The Post's Caitlin Price interviewed Eli Roth, the director of the new horror flick Hostel.
The Post: Now what exactly was your inspiration for the movie?
Eli Roth: Well, it actually came from a Web site that (newsman) Harry Knolls showed me four years ago. It was a Web site that advertised that you could go to Thailand, and for $10,000 walk into a room and shoot someone in the head ... We sat and we said, Is this real and does such a place exist or did someone just make this up? And I thought, you know what, it doesn't matter if it's real or not; what matters is to see that out there is some business man, some rich person, who is so sick and tired of, you know, money has no affect on them anymore. There are no drugs, there's nothing out there, no strippers. They are looking for that next level of excitement. And that I felt was odd, and that is what inspired it. I wrote this story about these guys backpacking through Europe and they're kind of doing the same thing, looking for that next level of excitement. Everyone is just kind of looking for that forbidden thing and paying money but not really thinking about the cost of this.
The Post: That's pretty cool. Have you ever stayed in a hostel yourself?
Roth: Yeah, I did. I lived in France when I was 18 years old in high school. While I was there, we took trips and backpacked around Europe and stayed in different hostels. Some of them were great. Some of them are cheap because they are so disgusting and other ones are like ... a four-star hotel.
The Post: Oh really? Did you have any weird or scary experiences yourself?
Roth: Um, yeah, there were a lot of strange experiences. One time when I was there, there was a girl who climbed into bed with me and wouldn't get out. And I don't mean that in a good way - I mean, she was crazy and she was like This is my bed! This is my bed! and she was tripping out of her mind on drugs. We had to have the people from the hostel throw her out. People thought that I brought her home. It was really, really weird.
The Post: Now, I've heard that Cabin Fever was very disturbing and I've also heard that Hostel has some pretty graphic parts. Is there any reasoning behind such horrific scenes in your work?
Roth: Yeah, I think you have to look at the story you're telling. If the subject matter is horrific, you're going to have horrific scenes. This Web site really, really disturbed me. I mean, I'm not making a movie just to shock people. I'm telling the story and part of the story just happens to be a violent story. If they don't like violence or scary movies they should stay far away from this one.
The Post: How was it to work with Quentin Tarantino?
Roth: Well, I wasn't really working with Quentin. It's fun. I mean, I wrote the movie and produced it and directed it and Quentin put his name on it as executive producer and presenter at the end of the process. It all came out pretty naturally. It was just from us hanging out watching movies. I told Quentin about the idea and he got so excited he was like, Eli
you have to write this. So I went home and wrote it and showed it to him ... Then once the movie was finished he helped me in the editing room and thought he should come on as an executive producer because he really, really helped me sort of create it through the process of the whole film. It was really terrific.
The Post: Do you have any future works in progress?
Roth: Yeah I'm writing a movie with Rich Kelly, who made the movie Donnie Darko. We're writing a movie together called The Box. We're working on that right now. It needs to be finished before we can start shooting it.
The Post: I also understand that you made a cameo in Cabin Fever. Do you make any cameos in Hostel and do you tend to develop a certain tradition throughout your films to make appearances in all of them?
Roth: I wasn't intending to do that, but the opportunity presented itself, so I did it. They say if you're going to make a cameo like that, you have to do it in the first reel of the movie, the beginning of the film, otherwise people will be looking for it.
The Post: So, there is a cameo in Hostel or you don't want to give that away?
Roth: You'll just have to find out!
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