Quentin Tarantino on uncovering man's darkest fantasies
March 19, 2006 | 12:00am
Internationally renowned filmmaker Quentin Tarantino presents Eli Roth's "Hostel," the follow-up to the writer-director's 2002 hit debut, "Cabin Fever." More grisly than Roth's feature bow, "Hostel" is a mixture of many of the most terrifying things about human nature and the world at large, culled from many impossible-but-true stories of human trafficking, international organized crime, and sex tourism.
Relentlessly graphic and deeply disturbing, the film is sure to shock even the most hardcore genre fans.
It's so scary that Tarantino has issued a warning to film fans because he doesn't want audiences passing out at the cinema. The Oscar-winning "Pulp Fiction" director insists the film - about kids that are lured into an Eastern European hotel that doubles up as a torture chamber - is truly "horrifying" and definitely not for the faint of heart.
He says, "Be careful about the film; you might end up in a hospital at the end of the night, it's no joke. We've actually had people pass out at screenings and they had to call the paramedics." (In the Philippines, the MTRCB has slapped the film with an R-18 Rating - no cuts, due to scenes showing extreme violence and nudity.)
"Hostel" opened at No. 1 in the U.S. box-office as a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" film. Its director Roth caught the attention of his idol, Tarantino, through his 2002 feature debut "Cabin Fever" which grossed $100 million (in ticket and DVD sales) on a $1.5 million budget. Now, the two are buddies. The two edgy, eccentric filmmakers discuss their first collaboration in the following interview. Question: Eli, you decided to make "Hostel" while floating in Quentin's pool, right?
Eli Roth: I was getting offered remakes, but one day Quentin says, "What are your ideas?" I told him about this one movie that would be really cheap, $2 or $3 million, and completely sick. He said, "That's the sickest f-ing idea - make that movie!"
Q: You made it for less than $5 million?
Roth: Horror audiences don't need to see some TV actor they're familiar with. So we said, let's keep the costs low to keep the gore high. Quentin Tarantino: One of the exciting things about "Hostel" is there's this kind of new horror film right now: ultraviolent, get-under-your-skin movies. It's really the first new wave since the eighties slasher films - even the "Scream" movies still owed stuff to that period.
Q: Where does it come from?
Tarantino: Man, it all started with Takashi Miike [the Japanese director known for fast, cheap, and viciously out-of-control films like "Audition"]. He's the godfather. And Seijun Suzuki, and of course Kinji Fukasaku's "Battle Royale." It really heated up in Japan about six years ago, and America has been warming to it. "Saw," "Saw II," "Wolf Creek," these are all a part of this subgenre. For "Kill Bill," I had to make one version for Japan and a less violent version for America. Eli was able to make the Japanese version of "Hostel" and release it in America.
Q: Why?
Tarantino: Because audiences have had six years to absorb Japanese films on DVD. That level of intensity would have pushed people away. Now audiences have made it mainstream.
Q: But isn't it still just teenage guys in the theater?
Roth: No! They say half the audience for "Saw II" was teenage girls.
Q: Quentin, how does Eli fit into this new scene?
Tarantino: He's what horror films have been waiting for: not a video director trying to make his first movie and then move on or the older guy who resents the fact that he's still doing horror films. Eli wants to make horror films.
Q: How do you rate his gore?
Tarantino: The problem is, if you go to see an ultraviolent movie, you're buying a ticket to contraband. Only, most are rarely as shocking or intense as their trailers. But this new group of films is really scary - and I think Eli's made the most horrifying entry.
Q: A lot of genre filmmakers seem, annoyingly, to be sticking metaphors in their films, like George
Lucas inserting Iraq commentary. Does yours have a message, too?
Roth: Well, I think you're really talking about that feeling people get when somebody's doing a terrible job of it, trying to cram a message down your throat. At "Crash," I couldn't breathe. But you know, a lot of people read "Cabin Fever" as a metaphor for AIDS. I'm just not going to spell it out.
Q: What about "Hostel?"
Roth: Look, I just want to scare you. But maybe you watch it a second time and you see that all the stuff the American backpackers are saying about Amsterdam hookers in the beginning of the movie could be said about the Americans at the end. That this slaughterhouse they end up in is a demented version of Amsterdam's brothels and the movie's really about exploitation.
Q: Is that why it's so scary? Roth: I was really just thinking about how terrifying those Al Qaeda videos are-that idea that no matter what you say, they're still going to torture and kill you. And I thought, "Wouldn't it be more terrifying if it wasn't a political act but a sexual act?" Like those Americans paying for a hooker in Amsterdam.
"Hostel" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.
Relentlessly graphic and deeply disturbing, the film is sure to shock even the most hardcore genre fans.
It's so scary that Tarantino has issued a warning to film fans because he doesn't want audiences passing out at the cinema. The Oscar-winning "Pulp Fiction" director insists the film - about kids that are lured into an Eastern European hotel that doubles up as a torture chamber - is truly "horrifying" and definitely not for the faint of heart.
He says, "Be careful about the film; you might end up in a hospital at the end of the night, it's no joke. We've actually had people pass out at screenings and they had to call the paramedics." (In the Philippines, the MTRCB has slapped the film with an R-18 Rating - no cuts, due to scenes showing extreme violence and nudity.)
"Hostel" opened at No. 1 in the U.S. box-office as a "Quentin Tarantino Presents" film. Its director Roth caught the attention of his idol, Tarantino, through his 2002 feature debut "Cabin Fever" which grossed $100 million (in ticket and DVD sales) on a $1.5 million budget. Now, the two are buddies. The two edgy, eccentric filmmakers discuss their first collaboration in the following interview. Question: Eli, you decided to make "Hostel" while floating in Quentin's pool, right?
Eli Roth: I was getting offered remakes, but one day Quentin says, "What are your ideas?" I told him about this one movie that would be really cheap, $2 or $3 million, and completely sick. He said, "That's the sickest f-ing idea - make that movie!"
Q: You made it for less than $5 million?
Roth: Horror audiences don't need to see some TV actor they're familiar with. So we said, let's keep the costs low to keep the gore high. Quentin Tarantino: One of the exciting things about "Hostel" is there's this kind of new horror film right now: ultraviolent, get-under-your-skin movies. It's really the first new wave since the eighties slasher films - even the "Scream" movies still owed stuff to that period.
Q: Where does it come from?
Tarantino: Man, it all started with Takashi Miike [the Japanese director known for fast, cheap, and viciously out-of-control films like "Audition"]. He's the godfather. And Seijun Suzuki, and of course Kinji Fukasaku's "Battle Royale." It really heated up in Japan about six years ago, and America has been warming to it. "Saw," "Saw II," "Wolf Creek," these are all a part of this subgenre. For "Kill Bill," I had to make one version for Japan and a less violent version for America. Eli was able to make the Japanese version of "Hostel" and release it in America.
Q: Why?
Tarantino: Because audiences have had six years to absorb Japanese films on DVD. That level of intensity would have pushed people away. Now audiences have made it mainstream.
Q: But isn't it still just teenage guys in the theater?
Roth: No! They say half the audience for "Saw II" was teenage girls.
Q: Quentin, how does Eli fit into this new scene?
Tarantino: He's what horror films have been waiting for: not a video director trying to make his first movie and then move on or the older guy who resents the fact that he's still doing horror films. Eli wants to make horror films.
Q: How do you rate his gore?
Tarantino: The problem is, if you go to see an ultraviolent movie, you're buying a ticket to contraband. Only, most are rarely as shocking or intense as their trailers. But this new group of films is really scary - and I think Eli's made the most horrifying entry.
Q: A lot of genre filmmakers seem, annoyingly, to be sticking metaphors in their films, like George
Lucas inserting Iraq commentary. Does yours have a message, too?
Roth: Well, I think you're really talking about that feeling people get when somebody's doing a terrible job of it, trying to cram a message down your throat. At "Crash," I couldn't breathe. But you know, a lot of people read "Cabin Fever" as a metaphor for AIDS. I'm just not going to spell it out.
Q: What about "Hostel?"
Roth: Look, I just want to scare you. But maybe you watch it a second time and you see that all the stuff the American backpackers are saying about Amsterdam hookers in the beginning of the movie could be said about the Americans at the end. That this slaughterhouse they end up in is a demented version of Amsterdam's brothels and the movie's really about exploitation.
Q: Is that why it's so scary? Roth: I was really just thinking about how terrifying those Al Qaeda videos are-that idea that no matter what you say, they're still going to torture and kill you. And I thought, "Wouldn't it be more terrifying if it wasn't a political act but a sexual act?" Like those Americans paying for a hooker in Amsterdam.
"Hostel" is distributed by Columbia Pictures, the local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.
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