Eli Roth didn’t direct The Last Exorcism, but he’s the reason many horror fans will go see it. His name as the producer of the film guarantees an edgy horror show. Shot in documentary style, the film shows a showman preacher setting out to prove that exorcists are fraud. Then he meets a girl with really, REALLY convincing symptoms. I joined a group of press to interview Roth but he still gave me the personal shoutout.
Q: When did you get involved with this? Why didn’t you want to direct it or act in it?
Eli Roth: First, I think my acting would have ruined it on many, many levels. Nobody wants to see the Jewish guy in the exorcism movie. I say last summer was about this [swinging a bat], this summer it’s [making a cross.] Eric [Newman] and I have been talking about producing projects together. We’re friends and fans of each other’s movies and obviously I loved Dawn of the Dead and Children of Men and he loved Hostel. We’ve been looking to collaborate and Eric had this idea. He said it’s a documentary of an exorcism gone wrong. He was the one who found Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland. We’re both fans of their movie Mail Order Wife. They were attached to direct it when I read the script. I read it and it was truly one of the scariest, interesting and most compelling scripts. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it took me in a new direction. I’d always wanted to be involved I an exorcism movie but I thought, “Well, how are you ever going to top The Exorcist?” And the answer is you’re not. It’s the scariest movie of all time. But looking at what Eric launched with the Dawn of the Dead remake which I didn’t think could be done, and then you go “look how many zombie movies there are now.” Look what started with Dracula. Today we still have Twilight and True Blood and Vampire diaries. We thought well, why not? Possession is such a relevant topic. Exorcisms are bigger today than they’ve ever been literally. It was such a great, smart, fresh approach I said I have to get involved. It was Studio Canal that said, “We’ll finance the film. As long as we can have Eli’s name on it to sell and do press, then you guys can have the money and have total creative control in how you want to do it.” It just so happened we lost our directors to another movie they had written called The Virginity Hit for Sony, got green lit the exact same time. This was while I was in Berlin on Basterds. There was a window where I thought, “Yes, I could step in to direct it but this is sort of a test of my mettle as a producer.” I can’t just be the default guy, like we lose a director, Eli steps in, he’s the backup plan. Eric and our other producers, Marc Abraham, Thom Bliss, they saw Daniel’s film, A Necessary Death. I remember him calling me, “I think we got the guy.” Sent me the film and I watched it. We all had a phone call with Daniel and that was it. I love making movies and I feel like I’ll never have enough time in my lifetime to make all the films I want. It’s time for me, there are other directors out there who really deserve a break, let’s help them get their films made.
Fred Topel: All the best directors also produce. Was that always part of your career path?
Eli Roth: Yeah, when I was a kid I read Stanley Kubrick produced and directed. I think as a filmmaker today, it costs so much money to release a film. Actually the cost of making a movie has gotten lest. The technology has gone up so you can make a movie for 15 grand that looks pretty good and fool people. Not that we did that for this, but for several million. You have to be a producer. You have to understand where the money goes and how to spend it. On Cabin Fever, Hostel and Hostel II, I was a producer and the combined negative cost of those three films was 16 million dollars. The theatrical gross of them was like $116 million. But I learned it. For 10 years I worked on sets learning budgeting and scheduling. A lot of people think there’s this fantasy you can just show up and direct. If you like basketball, you wouldn’t go, “All right, I’m just going to go play for the Lakers now.” Or “I’ve seen every episode of ER, I’m going to wave my scalpel and show up.” But a lot of people feel “Oh wow, I love movies, I know shots, I’ll be a director.” Also Eric being a producer, you have to be a creative producer. It was Eric’s conception to do this entire film and I think it was a very intelligent one that’s really truly in tune with what people want and what the market is ready for.
Fred Topel: Why do you think the documentary style has caught on again, and what do films benefit from it?
Eli Roth: We all have hi-def video on our iPhones so shooting something first person, people are very used to it. I think that Cloverfield is a brilliant reinvention of what’s a Godzilla movie told that way. The Blair Witch Project is the witch story and Paranormal Activity is a haunted house, Rec is almost like a zombie movie told that way. Going back into the ‘70s, early films like Cannibal Holocaust but really the film that was so effective it wasn’t allowed in theaters is Peter Watkins’ Punishment Park from 1971 which disturbed people so much, anti-war, it’s terrifying. You watch it, you swear no one’s acting. I actually saw it with Tarantino and it wasn’t until he was like, “Oh, that guy was on Dukes of Hazaard.” I thought they were all real people. You need Quentin to decipher who’s the actors in it but it can really be an incredibly exciting way to tell a story. I think the fun of the movie is taking the conventions of The Exorcist, saying our characters are aware of it and watch him go, “Okay, I’m going to make the bed shake here. The speaker comes out here, we’re going to have these noises.” But then later when she goes into her convulsions and you’re in that barn, you think, “Oh my God, either this girl is truly possessed and this is what it looks like, or she’s having a true psychotic break. But this guy can’t handle either.” Now the threat becomes he’d better get her to stop or the father’s going to shoot her.
Q: Are you 100% satisfied with the movie?
Eli Roth: Obviously when you make a movie you set out to hit the mark and sometimes you fall short, sometimes it’s exactly. Other times the films come back, it’s so much more exciting in a way that you never saw before. I thought that Daniel in his whole approach, his favorite director is Lars Von Trier. While he didn’t approach this like a European art film, he knew this was for Hollywood mainstream cinemas, he did take the character approach like he was making The Idiots. Everything had to be real and there’s no such thing as a minor character. It’s all pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and if there is one false note then the whole symphony falls apart. He understood that and he really, really cared about every single detail, making it feel real that no one is acting at any point in the movie. I just thought that approaching it as a character piece in a psychological thriller, which the film at its core is a psychological thriller about a girl who might be crazy or might be possessed, and then letting the horror happen naturally as opposed to “Here’s how I’m going to do this scare and here’s how I’m going to do this scare.” We just knew he was the right guy. We feel incredibly lucky.
Q: Were you surprised it got a PG-13 rating?
Eli Roth: Yes, but not really actually. Let me say this. I was happy. We showed Lionsgate the movie and they bought it. We gave Daniel the freedom to do whatever he wanted. “As gory or as not gory, you cut it where you feel it’s right.” We just kind of found the balance in the editing and then we said, “Let’s make the best movie possible.” Then we sold it to Lionsgate and Lionsgate said if they’re going to make us cut the good stuff, we’re going rated R. Just so happens it came back PG-13. Now I think what happened was they probably watched Piranha right before. That’s an R-rated movie that fully takes advantage of the rating and it’s appropriate for that story. We thought if this was rated R and certainly with my name on it, it would set up expectations. I think people would come out going, “Oh, that wasn’t as violent as I thought it would be.” Whereas now with PG-13, people go in knowing it’s more psychological and they come out going, “My God, who are those actors.” And that’s what we want. We want people thinking of the story and how great the performances are, not “Oh, I was expecting more violence.” I think people’s enjoyment of a film is very, very directly related to what they are set up to see. If you’re told you’re going to get the greatest steak in the world and you get chicken, no matter how good it is, you’ll be like, “What’s wrong? I was expecting steak.” That’s why it’s helpful having these discussions because there’s only so much obviously a 15-second commercial [can tell], people are going to think one thing. So when people know it’s more of a psychological thriller and it’s about the performance, then they come out of it and that’s what we want them to watch.
Q: Why do you think it’s okay to psychologically disturb people in a PG-13?
Eli Roth: Well, we’re talking about religious themes here. It’s good and evil. These are very biblical themes, they’re very relatable themes and I don't think we’re disturbing anybody. I think what you’re doing with a horror film is actually, I think that horror films are an incredible release. We all have fears in our lives, whether it’s fears in our job, in our relationship, this feeling of a rise of evil in the world, will I get blown up by terrorists? Will I lose all my money to some white collar criminal? The horror movie has become this great safe place to release all of that. We’re not presenting it as real. The movie theater is the last bastion in our society where it is socially acceptable to be terrified. When you go to the theater, you can be scared for 90 minutes and there’s no shame associated with that. You’re not a coward for feeling that way and the ratings board are pretty hip to that. They respond to parents of America and they represent the parents of America. Actually, we had a very serious discussion where they say they know the violence on television is far worse than violence in a PG-13 movie. When you turn on your television, the violence you can see is so much more than anything you’re going to see in a PG-13 movie. So parents are just much more accepting of it because it’s in their own homes and their kids can watch that. That seems to be no problem. But when we’re in a movie and we’re telling you, you go to a movie theater and you know it’s fake, it’s about releasing those fears rather than implanting them in people’s brains.
Fred Topel: When are we going to see you direct again, because we like your movies too?
Eli Roth: Why thank you, Fred, I like you. Yeah, obviously I’ve had these incredible opportunities with Inglourious Basterds to explore this side as an actor. That certainly helped raise my profile to get movies like Last Exorcism made and it’s very satisfying to be part of a project, to work with Eric and Marc Abraham and present this new director Daniel Stamm, and Ashley Bell who I think will go on to make many different types of movies. I’m not avoiding your question. I’ve actually been working on the script for a new film and I’ve been a bit sidetracked because they bought the movie and put it out August 27th. Because I’m kind of leading all the publicity, which was my commitment when we sold the movie. They’re buying it based on my guarantee to do publicity. I’ve got to follow through on that commitment which will take me to mid-September. Then I can sit down and finish the script. Believe me, not a day doesn’t goes by that Eric doesn’t call me going, “Where’s the script?” Trust me, if you’re thinking of it, that’s what I have Eric for. The plan is to jump right into it in the fall.
Q: What is it called?
Eli Roth: Endangered Species. That’s all I can say. It is a film.
