Oh, Bloody Hell

Can you imagine that if at the end of every one of Stanley Kubrick's movies, he made an announcement that stated: you better see this one because I'm not making another movie for about six more years. It would be shameless, but might be motivation since Kubrick's movies were so good. You might just want to get your fix in, knowing that it will be some time before you see another.

The same cannot be said of Eli Roth's movies. Damian over at Windmills Of My Mind has posted about a recent message from Eli Roth's MySpace page about the poor reception to Hostel II. You can read Eli's message here, but allow me to paraphrase. He blames poor receipts on piracy of his movie. Along with his "poor me" message, Eli very subtlety issues a couple of threats. One that says that he plans on taking the rest of the year off before making another movie, so in actuality we're looking at at least two years before we see another movie from him. Man, two whole years. That's 730 days! His second threat is about the death of the 'R' rated horror movie saying that by going to see Hostel II, you are sending a message to Hollywood. He asks all of his "friends" on MySpace to invite their "friends" to go see the movie this weekend because that would really make a difference. He asks his "friends" to invite non-horror movie fans. Now, I have yet to see Hostel II, but I can say based on the subject matter, if you want a horror newbie to stay away from horror forever, bring them to a screening of Hostel or its sequel for they represent horror movies as a whole about as much as The Benchwarmers' represents comedy as a whole.

My problem with Eli Roth is (and I have stated this in many comment sections of many blogs) is that I don't like him being the poster child for horror. I appreciate that he has brought horror to the forefront, but to me horror deserves better. I did not care for Cabin Fever as a debut (you want to see a good horror debut, check out Malevolence). I also don't care for how Roth promotes his films as some sort of cathartic response to the war in Iraq and 9/11. I don't have to see Hostel or its sequel to know that they are not that important of films. And now, Eli tells us that we better see this one because he won't be making another for a while and that by not seeing this, we're contributing to the death of good horror? I would just like to see Eli's film based on what others have to say about it, not him.

Damian asks the rhetorical question "is Eli serious?" And the problem is, I think he is.

My last bit on this is this: I can say what I will and others may to about Eli Roth, but he certainly has made us all a flutter about what he is doing. And like chum in the water, we're all circling and feeding off of it. I honestly plan on seeing Hostel II because I believe it a bit hypocritical to comment on this as much as I have without seeing either I or II. I have made this bed and now I must sleep in it. And as a horror lover, I am interested in seeing where the current state of horror is even if I necessarily don't agree with it. But past that, I'm done talking about Eli. He's really not worth my time if I don't ultimately respect him. He's really given me no reason to.