|
Interview:
I know you’re in the final stages
of post and I was wondering if you’ve shown some sort of
final cut to a room full of close buddies. I’m assuming
you do something like that, right?
Always! I never put it before an
audience unless I’ve show it to a group of people who I
really trust. Plus you need to have some strangers in there
who don’t know you so you can get an honest reaction -
people who won’t go on the Internet and say shit about it.
You have to do that because it’s really the only way to tell
if people are going to get it. But I do it mostly for story
points, to see if people are confused or not. And sometimes
people will not get something, which tells me that I need to
clarify that point by throwing a specific line back in or
something.
So do you guys plan to do an
official test screening?
Well now the problem is that so
much stuff that gets out on the Internet so fast that testing a
movie like HOSTEL II doesn’t really make much sense because
if the movie is working then it’s working. There’s not much
you’re going to learn from a test audience. It’s all about
getting that group of people that you really trust.
We’ll get everyone together in the
editing room, show the film, ask them what they thought and
you can feel it - I mean, whether or not people are telling
you the truth to your face. All you have to do is sit there
and watch them during the movie and that tells you
everything. If they’re rolling in their seats, if they’re
checking their watches then they’re bored. If they’re
riveted or silent then you know you’ve got them. That always
works best for me. I’ll always show it to a group of
trusted people.
What did you set out to
accomplish with HOSTEL II?
I wanted to make a better movie. I
wanted to make a film like ROAD WARRIOR or ALIENS. That was
my goal. I didn’t want to repeat the first one. I didn’t
want to do some knockoff and I didn’t want someone else to
do it. I also wanted to make it myself so I could keep the
integrity of the franchise. I wanted to make a movie where
people walked out saying “You know what, that was scarier
then the first one, it was far more disturbing then the
first one and it was a much better movie.”
Well that’s good to hear. Most
people would just add more tits, more blood and of course a
higher body count.
Well, the simple truth is that it’s
easy to be more disgusting. If I wanted to do that I would
just chop up more body parts. Not hard to do. But to make a
movie - one that’s scarier, smarter and better then the
first - is difficult. People expect a certain experience,
and I said to myself - how do you make a sequel to a horror
movie? You look at JAWS 2, EXORCIST 2 and these are bad
movies. I mean with THE EXORCIST 2 you can’t just have a
girl getting possessed by the devil again, but then how is
it an EXORCIST movie without that?
Then I looked at some horror
sequels that I love like SAW 2 or THE DEVIL’S REJECTS and
these were sequels that really took what was great about the
first one and expanded upon it. And it’s tough because I
know people who go to this movie are looking forward to
scary torture scenes so how do you do that so people aren’t
just waiting for it. And how do you make them scarier then
the first time, and how do you make new twists with new
surprises. I want to satisfy the audience for what they’re
going to see there in the first place, but at the same time
I wanted to take the story to another level.
What excites me most about
HOSTEL II is how you pick up directly from the first movie.
You just don’t see that much anymore. I can remember the
first time I saw HALLOWEEN II and how excited I was that it
continued right down to the minute.
It drives me crazy when you go see
a sequel and they somehow link the two movies together. Once
I started thinking of the movie as HOSTEL PART II it really
freed me up, and that's what I want to see. I want to see what happens
literally if we pick up exactly where the first one left
off, where it’s literally the next cut. I want to be able to
cut out the ending credits from the first film and the
opening credits from the second and watch it like one movie,
and so few sequels do that. I think that’s why people are
there. That’s why I’m there. I wish all sequels began that
way.
You mention how when you thought
of continuing the story directly from the first film it freed
you up. Can you elaborate on that?
Well you stop thinking about how
to top the first one. What’s going to be the equivalent of the
eyes scene? You stop equating the two movies and you start
thinking in more linear terms. What happens next? And
introducing new characters, new storylines, showing things
from different points of view. And I originally thought
- wouldn’t it be great if you repeated the first movie from
the perspective of the client? That kind of initial
inception, and then you’d end the movie with Rick Hoffman
getting shot. But in the end I realized that wasn’t enough
to fill up a whole movie.
But I saw what people really
responded to. Like when Rick Hoffman asks Jay Hernandez what
it’s like to kill someone. Rick was acting like a kid on Christmas
morning and that really disturbed people. I realized then
that I was onto something. Everyone connected to the scene
and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to explore the
psychology of these guys. Plus I wanted to continue the
story with girls, and I wanted to continue the story with
Jay. So we have different storylines that are weaving in and
out with one another.
I liked HOSTEL and gave it a
very good review, but one of the things that I didn’t like
was how much of the plot was given away in the marketing
campaign.
Are you guys watching that more closely this time around?
I wish they didn’t have trailers
for anything and people would just go see the movie, but the
reality is that it’s a business and peoples’ jobs depend on
these movies making money so they’re going to cut TV spots a
certain way to get people in the theaters. The people who
were the luckiest are the ones who saw it with no prior
knowledge at all. I think they probably enjoyed it the most.
But in the end I feel the film still works.
The studio has been really great
with HOSTEL II and I think it’s because at this point they
don’t really need to explain what the film is. They’re not
even going to test screen it. We might not even have a
premier because they don’t want stuff leaking out. They
think that the name HOSTEL is enough to get people in the
theaters.
My guess is that you’d be right.
So let me ask you this - If you were dragged into one of
these hostels and tortured what would be the worst torture
method for you? I’m assuming you’ve thought about this over
the past few years, right?
Well yeah, every torture you see in
the movie is something I’ve thought about myself going
through. So the movie pretty much answers that question.
But if someone had a chainsaw to
your face and you had to pick one, something that really
makes your stomach turn.
There’s one that I saw in the
Museum of Torture in Prague where they had an illustration
of a guy upside down, naked and they’ve got his legs
wish boned. Now keep in mind, this is a torture that the
church used to do to get confessions from witches. And they
had two guys with a hand saw sawing the guy down the middle.
Just back and form, back and forth. And what the display
said is that the blood goes to your brain so that you stay
alive until that thing is all the way though you. That
pretty much makes my skin crawl.
Um… yeah I can see why. So
during my viewing of GRINDHOUSE I saw your mock trailer for
THANKSGIVING. Do you think that if you made the full version
and released it on an international level that somehow it
would lead to work peace?
Absolutely! I think that if
everyone in the world got together and united to watch
THANKSGIVING it would end all wars. And everyone would break
out into a great big orgy.
So would you ever make the movie
for fun?
I would do that in a fucking
heartbeat. In fact, I’ve been talking with Edgar Right about
doing a double feature with two forty-five minute movies.
He’d do DON’T and I would do THANKSGIVING. We’ve both talked
about it. So at some point in the near future you may see
that double bill.
That trailer is getting some
awesome response. I assume you are aware of that?
You know it’s funny how I went out
of my way to make the worst thing possible and it’s getting
the best response of anything I’ve ever done. But I think
it’s great. It was a blast. No one got paid, and we all did
it for the love of doing it. And it was the most fun I’ve
had shooting anything. Which goes to show that if you do
something you really love then people will respond.
OK man, I’ve definitely taken up
too much of your time so I’ll let you go. Thanks again for
the interview!
It’s been my pleasure, take care
man!
-
Check out the Thanksgiving Trailer
Now!
|
Writer/Director
Eli Roth
