A reader of ShizzlePie recently sent me an email letting me know that a great interview of the director of Hostel had been done, and he was nice enough to have some snippets for me to use. I have included them, if you want to see the interview in it’s entirety, please head on over to 411Mania.com
Eli Roth on how Hostel is one of the most popular movies in the Military:
“I get letters through my myspace page from soldiers in Iraq. They’ve told me that Hostel is one of the most popular movies in the military base. I asked the solider: “Why would you ever watch a movie like Hostel after what you see during the day?” He said that he went out there in the field one day with his buddy, and his buddy saw someone with his face blown off. He didn’t react. Following this, they watched Hostel that night. The guy was screaming and squealing in a room full of 400 people who were screaming, and they couldn’t look at the screen. I said to him: “How is it you can see the real violence, but not take the movie violence?” What I realized is that when these guys are in the battle field, they can’t respond emotionally to violence. They have to respond to it tactically. They’re not allowed to show fear because they’re soldiers. They put on this brave face. But seeing these images, it’s there. It’s somewhere in your body and needs to get let out.”
Eli Roth on how horror movies allow teenagers to deal with the uncertainty of the world:
“You have a whole generation of kids who were 12-years-old when September 11th happened, and they’ve been told for the past five years that you’re going to get blown up, terrorists are going to kill you, don’t travel, and the war in Iraq isn’t ending. All these seventeen-year-old kids are thinking: “Fuck, am I going to get drafted? Are they going to reinstate the draft? Am I going to go over there and get killed too? It’s a scary time for these teenagers. They’re seeing it, and they’re screaming. I don’t see it as people getting off on violence. I see the films as unlocking a lot of fear and real feelings of terror that people in this country have right now.”
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