EliRoth

By Todd Gilchrist

The end of Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is pretty much a disaster, but if you can get there from the beginning of the film you may not mind. Ti West's disowned sequel to Eli Roth's 2002 cult movie indisputably falls apart in its final scenes, but the writer-director of The House of the Devil has an unerring ear for naturalism, even when firmly ensconced in teen comedy territory, and makes the most of material that otherwise might not deserve such attention to detail. All of which means that this may not be the best follow-up for new fans of the filmmaker, but Cabin Fever 2 is far from the "complete disaster" status that for three years made it the black sheep of Lionsgate's often-lackluster catalogue.

The film stars Noah Segan (The Brothers Bloom) as John, a high school senior who wants to ask his friend Cassie (Alexi Wasser) to the prom but is paralyzed by the prospect of a beatdown by her psycho sometime-ex-boyfriend Marc (Marc Senter). His buddy Alex (Rusty Kelley) manages to score himself a date after comforting a forlorn stripper named Liz (Regan Deal), but their plans for a perfect night are dashed when the entire populace of the school succumbs to a bizarre, deadly disease. Fleeing from military forces determined to contain the outbreak, not mention decaying, highly-contagious members of their graduating class, John, Cassie and Alex fight to escape their school before flying bullets – or worse yet, blood – prevent them from seeing the next morning.

It's no secret that Eli Roth is a total fan boy. His 2005 film Hostel is littered with references to his favorite horror movies and tons of Tarantino flicks. There is one film that stands out above the rest--helping to cinch the mood and lure the viewer further into a seductive yet horrifying tale in a foreign land. Roth has stated that The Wicker Man was a huge inspiration for his film about a group of backpackers who fall prey to the idle hands of the sadistic jet set. It's easy to see parallel themes running between these mirror worlds--a duality in which much is to be revealed. Sexual panic, erotic rituals and sacrifice permeate both films and seal the microcosm of outsider and insider, sacred and profane, visible and unseen.

Hostel's Paxton (Jay Hernandez) and Josh (Derek Richardson) lack the moral character of Wicker Man's protagonist Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) as the epitome of American hedonism. Paxton is the fearless, sexual deviant and Josh his inexperienced, uncertain counterpart. Despite Josh's seemingly innocent underpinnings, both are homophobic (yet ironically 'homoerotic') and generally ignorant. The beauty of Roth's handling is his ability to engender empathy for these two unsavory characters--reminding us that they are as much a product of their society as those who eventually slaughter them. While their packages couldn't be more opposite, both the backpackers (I see Paxton and Josh almost as one figure) and the investigator share many common traits. Both are in hot pursuit of the 'other', which it turns out doesn't actually exist, and both contend with the embrace or struggle of their own unexamined moral precipice.

The crew over at Shock Till You Drop has an exclusive first look at Ti West's Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever trailer. You can check out the trailer after the jump. The film goes straight to DVD and Blu-Ray February 16, 2010. Features include an audio commentary, a 'Making of' feature and a gag reel. There will be a rated and unrated version of the movie available, which according to our Peter Hall has plenty of gross-out gore.

The road to Eli Roth's Cabin Fever sequel has been a long one for director Ti West (The House of the Devil) who has not been shy about sharing his dissatisfaction for the version that Lionsgate will be releasing. He has described his experience with the sequel as mixed but mostly negative, due to post-production issues he had with the re-edit of his cut of the film. West dropped out of the process and wanted to slap the Directors Guild of America pseudonym 'Alan Smithee' in the studio's face but the name has been discontinued since 2000.

Cabin Fever 2 takes the flesh-eating virus from the first film out of the woods and into a high school prom. I haven't seen the film yet but the trailer reminds me of a 1980's teen sex farce. And there's tons of blood. Rider Strong and Giuseppe Andrews return for the sequel in addition to Noah Segan, Alexander Isaiah Thomas, and Alexi Wasser. Hit the jump for prom happy gore.

Ever since Inglorious Basterds took cinemas by storm, Eli "The Bear Jew" Roth has been all the rage, and one can't browse the horror sites without seeing his name in some capacity. He most recently produced the thriller Cotton, which has been described as a cinema verite-style film that chronicles a disillusioned priest's final exorcism, and the always-busy Roth has already begun prepping a new flick, Endangered Species.

Speaking with MTV about the film, Roth revealed the film will be a mix between Transformers and Cloverfield, though whether or not this means it will be filmed in the same manner as the latter is anyone's guess. The plot of the film is being kept under wraps, but in a recent interview with CHUD, Roth revealed that he has been working on the script for the past eighteen months, and that it will have a much smaller budget than one would presume for a film of this caliber.

The script is currently being tweaked after Roth received from suggestions from Quentin Tarantino, and shooting is set to begin sometime next year. Special thanks to Shock for the heads up.

In my nightly trolling for all things spooky, I stumbled across this flick from the American Film Market that has until now skated under my radar. Cotton, produced by the bear Jew himself, Eli Roth, tells the story of a priest who has turned his back on faith and allows a documentary team to film his last exorcism. I haven't seen the flick, but I'm going to assume that all hell breaks loose.

Bloody-Disgusting reports that it's being pitched asREC meets the Exorcist, which leads me to believe it will be shot without a tripod, poorly lit, and that they'll try to sell it to us as a true story. It was a matter of time, really. After the ubiquitous Paranormal Activity, everyone from big time studios to indie filmmakers are realizing how cost effective and frightening the cinema verite style can be. (Strange how there wasn't a glut of these back in 1999.)

In the next 2 years, we'll be seeing every possible permutation of the horror film filtered through a jittery lens. Generally, it's an effective way to place the audience right in the thick of things. While the technique is spreading like the REC virus into other genres, the heaviest concentration is in our deviant little corner of the film world. With it proliferating just about everything we watch, I have to wonder when this fad will reach critical mass. And is it even a fad? Is this just a new technique of directing that has now established itself as something other than a gimmick?

By Todd Gilchrist

After just a few short years in Hollywood, Eli Roth has managed to create a genuinely multifaceted career, not only as a writer and director, but a producer, and most recently, actor as well. After a few small roles in his own films and a brief appearance on both sides of the camera in Grindhouse (he not only directed the fake-trailer Thanksgiving but played one of the guys getting Jungle Julia drunk in Death Proof), Quentin Tarantino enlisted Roth to play Donnie Donowitz, also known as "the Bear Jew," in his WWII opus Inglourious Basterds. If appearing in a second Tarantino film wasn't enough, this time he's sharing the screen with a literally international cast, headed up by none other than Brad Pitt, with whom he shares the majority of his screen time.

Cinematical recently spoke to Roth in an exclusive telephone interview, where he acknowledged his good fortune thus far. In addition to talking about his role in Inglourious Basterds, Roth talked at length about how playing Donowitz rekindled his creative fire behind the camera, and he also reflected on what makes the horror in horror movies last once they've left the screen.

Cinematical: In Hollywood, directors don't usually say, "what I really want to do is act."

Eli Roth: I'm actually at a photo shoot, so I'm going from director to actor, now a model, and what I'll end up as is a waiter.

The Rotten Tomatoes Show often has an actor or filmmaker stop by to share a Top 5 Movies list of some sort, and next week's show has a doozy. In a special sneak preview offered to Cinematical & Horror Squad by our friends at Current TV, we now offer the clip for your perusal. But since we ARE talking about the exploitation-lovin' Eli Roth, gore-slingin' director of Cabin Fever and Hostel, AND the guy who bashes Nazis in the noggin in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, you can expect the movie clips to be a little bit ... nasty.

So enjoy the sneak preview clip after the jump, and if you'd like to know a little more about Eli's #1 pick (hehe), here's a semi-recent review of it that I penned for FEARnet.com.

By Todd Gilchrist

During an exclusive telephone interview to promote his role as Pvt. Donny Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic Inglourious Basterds, Eli Roth told Cinematical that Thanksgiving is not the next film he's set to direct, but it's definitely going to get made. "That movie, the financing, the money is in a bank account," Roth said. "I mean, I could literally say I'm starting production tomorrow we'd start. It's 100 percent up to me, but I'm just working on the script with Jeff Rendell, the co-writer. Jeff's the one who in the trailer, he plays the Pilgrim, and we're just writing it. We're just figuring it out and we're just coming up with the kills and the characters."

Thanksgiving was initially created as a fake movie trailer that connected the two theatrical halves of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' Grindhouse, but its own popularity inspired the director to blow it up from a 16mm short into a feature film. Roth actually indicated that Endangered Species, a PG-13 sci-fi film in the vein of Cloverfield, was to be his next directorial effort. "I want to be finished with Endangered, and then Jeff is supposed to come out to Los Angeles probably some time in August and we'll probably bang out the script," he explained, indicating that the disparate content of the two films may ultimately complement his enthusiasm creatively.

If you said "Eli Roth," then you're psychic. (Or you read the recent interview over at Fango.) Turns out that in addition to projects like Endangered Species and Thanksgiving, Mr. Roth is also involved with a faux-doco possession thriller called Cotton, a POV slasher flick called Psycho Killer, and (if he has his way) a new version of Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse! Now that's a remake I can actually get behind, for most of the reasons that Eli mentions below:

"The first half is brilliant-they set up these great characters-and then they pay off none of them. You have Marco the Magician sawing his daughter in half, the brothers who run the carnival and the funhouse setting. And then it's all about this weird mutant thing. It should be about the kids getting killed in horrible ways, put in different contraptions in the funhouse and the final girl being strapped into the ride and sent into the tunnels to be confronted by terrifying tableaux of her dead friends. A smart remake could be so much fun."

And here's a strange bit of trivia regarding the original flick: Dean Koontz wrote a novelization of the screenplay, but the flick got delayed a bit, which means the book actually came out first. The film is NOT based on a Koontz novel, but in fact it's the other way around. Dorky horror trivia like that is why I'm here.

Thoughts? Opinings? Do you love The Funhouse so much that you can't stomach the idea of a remake? Or does this one actually sound like a good idea? Lord knows with Gorehound Roth at the helm, this remake would be no lame-ass PG-13 affair.

By Monika Bartyzel

The bloody turkeys are coming! Okay ... this isn't the big news, but it's what I'm going to go with first, because I think we've all been waiting long enough to hear about a longer, more bloody Thanksgiving. Eli Roth may have said: "Thanksgiving was the most fun I've ever had shooting anything, and the response to it was the best response to anything I've ever done in my career," back in 2007, but that's all we heard -- the faint glimmer of hope thrown at the fans, just like Machete. But the idea isn't dead.

In a discussion with MTV, Roth revealed that he still wants to make that Grindhouse trailer into a full-length feature. "I want to make the highest body count slasher film I can," Roth said, while explaining that he hopes he can tack $5 mil and a few weeks onto another, bigger film to finally make Thanksgiving a reality.

This bigger film doesn't have a name yet, but Roth says he's almost done with the script and plans to start production this fall. "I don't want to give away the title yet, because I have to make sure I own it 100%, but it's going to be something that is really fun with lots of mass destruction. I wanted to do something along the lines of Transformers or Cloverfield that was a little more science fiction-based, and with lots of chaos and mass destruction."

He says it's not aliens, or robots, or a virus, so what could it be? All he'll say is: "when people hear it they are going to be like 'That is going to be insane!'" But first he's got to shop it around to studios who can pay his proposed $85 million price tag -- $80 for the scifi feature, and $5 for Thanksgiving. If only the latter could gobble its way to screens in time for the holiday...