Summary
- Eli Roth’s Borderlands was a big-budget flop that fell short of its target by casting a mixed bag and aiming for a PG-13 rating.
- The 2018 remake of Death Wish lacked the passion of the original and failed to evoke the same outrage.
- The House with a Clock in Its Walls was meant to be fun, but ended up feeling like a third-rate Harry Potter clone.
Of Cabin fever to BorderlandsEli Roth has had many ups and downs in his film career, but which of his films is the best (and which is the worst)? Roth first came to prominence with his low-budget debut feature Cabin feverabout a group of college students who travel to a remote cabin in the woods, where they encounter a deadly, flesh-eating virus. Cabin fever It put Roth on the map and established him as one of the most exciting new voices in horror cinema.
What followed was a surprisingly varied career. Roth has alternated between creepy horror films, such as his bloody cannibal thriller The Green Hell and the Hostel franchise, which pioneered the subgenre called “torture porn,” and family-friendly shows like The house with a clock in its wallsHe has made very low budget films, such as the shoddy home invasion horror film Knock knockand has made major studio films with nine-figure box office budgets, such as BorderlandsThroughout his career, Roth has produced both excellent films and terrible films.
10 Borderlands
Image via Lionsgate
Roth hit a new low with his big-budget film adaptation of Borderlands. He Borderlands Games are not as famous for their three-dimensional characters and emotionally charged narrative as, for example, The last of us either Red Dead RedemptionThey’re best known for their ridiculously gruesome violence and colorful cast of lovable scoundrels. Still, a film adaptation could have been successful by simply copying those elements.
But by opting for a PG-13 rating and choosing a cast that doesn’t fit the actor type (such as choosing Kevin Hart to play the stoic gunslinger Roland), the Borderlands The film couldn’t even achieve that. Borderlands The games play out like an even crazier revamped version of Mad Maxbut the movie looks mediocre. Guardians of the Galaxy Imitation. Borderlands It ignores everything fans love about the games and offers nothing exciting for newcomers, so who was this movie made for?
9 Death Wish
After languishing in development hell for over a decade, Roth took over the long-gestating remake of Death Wish in 2018. The original Death WishReleased in 1974, it is one of the most controversial films in history, thanks to its apparent advocacy of vigilante justice. The film depicts an ordinary man who takes the law into his own hands when his family is attacked and the police do nothing. Bruce Willis replaces Charles Bronson in the role of Paul Kersey and Hollywood flash replaces raw emotion.
The original Death Wish It may not be a masterpiece, but it was made with passion and the anger against the machine that was felt after the Watergate scandal. But the remake is too bland and uninspired to provoke such outrage. There was controversy surrounding its release, but that had more to do with the timing than the film itself.
8 The Green Hell
Inspired by the “cannibal boom” of the late 70s and early 80s, in particular the famous 1980 cult classic Cannibal Holocaust – Roth set out to make his own cannibal thriller with his 2013 film The Green HellIt revolves around a first-year college student who ventures into the jungle with a group of activists and ends up confronting a cannibal tribe. The Green Hell It taps into a rich satirical vein, mocking young people who get involved in activism for the accolades rather than the cause.
But it doesn’t have much to say about the phoniness of that kind of modern activism. Stylistically, it’s a fun throwback to the gruesome B-movies that graced drive-in screens in the 1970s and ’80s. It strikes that unique balance of being hard to watch but impossible to look away from.
7 Hostel: Part II
After the unexpected box office success of HostelRoth quickly set to work on a sequel, Hostel: Part IIlocated just after the first one. Hostel: Part II It doesn’t do much to reinvent the wheel. Like the first film, it revolves around a group of American tourists who have the bad luck to end up in a Slovakian village where an underground organization kidnaps and tortures people.
Hostel: Part II It basically offers more of the same, but because it had already been done, it didn’t seem as exciting or revolutionary as its predecessor. When the first one was released Hostel When the sequel came along, it was unheard of for a horror film to simply cut out the middleman and deliver 90 minutes of non-stop bloody terror. But when the sequel came out, not only was the first Hostel I already did it; all the Hostel The scammers had done it too.
6 Knock knock
Keanu Reeves stars Knock knock In this film, an architect is left home alone working while his wife and children go on vacation. In the middle of the night, during a storm, two young women (played by Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas, a young actress) arrive at his door and say they are trying to find the address of a nearby party. After he reluctantly lets them in, they seduce him and end up trapping and torturing him.
It would be generous to say that Knock knock It’s an intriguing genre metaphor about a married man facing disastrous consequences for an extramarital affair. The movie isn’t smart enough to make that point – it’s pure exploitation. But Reeves’ performance practically carries the film. He’s committed enough to take the audience through his character’s wild ride.
5 The house with a clock in its walls
In 2018, Roth set out to do something completely different. The director of Cabin fever and Hostelwho had taken on-screen violence to entirely new levels, set out to make a film for children. With his adaptation of John Bellair’s play The house with a clock in its wallsRoth intended to create a children’s horror film in the style of the Amblin classics of the 80s. He set out to be The Gooniesbut it ended up being more of a third-rate product. Harry Potter clone.
Jack Black, Cate Blanchett and the film’s young star, Owen Vaccaro, all give terrific performances in the film, elevating the C material to a B+. There’s nothing in The house with a clock in its walls That hasn’t been done in other movies (and it’s been done better in other movies), and an abundance of exposition makes the story feel uneven. But the movie succeeds when it focuses on simply having fun.
4 hostel
With the backing of executive producer Quentin Tarantino, Roth directed his second feature film, Hostelin 2005. The film revolves around a group of American tourists who end up being kidnapped by a shady organization that brings unsuspecting torture victims into an underground network of sadists. Not much else needs to be said. Hostel that bloody and over-the-top violence, but it delivers what is needed for fans of that type of horror.
Hostel paved the way for the controversial “torture porn” trend of the 2000s; in fact, the term “torture porn” was coined to criticize HostelThere’s something to be said about pioneering a whole new subgenre. Even if the term is applied disparagingly, Roth managed to make something that felt new and fresh in horror cinema, something they didn’t yet have a name for.
3 Cabin fever
Roth was hailed as a prodigious new voice in horror cinema when his first feature film Cabin fever burst onto the scene. Cabin fever sees a group of college students rent a cabin in the woods over October break, isolating themselves from the outside world and unwittingly battling a deadly flesh-eating virus that has infected a group of locals. Cabin fever polarized critics, who either really loved its mix of relentless gore and weird humor, or really hated it.
The genius of Cabin fever is that none of the characters die from the virus, but rather they all die from their paranoia and mutual distrust. In that sense, it’s like a horror version of The treasure of the Sierra MadreThis hilarious twist adds a refreshingly ironic twist to all the gore.
2 fins
In 2021, Roth directed his first documentary, Finin which he joins a group of scientists, activists and researchers to expose the dark history behind the extinction of sharks. The documentary received the backing and support of organizations such as Oceana, Sea Shepherd and Wild Aid, and was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Nina Dobrev. Millions of sharks around the world are being killed and Fin sets out to uncover the truth about what is happening to them.
It’s a truly worthy cause and Roth is clearly very invested in this issue. Fin It captures both the majesty of sharks and the evils of finning. The bulk of Roth’s filmography is comprised of gruesome horror films that indulge in gore for the sake of it. Fin It’s one of his only films that’s actually about something and has real substance.
1 Thanksgiving
In 2007, Roth made a fake trailer for a Christmas-themed horror film called Thanksgiving for the double feature directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez Grinding houseThe story revolves around a serial killer dressed as a pilgrim who chooses his victims around Thanksgiving. For years, Roth tried to make a feature-length adaptation of that trailer a reality. Thanksgiving became his passion project. When the film version finally came to fruition in 2023, it did not disappoint.
The murders are wickedly creative, the satire of Black Friday madness is perfect, and the ShoutThe crime novel style mystery is really appealing. In an era when slashers had become very routine and uninspiring, Thanksgiving came to give the genre a much-needed boost (or a corn-in-the-ear support). Thanksgiving It started out as a fake trailer, but ended up becoming arguably Eli Roth’s best film.