How did The Greats of Roth come about?
After the owner of the New Beverly Cinema died very suddenly last fall, a bunch of the directors who’ve been going there for years got together to see what we could do to help them out. We were so saddened by Sherman’s passing, and we wanted to help them keep the theater going. Edgar Wright, myself, and a few others offered to program a few weeks and do our own festival to get our fans out to support the theater, and to introduce people to the theater who maybe have never seen a film there before. It was an amazing thing to see a full house at the New Beverly when Edgar did his program, and there was a real sense of a community of movie geeks just having fun seeing their favorite films up on the big screen where they belong. It was also fun for the actors in the films who maybe were underappreciated at the time to see an audience really loving their work. Edgar said he’d do his in December, and I took this slot in February.
How did you pick the movies that you are screening?
I started with a big list of double bills I’ve always dreamed of screening, and from there Julia from the New Beverly tried to track down as many as she could. I contacted everyone I knew who had print collections, but many of these films are lost. For example, I wanted to show a double bill of “Hot Dog” and “Hamburger,” two 80’s late night cable classics, but the prints are nearly impossible to track down. But we were able to get some amazing double bills, like “Torso” and “Pieces” thanks to collectors like Quentin Tarantino and Bob Murowski.
How many of these movies are your own personal copy?
One: ZAPPED! It’s my prized possession, a gift from Quentin Tarantino.
Are you worried that people might think differently of you because you are showing movies like Zapped, Caddyshack and Bachelor Party? Does that mean we might some day get a comedy from you?
Um, considering how some people feel about me now I don’t really think I could do anything to further damage my reputation. I’ve always, always, always talked about my love for 80’s sex comedies, and even before I made “Cabin Fever” I did a lot of animation that I put on the “Cabin Fever” DVD, so my fans know that there’s more to me than horror.
Which of these movies do we see in your movies like Cabin Fever and the Hostels?
“Torso” was a huge, huge, huge influence on “Hostel Part II,” as was “Cannibal Holocaust.” But with Torso I took a lot of the style, the setup, the mood, and even the actor Luc Merenda who plays the detective who stabs Jay Hernandez. He’s fantastic in “Torso.” “Pieces” was something I saw as a kid, and but it’s a total coincidence there’s an out-of-nowhere-what-thefuck?-karate moment, which I also do in “Cabin Fever.” That scene happened because the kid who auditioned, Matthew Helms, happened to be a blackbelt in Karate, so we just put it in. It was never in the script. And you think you’re being so original and then I watched “Pieces” again and was like “I completely forget they did that…” “Mother’s Day” is a huge influence on “Cabin Fever,” certainly in terms of the look and the house in the woods. That was very much “Evil Dead” inspired, but “Mother’s Day” was one of my favorite films. Also the title card for “Pieces” and “Mother’s Day” was what I was homaging when I did my title card in my “Grindhouse” trailer “Thanksgiving.” Plus I also used a lot of John Harrison’s music from “Creepshow” in “Thanksgiving,” which is showing right after “Mother’s Day.”
Did you know when you were a kid watching some of these movies that some day you would actually be making them your self?
I was dead certain from the time I was 8 years old, when I saw “Alien,” that the only thing I ever wanted to do with my life was make films. I just knew it. I also knew that growing up in Boston with absolutely no film connections that I’d have to work my ass off to get there, but I all that experience was so much fun, just because I loved being around movies. When my father took me to see “Alien,” I read the producer credit and said “I want to be a producer.” My dad said “Well Eli, you know the producer has to come up with all the money.” I asked “What does the director do?” He said “The director gets to spend all the money and tell everyone what to do.” I just nodded and said “I want to be a director.” From that point on I started watching movies by who the director was. I was very, very aware at 8 years old of who the director was and what they did. I remember being 11 saying “Let’s see the new Kubrick film,” stuff like that. I was a weird kid.
What movies are you not showing that you wish you could? Will they part of The Greats of Roth 2?
There are some films I want to try to find the original negative of just to make a print of it. Films like Fernando di Leo’s “Avere Vent’Anni” and the Israeli “Lemon Popsicles” sex comedies. Those I’d love to show. And as of right now this is just a one time thing, but if it goes well and I have the time I’d love to make it an annual event.
Will we see anything of yours during the screenings? Like a trailer for Cabin Fever 2?
Perhaps… We’ll have lots of special treats before the films.
Anything you can tell us about Cabin Fever 2?
I have no involvement in “Cabin Fever 2,” so I’m just as eager to see a trailer as everyone else. I recommended the director Ti West who I think is extremely talented and thought would do a great job, and I believe they’re in post production on it now. I’ve purposely kept myself out of the loop on all of it so I can have the enjoyment of going to see it in the theater with everyone else, not knowing what to expect.
And whatever happened to The Rotten Fruit?
I love The Rotten Fruit. I have them all in their little fruit sarcophaguses. I saved every single prop and set because I want to shoot more. I got so busy with the “Hostel” movies that I just had to put it aside. But I’ve been talking with several networks who want to get it up and running. My friend Noah Belson and I had like 20 more episodes written and I’d love to make them. Ideally I’d just have them up and running and keep making them forever, and just have them as little bonus shorts on my DVDs.
Seriously that is one awesome line up! Hope to see y’all there, let me know if you are going any of the screenings!
Thanks again to Eli Roth for taking the time to answer my questions and I wish him the best of luck with the festival!
