Summary
- Eli Roth's Borderlands was a big-budget flop, missing the mark with anti-type casting and aiming for a PG-13 rating.
- The 2018 remake of Death Wish lacked the passion of the original, failing to evoke the same outrage.
- House With Clocks was meant to be fun, but ended up feeling like a third-rate Harry Potter clone.
From Cabin fever for Border areas, Eli Roth His filmmaking career has had many ups and downs, but which of his films are the best (and which are the worst)? Roth first came out with a low-budget debut film Cabin feverabout a group of college kids who travel to a remote cabin in the woods and 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 alternated between horror films such as the cannibal thriller Green Hell and Dormitory franchise – which pioneered a subgenre called “torture porn” – and family-friendly fare A house with clocks on its walls. He made movies with very low budgets, such as the refrigerator that attacked the house Knock Knockand he made major studio films with big nine-figure blockbuster budgets, e.g Border areas. Throughout his career, Roth has made both great films and terrible films.
10 Border areas
Roth reached a new low with his big-budget film adaptation Border areas. The Border areas games are not known for their three-dimensional characters and emotionally layered stories, e.g. Our last or Red Dead Redemption. They are best known for their ridiculously gruesome violence and colorful cast of lovable villains. Again, a film adaptation could only succeed by copying these elements.
But by going for a PG-13 rating and casting in a bewildering manner against type—for example, casting Kevin Hart to play the daredevil Roland— Border areas the movie couldn't even manage that. The Border areas games play like an even more elegant update Mad Maxbut the movie plays average Guardians of the Galaxy not enough Border areas it ignores everything fans love about games and offers nothing interesting for newcomers, so who is this movie made for?
9 Death Wish
After more than a decade of languishing in development hell, Roth finally got the long-awaited remake. Death Wish in 2018. Original Death WishReleased in 1974, it is one of the most controversial films ever made for its take on vigilante justice. The film sees a mild-mannered man take the law into his own hands when his family is attacked and the police do nothing. Bruce Willis replaces Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, and Hollywood swagger replaces the scary thrills.
Original Death Wish It may not be a masterpiece, but it was made with passion and a righteous post-Watergate rage against the machine. But the remake is too bland and uninspired to cause such outrage. There was controversy surrounding its release, but that had more to do with the timing than anything with the film itself.
8 Green Hell
Inspired by the 'cannibal boom' of the late 70's and early 80's – specifically the popular cult classic of the 1980's Cannibal Holocaust – Roth started filming his cannibal thriller in 2013 Green Hell. It revolves around a college student who goes into the jungle with a group of activists and deals with a tribe of cannibals. Green Hell tapping into a rich satirical vein, it pokes fun at young people who join activism for a reason rather than praise.
But not much can be said about the fakeness of this kind of modern activism. Stylistically, it's a fun throwback to the awful B-movies that would grace the screens of grindhouse drive-ins in the 70s and 80s. It strikes a unique balance that's hard to follow but impossible to get away from.
7 Dormitory: Part II
After the unexpected box office success DormitoryRoth quickly began work on a sequel, Dormitory: Part IIset immediately after the first. Dormitory: Part II doesn't do much to reinvent the wheel. Like the first film, it revolves around a group of American tourists who are unfortunate enough to end up in a Slovakian village where an underground organization kidnaps and tortures people.
Dormitory: Part II pretty much just offers more of the same. But because it was already done, it didn't feel as exciting and revolutionary as its predecessor. When the first Dormitory turned out, it was unheard of for a horror movie to simply cut out the middleman and offer 90 minutes of non-stop terrifying terror. But when the sequel came out, it wasn't just the first one Dormitory already done; all Dormitory the robbers had done it too.
6 Knock Knock
Starring Keanu Reeves Knock Knock like an architect who stays home alone to work while his wife and kids go on vacation. In the middle of the night, during a rainstorm, two young women, played by Lorenza Izzo and career-starter Ana de Armas, arrive at his front door, claiming to be trying to find the address of a nearby party. After he reluctantly lets them in, they trick him, then end up trapping and torturing him.
It would be generous to say so Knock Knock is an interesting genre metaphor for 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 pretty much carries the film. He is determined enough to take the audience on his character's wild journey.
5 A House With Clocks On Its Walls
In 2018, Roth began doing something completely different. director of Cabin fever and DormitoryHe started filming a children's film that took the blood on the screen to completely new levels. Adapted by John Bellairs A house with clocks on its wallsRoth intended to create a children's horror film in the style of Amblin's classic '80s efforts. It started to happen Gooniesbut it became more like tertiary Harry Potter clone.
Jack Black, Cate Blanchett and the film's young star, Owen Vaccaro, give great performances in the film, elevating C-material to B-plus. There is nothing in it A house with clocks on its walls this hasn't been seen in other films (and done better in other films), and too much exposition makes the story feel uneven. But the film succeeds only when it focuses on entertainment.
4 Dormitory
With the support of executive producer Quentin Tarantino, Roth made his second feature film. DormitoryIn 2005. The film revolves around a group of American tourists who are kidnapped by a shadowy organization that brings unsuspecting torture victims into an underground network of sadists. There is nothing more Dormitory more than gory, over-the-top violence, but it delivers the goods for fans of this type of horror.
Dormitory It ushered in the controversial “torture porn” craze of the 2000s; in fact, the term “torture porn” has been used to criticize Dormitory. There's something to be said for pioneering an entirely new subgenre. Even if the term is applied pejoratively, Roth has still managed to do something that feels new and fresh in horror cinema – something that doesn't yet have a name.
3 Cabin fever
In his debut film, Roth was hailed as a great new voice in horror cinema Cabin fever went to the scene. Cabin fever An October vacation finds a group of college kids renting a cabin in the woods, isolating themselves from the outside world and battling a deadly flesh-eating virus that has unwittingly infected a bunch of locals. Cabin fever polarized critics, who either really loved or really hated its mix of brutal gore and quirky humor.
Genius Cabin fever so none of the characters are actually killed by the virus; they are all killed by their paranoia and distrust of each other. It's kind of like a horror version in that sense Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This hilarious twist puts a refreshingly ironic bite on all the gore.
2 Finn
In 2021, Roth made his first documentary. Finnjoins a group of scientists, activists and researchers to expose the dark history behind shark extinction. The doc received support and endorsements from organizations such as Oceana, Sea Shepherd and Wild Aid and was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Nina Dobrev. Millions of sharks are killed around the world and Finn sets out to find the truth about what happened to them.
It's a really just cause, and Roth is very invested in it. Finn captures both the majesty of sharks and the evil of finning. Much of Roth's filmography consists of gore-filled horror films for gore's sake. Finn it's one of the only movies that actually tells something and has real substance.
1 Thanksgiving
In 2007, Roth produced a fake trailer for a holiday-themed slasher Thanksgiving For a Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez-directed double feature Grindhouse. It revolves around a serial killer dressed as a Pilgrim who picks up his victims on Turkey Day. Years later, Roth tried to get a feature-length adaptation of that trailer off the ground. Thanksgiving became his passion project. When the feature version finally came together in 2023, it didn't disappoint.
The kills are devilishly creative, the satire of Black Friday madness spot on, and Screaming-style whodunit mystery is really engaging. In a time when slashers are so rote and uninspired, Thanksgiving arrived to give the genre a much-needed shot in the arm (or a corn-catcher in the ear). Thanksgiving started as a fake trailer but became controversial Eli Roths best movie.