With new and improved levels of grotesque, thought-devoid super-gore.
There’s a commentary article from The Guardian titled, “For Your Entertainment” that examines the reemerging popularity of horror films. A lot of what the author says in the article I take issue with, but some of her points are extremely valid and the quotes and insights into the minds of the films’ directors alone make it worthwhile reading.
I saw Grindhouse. Being the developing feminist that I am, some may respond to that idea with bewilderment. “Why, pray tell Miss gingermiss, would you voluntarily patronize such a low and base form of intellectually degenerate entertainment, that makes no bones about it’s exploitative attitudes towards women? I demand satisfaction on this point!” That’s a very valid question, no matter how awkwardly worded.
I have a moderately like-strongly dislike relationship with Quentin Tarantino. There are elements of his films I admire and enjoy. There are elements of his films I condemn. Pro: He’s written some extremely strong female characters into his movies. Con: He loves sex, violence, and combining/confusing the two. Pro: He genuinely loves movies and enjoys melding his own cinematic endeavors with the stories he treasured in his viewing youth. Con: He genuinely loves movies, no matter how ridiculously stupid, vapid, sexist, racist, trashy, flawed, and understandably not-revered they are. Pro: He’s enthusiastic and takes an avid interest in what’s going on in the world of entertainment. Con: He financially and publicly promotes movies and directors that suck and would otherwise receive less attention. Directors like Eli Roth.
Talking about his upcoming film Hostel II at a press junket recently, the young director Eli Roth couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for the poster devised by the film’s marketing team - a close-up of some sinewy, gleaming boar meat. “Any time people see women in a horror film,” he noted, “they say, ‘Oh, these girls are just pieces of meat.’ And, literally, in Hostel Part II, that’s exactly what they are. They are the bait, they are the meat, they are the grist for the mill. So I thought it was actually a really smart poster … and really, really disgusting! I love it.”
Ah, the sweet words of a poet. That’s smart, ladies and gents. That’s his idea of a smart poster. To Eli Roth, smart and whatever gets peoples’ attention are the same thing. But it gets better. Here’s another gem from the article.
Of course, maybe Roth’s just trying to be funny - his tone is gleeful throughout this interview (a transcript and audio version of which can be found on a number of film websites). Later in the interview he says: “Let me tell you, I heard that Stanley Kubrick did a lot of takes on Eyes Wide Shut, it was nothing compared to the amount of takes we did once we had that cheerleader naked and bouncing around on a trampoline! I mean, she was great, she got it on the first take, but we did take, after take, after take! And we finished early and we had like three hours, and we’re like, ‘Well, how much film do we have?’ And we’re like, ‘All right, let’s … let’s do it again!’ And she just had a smile on her face the whole time.”
Roth is referring to the fake trailer he made for Grindhouse, which was, by far, the most offensive thing in the film, although I’m sorry to give him any sense of accomplishment. The scene he’s describing - where a cheerleader on a trampoline takes off her clothes and gets a knife to the vagina when she performs a split - was really beyond the offensiveness level of anything else in the movie. Anything. And it was over three hours of violence, sex, and gore.
I feel like the quote really speaks for itself. They all do. He’s a deranged shameless psychopath; a one-track misogynist. One of the most common criticisms of Hostel when it was released was the fact that it was glamorized torture porn and nothing else. It was a cinematic (and mental) regression; a move back into the days of unmitigated and unappropriated violence. Owen Gleiberman opened his Entertainment Weekly review of the film with this statement: “Sadism was once an element in horror films. Now it’s more or less the only element…” One of the posters for Hostel Part 2 was the naked body of Bijou Philips from the neck down with a severed head in her hands. You can Google it if you want to see it. I don’t want to link it since most of the pages that have it only have it to gush about what a great fucking poster it is.
Honestly, what the hell is wrong with people? Whether or not you enjoy horror movies, no one has any problems with Eli Roth flagrantly waving his I-kill-women-and-I-love-it attitude in peoples’ faces? He makes me nauseous. He’s repulsive. His attitude and thought-processes are way more frightening than anything in his movies. If he really wants to terrify people, he should consider making an autobiographical documentary.
I’ll end this post with another quote from the article. This man is making movies. He’s making tons of money off them, receiving loads of attention and accolades, and enjoying every minute of it.
“When I shot that trailer for Thanksgiving, I really thought there was no problem with anything - it just shows you how genuinely out of touch I am! I was like … a full frontal labial shot, to camera, of a girl landing on a knife seemed like no problem to me …”
Out of touch. I can think of several other words for it.
EDIT: I found the link here, by the way, at Women’s Space in one of the post comments.
