with the corpse; you get the sense DeFalco only cares about being as depraved as he possibly can be. The protagonists in last year’s prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning are equally doomed, since we know full well that Leatherface and Sheriff Hoyt can’t be defeated or have their crimes exposed prior to events we’ve already witnessed involving them in a chronologically later movie.

In the Saw movies, by contrast, the victims do have a fighting chance, because, in a pretty smart narrative move, series co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell show us, quite early on in the first film, someone who has survived one of Jigsaw’s traps as a result of playing by his rules. So even though most of the major characters do end up dying in the three Saw films to date, we know there’s always a chance that they won’t. (Fans still argue about whether or not Cary Elwes’ Dr. Lawrence Gordon survived the events of the first Saw; since his fate is never revealed on-camera, one can’t be sure.

None of these movies depends upon torture to quite the same degree as The Passion of the Christ, a movie explicitly conceived to make Christians understand the level of pain Jesus went through prior to and during crucifixion. Some will say Mel Gibson is more artful than Eli Roth or Saw II and III director Darren Lynn Bousman; I say you could probably cut about 20 minutes of torture scenes in The Passion and not affect the plot. But I wouldn’t advocate that; it’s a good movie, and it’s also Gibson’s vision, for better or worse, just as Saw II is Bousman’s. I’m also a fan of Clive Barker’s 1987 Hellraiser, in which Barker implies that torture is sexually pleasurable for both victim and torturer (way further than Saw goes), and which probably did more than any other movie to bring sadomasochism into the mainstream, by turning a guy with a checkerboard carved on his face and multiple nails in his head into a pop-culture icon. Made 20 years ago, it’s still more extreme in its torture-related implications than anything on the market today; Barker has been pushing the idea of a Hellraiser remake, and a similarly themed project called Tortured Souls, but hasn’t found a studio willing to bite. Yet, Pinhead action figures are sold at Hot Topic, alongside newer toys based on Saw.

Justifying the merits of these movies to fellow critics (and certain members of the general public) can sometimes feel like arguing with your mother — you want her to respect your taste and point of view, but in the long run, isn’t it essential to like a few things that piss her off? So, it’s not particularly upsetting when elder statesmen of criticism like Roger Ebert or Kenneth Turan pan a Saw movie; we expect them to. The grating thing is how some critics don’t just pan the movies but also pan the people who watch them, acting as though we’re some depraved new breed who like unprecedented levels of hideousness, even as the movies themselves deliver exactly the same kind of visceral kicks horror films always have. “Unprecedented”? Just wait until people start trying to remake 1970s grindhouse fare like Ruggero Deodato’s infamous Cannibal Holocaust or Meir Zarchi’s interminable rape-and-revenge flick I Spit on Your Grave. As a matter of fact, you might not have to wait long — The Punisher director Jonathan Hensleigh just made an Italian-style cannibal movie called Welcome to the Jungle, and it has already screened a few times. (Upon seeing it, Jeffrey Wells of the Web site Hollywood Elsewhere commented, “It creeped me out in a way that I’m not likely to forget.”)

You know what’s really torturous? Endless moralistic scolding from people who don’t seem to get horror to begin with, and who should know better. There’s going to be enough sanctimony to go around in the coming election year — and it, too, will simply be a repeat of what has come before.

What a fucking excellent article. I could not agree more.

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 07:03:54 GMT

Hostel: Part II was nominated for six Spike TV Scream Awards.

Best Horror Film
Best Director
Best Breakout Performance - Lauren German
Scream Queen - Bijou Phillips
Best Cameo - Jay Hernandez
Most Memorable Mutilation - Deodato's Cannibal Cameo

Okay, Bijou was great, but I'm honestly kind of shocked she was nominated over Heather. Heather was much more into the role in my opinion. And I'm also pretty surprised that Jay's cameo was nominated but Deodato's wasn't. What's up with that? Really, what the fuck?

Either way, it's very cool that Hostel was nominated for so many things. You can vote here starting today.

For any of you interested, I got this information from Eli's Myspace Blog.

P.S. On an unrelated note, anyone going to see Hatchet this weekend? I'm so fuckin' psyched for it. There's so much hype for it, though. We can only hope that it lives up to it.

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 03:18:46 GMT

From an interview in Gorezone (August 07, Issue #22):

How crazy was the [Thanksgiving] shoot? Did you try to make it as fucked up as you could?

We just went nuts. It was crazy. Literally, like, right at the end of the Hostel II, I hacked on two shooting days and we all just stuck aroun and did it for fun. And staging that parade was insane and we had a great time. In fact, like, it's inspired me to do a whole movie of fake trailers, called Trailer Trash. 'Cause I have so many ideas for either, like, steak movies or just terrible films I'll never make but that I think would be amazing trailers. And filming it was so fun because you get the satisfaction as if you made a feature, you know what I mean. Because everybody just comes out remembering the best parts, anyway, so why not just make the best parts and fuck the viewer up, so they feel like you made a whole movie. Just give them all the money shots. It's like cheating. With Thanksgiving I got to just film all the best stuff. It was nuts.

I really don't know what to make of this. Like, I won't say it wouldn't be enjoyable, because I think it totally would. Just not in full-length feature form, you know? Like, it wouldn't do well. It's kind of a... silly idea. Maybe not a very good idea. I just... I really don't know what to say. I loved the Grindhouse fake trailers (which I had to see on Youtube because I was a douche and thought I was too good for Grindhouse until it was out of theaters and now I completely hate myself) but a whole movie of them?

Your thoughts?

Also, the rest of the interview goes on to say that he's considering doing a Grindhouse 2 with Edgar Wright. That is a good idea. Pick up the magazine if you get the chance. It's a pretty good interview. The magazine also has articles about the new Halloween and Cabin Fever 2. Eli's on the cover.

I Love the Smell of Ranting in the Morning

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:16:37 GMT

I write a column! It's called "Long Winded" (because, after all, I believe in truth in advertising) and the inaugural column is my rant about Eli Roth and the rest of the "Splat Pack" and how their movies are being labeled "torture porn."

/shameless plug

Anyway, I wanted to post the column here ~~because I'm an egotistical attention whore~~ so you guys could read it. Enjoy!

Look up the term "torture porn" on Google and you'll get about 168,000 hits. Now scan each of those articles for any hint of an attempt to actually define what the writer means when he or she says a movie is "torture porn" and you'll find the number is much smaller. Something very close to zero. Why is that? Critics these days obviously have a deep, abiding love for the term "torture porn," so why aren't they explaining what they mean by it? The answer is simple: Most of them don't really know. Let's fact it, folks, "Torture Porn" is a buzz word these days, and most people who use it would be hard pressed to DEFINE it. I know because I've asked them. Typical conversation represented below:

Me: What does "torture porn" mean?
Them: It means movies like Hostel and Hostel 2
Me: I know what they use it to describe, but I mean what does the term MEAN?
Them: I told you.
Me: No you didn't.
Them: Uh huh! *runs away*

In my opinion, if you can't define a term, you shouldn't use it. People are using this label to degrade an entire subgenre of film, and yes, that makes me angry.

Even if you happen to use the term and agree with it and you know what you mean when you use it, it should make you angry that people are bandying about clucking their tongues in disgust at the entire culture of horror movies because of the actions of a few directors. And they can't even explain WHY. What ties the movie Hostel to the movie Turistas, honestly? I hear the two movies compared often with no mention of their vast differences. Yes, they both feature some stupid U.S. Citizens running afoul of some evil foreigners, but one is trying to make a point about how people in other countries hate us because we exploit them and their resources so one man is fighting back in a horrific way, and the other is making a point about how our society has been corrupted to the point where even human life is a commodity that can be bought and sold for the entertainment of others (and also how some people have become so desensitized to the affects of their actions that torturing and killing another person is fun if it entertains them).

The movies both have extreme violence, but I even if you think the movies are basically the same, I see no comparison to "porn" there, at least not in the way most people seem to understand the comparison. When is the violence in these movies enjoyable? When do the movies make the statement that the violence is ok as long as it entertains people? In Turistas, the victims aren't even tortured, they're killed for a purpose and yes, it's done without regard to their suffering but they're not being tortured for fun.
And whatever you think about Hostel as a movie, there's no way you can say that it's not at least TRYING to say exactly the opposite of "violence is exciting and fun." Hostel sends a clear message that violence is wrong, it's not ok to be entertained by it, and people who are entertained by it are sick and wrong. Perhaps these movies using violence in an attempt to make a statement about how it's wrong are analogous to a parent hitting her children and telling them not to hit, but that still doesn't explain how the movies are analogous to pornography. No one seems to want to have honest dialogue or frank discussion of these issues, they just want to deride the movies and leave it at that, and that's not enough for me.

This derision for the horror genre is nothing new; people have always looked down on horror movies. Any horror fan can tell you that. "Horror" is a broad term used to cover all subjects like murder, the occult, monsters...all things that make us uncomfortable and appeal to basic instincts like the fear of death. Most horror films like to feed off people's emotions, giving us ample opportunities to laugh at the antics of their stupid characters and be titillated by the scenes of nudity and sex, but there is always the undercurrent of dread and indeed most of the aforementioned sex scenes end in bloody death for the characters involved. Because of this macabre bent, fans who keep returning to these films are often maligned for their taste in movies more than fans of westerns or romantic comedies or any other genre. People can't understand why anyone would keep being entertained by fear and death, and they can't accept it as just like any other genre BECAUSE of the fear and death. As a longtime horror fan, I'm used to that derision. But it's beginning to irk me that now even other horror fans are separating themselves by saying "I'm a fan but I don't like those movies." It's fine not to like watching people be tortured, but does that make you more moral than me or others who DO like watching torture movies? Most of the time I identify with characters who feel helpless and who are suffering, and I like watching them triumph and take their revenge. I understand that the movie is fiction, and thus not real, so seeing it is a cathartic experience for me and I respect filmmakers and actors when they can portray torture and revenge with style. What's so wrong about that?

My guess is that "torture porn" is tied in people's minds with a vague sense that these movies are supposed to titillate us instead of disgust us and somehow they're connected with pornography which is sleazy, right? And these movies are also sleazy, right?

I think a great point could be made about how the term "torture porn" applies to some movies (specifically "Murder Set Pieces") and how these movies function in the same way a porn functions. I actually researched this after I first watched the movie "Murder Set Pieces," watching it again back-to-back with a porn movie and comparing the two just to see if my conclusions had any merit. And the two movies were almost identical in set up: characters meet, they have an exciting and intimate interaction, the scene ends with bodily fluids spraying (otherwise known as a "money shot").

Lather, rinse, repeat. The only difference was that with "Murder Set Pieces" the build-up leads to a scene of bloody death instead of sexual release, and the body fluid that sprays is blood instead of semen. I really expected more people to chime in and compare that movie with pornography, but critics stayed largely silent on the subject which was fine with me, because I really didn't think "Murder Set Pieces" deserved any more attention than it was already receiving (I still don't, put simply, it's a piece of poorly crafted garbage). Then critics started dragging some of my favorite movies through the mud and linking THOSE to pornography, and I got upset. Without any evidence that the movies are meant for the sole purpose of titillating us, you have no business comparing them to pornography.

But at least if you made the assertion that these movies excite us in the way that porn excites us and that's disgusting you'd be making SOME effort at identifying what you mean by calling them "torture porn." Most critics don't even go that far. And it's a shame. There's an intelligent discussion to be found somewhere in all these examples, but we're not going to find it in any of the recent diatribes against "torture porn" because people are using the term to incite anger without exploring what it means and how it applies to the films they're trying to degrade. Until we can come to a place where we can sit and have intelligent dialogue about why some people enjoy watching extremely violent movies WITHOUT labeling those who watch the films as somehow morally inferior to those who don't, I don't think we're going to advance much as movie fans, we're just going to stagnate in a sea of issues that we can't discuss without insulting each other. I know from experience how torturous THAT is..