Is Eli Roth the most interesting modern horror director?
- Thread starter Rembrandt
- Start date
He's a competent horror director with a wry sense of humour. He'd be a great house director for a horror franchise. And he's great at aping styles of horror films (Green Inferno, Cabin Fever.)
I see Roth as a guy that can keep putting out films that are worth watching but really aren't game changing. A lot like Zombie realy.
When I think most interesting, I'm thinking about directors that make movies like Green Room (Saulnier), You're Next (Wingard), Get Out (Peele), It Follows (Mitchell), Trick R Treat & Krampus (Dougherty), or VVitch (Eggers).
When I think most interesting, I'm thinking about directors that make movies like Green Room (Saulnier), You're Next (Wingard), Get Out (Peele), It Follows (Mitchell), Trick R Treat & Krampus (Dougherty), or VVitch (Eggers).
31 aside (how that felt like more of a first film than House of 1000 Corpses, I still can't grasp), I think it's easy for me to give the nod to Zombie in pretty much every case because he is a filmmaker that has displayed a rather firm grasp on their visual language, which has led to some rather striking imagery throughout his career that in spite of his other proclivities that drag the general opinion of him down, he is at the very least a very skilled craftsman. Roth's film in comparison are often frequently ugly from a composition standpoint and he's never had a great handle on when to cut a scene. And like it's been said, he does largely ape from other styles of film enough to make those issues even more glaring, which is why I've never had any issue recommending his inspirations more readily than his own films.
The Witch is gonna be one of the few horror movies from this decade to be remembered as a straight up classic. The Wailing and Under the Skin are the only other post 2000's horror films that come close, honestly.
Just think it's literal trash in movie form. I have no problem with slow burns or horror movies focused on atmosphere but it's like 1 hour plus of pretentious ye olde shite, with 20 minutes of hilarious reveals . The goat made me literally laugh out in the cinema. Whole thing reminded me of being back in school watching low budget adaptions of The Crucible.
Plenty of decent post 2000's horror though. The Descent. Martyrs. I saw the devil. It follows. Devi's Rejects/House of 1000. Get out. Trick 'r' treat.
Some of those movies are decent, albeit pretty shlocky, but both from a formalist perspective as well as narratively they don't touch The Witch. I'm not sure how using proper historical research to give proper verisimilitude to the setting of the film is pretentious. Sounds like that setting is more just a hang up for you? Black Phillip scene was expertly done tbh, the build up was fantastic and the restraint in which it was shot made it all the more powerful. I didn't think it was a particularly slow burn either, shit goes down within the first 5 minutes of the movie, and any time there's no witchy action going on you've got actually nuanced character drama which thematically ties in to everything else.
I felt like I had to go pray after seeing the Witch lmao. I'm not a religious guy either (not to mention the movie's themes felt like they were against religious patriarchies) but man that movie was so successful at giving you a sense of unease and sticking with you. For me at least.
I'm more interested in that. Like I won't write the guy off after one movie I didn't like. The setting of that is much more my jam. So interested to see how he approaches it. I guess I felt like the Witch was too...arthouse?
That's why I liked it tbh. Don't get me wrong I love me some pulpy horror, but I feel like the genre has been desperately missing the restraint and creeping fatalism of stuff like Polanski's horror movies. He said he's going to be taking the same approach to Nosferatu as he did The Witch r.e. historical and folkloric research, so it will likely be similarly "arthouse". But yeah maybe the setting will do more for you.
I'm very interested to see how it compares to Herzog's Nosferatu specifically.
I love both of those, but you are insane if you think nothing came close. Especially since given your inclusion of The Wailing you seem to be aware of international cinema. C'mon man... Gozu, REC, I Saw The Devil, A Tale of Two Sisters, Let The Right One In... there's just so much goodness out there.
I think Eli Roth has always been a bit overrated. His output is limited in appeal, and not exactly great.
Fede Alvarez is the most interesting up-and-coming horror director now, followed by Jordan Peele.
Fede Alvarez is the most interesting up-and-coming horror director now, followed by Jordan Peele.
I definitely wouldn't dispute Let the Right One In that upper echelon, but I wouldn't rank the others quite so highly. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed them and think they're good horror flicks, but they wouldn't make the cut if I could only "canonize" a select few.
Not to derail the thread but I just realized Fancy Clown's Avatar is still Kurt Russel, I just missed it because of the size and Kurt's outfit.
If we're going that route I would pick Irreversible and only Irreversible. The absolute best 21st century take on horror, imho.
Under The Skin as #2.
He was awful. Shit actor, no presence.
His 'arrival' scene was what I was talking about, by the way.
I haven't seen it yet. I've heard very mixed opinions on it, so I'm definitely curious to see for myself. Might save it for next year's 31 Days of Horror.
I felt phasing out Jack Burton for MacReady for the new ERA (ayyy) was appropriate.
Irreversible is undeniably horrifying, I'll grant you that. I haven't seen it in like 6-7 years but I'm not sure I want to sit through it again to see how I feel about it now haha.
Last edited:
Man, The Wailing was almost brilliant but all those convoluted fake-outs and red herrings (with regards to the true antagonist of the movie) really brought the movie down for me. Are there any other promising East Asian horror directors other than him and Miike? I know South Korean filmmakers have the thriller genre on lock, at least!
I don't like Eli Roth's apparent fascination with gross shit. His directing has never stood to me out as anything special, either.
Who directed Green Room? Or The Witch? Or The Wailing? I pick one of those guys.
Who directed Green Room? Or The Witch? Or The Wailing? I pick one of those guys.
While good, Let the Right One In and The Witch just aren't scary.
I prefer something like Rec or Hostel as horror films even if they are inferior in every other area.
Now films like Martyrs or The Wailing are excellently made and unsettling as fuck.
I prefer something like Rec or Hostel as horror films even if they are inferior in every other area.
Now films like Martyrs or The Wailing are excellently made and unsettling as fuck.
No. Takashi Miike, Ti West, Sam Raimi and Guillermo Del Toro have all done better stuff. Even a movie that isn't strictly horror like Jee-woon Kim's "I Saw The Devil" is better horror than anything Eli Roth has done.
yes this movie is vastly underrated IMO.
yes this movie is vastly underrated IMO.
The fake outs worked for me because they felt totally ingrained with the characters, and theme, of the film. It didn't feel like it was done simply to have an excuse to pull the rug out from under the audience.
As for other Asian horror directors, I don't know what he's done recently but Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure is easily my favorite 90's horror film, and Pulse from 2001 was also very surreal and unsettling.
