Eli Roth admits he’s constantly chasing the thrill of sharing wild movies with pals
Opening up about his new horror movie company, director Eli Roth declared he is constantly chasing the thrill of sharing a wild film with his friends.
Eli Roth is constantly chasing the thrill of sharing a wild movie with his friends.
The 54-year-old has spent decades in the entertainment industry, but says he is now intent on shaking up Hollywood and the horror genre by trying to produce projects that recreate the same feeling of excitement over movies that first drew him to grim films as a child.
He told Variety: “(I think about new movies), ‘If someone had given me this tape in seventh grade and I watched it, would I be running around telling all my friends, ‘We gotta watch this again right now’? ‘You’re coming over after school’ and I’m gonna watch their reaction watching it?’
“On a very basic level, that is still how I gauge these movies: ‘Is this something that I want to call Quentin (Tarantino) and go, ‘Dude, dude, dude, you gotta see this’?”
Eli’s thrill-seeking instinct is the driving force behind The Horror Section, his new horror film company. Launched earlier this year, the venture invited fans to invest in its projects, attracting nearly 2,500 people during its March fundraising period, with pledges ranging from $100 to $1 million.
While Eli’s company has several initiatives in the works, including financing his next original film, Ice Cream Man, its first theatrical release is Jimmy and Stiggs, a gory alien horror film by Joe Begos.
The movie opened on around 800 screens earlier this month.
Joe, known in the indie horror community for films such as 2019’s VFW and 2022’s Christmas Bloody Christmas, has delivered a film Eli describes as a complete game-changer.
Eli also says Jimmy and Stiggs reignited the childhood excitement he still seeks.
He added: “I was blown away. Rarely do I watch a movie that makes me say, ‘How the f*** did they do that?’ I loved it.
“It really reminded me of when I saw Dead Alive in the theaters, or that time when I was 15 and I saw Evil Dead 2 unrated.
“They just melt your brain. You can’t believe someone made a movie that wet, that violent, that insane, that unhinged.”
To ensure a cinema-first experience for fans, Eli partnered with Iconic Events to pitch the film directly to theatre owners at CinemaCon in April, meeting with chains including AMC, Cinemark, Marcus, IPic and Alamo.
He said: “What really shocked me was that I could sit down and talk to the theatre owners. They said, ‘We’d love this. We would definitely do it if it says ‘Eli Roth Presents. We’ll put it in our multiplexes’.”
Eli added custom greetings to the project, as well as non-English messaging and exclusive extras for audiences, blending his roles as distributor director and presenter.
Beyond box office ambitions, Eli hopes to support young filmmakers, citing the impact of Quentin Tarantino presenting his 2006 film Hostel.
He said: “Quentin putting his name on Hostel was like the most popular kid in high school being like, ‘Hey, want to ride in my car?’… I want to see more movies from these people, so as much as I want them to succeed, I want them in a position where they can go and make more.”
