#i've admitted to watching cannibal holocaust and august underground in this post

[general-sleepy]

If you are interested, would you share your full thoughts on Eli Roth? I've hated him since the obnoxious advertising for The Green Inferno.

For the record, I've only seen Cabin Fever and the first two Hostel movies and a bunch of clips of The Green Inferno. This turned into a ramble, so I'll give the you the mercy of a read more.

The core problem is that he can't write compelling characters. I'm not saying that every movie has to have likeable characters--though likeable characters are very effective in creating entertaining movies. There are movies I like where the protagonists are utter monsters, horrible people who spend the movies committing atrocities with a minimum of conscience at most. Cannibal Holocaust or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer come to mind.

But, what's important about these characters is that they are people you want to watch, even when that interest is mingled with disgust for them and yourself. I'm a big believer in the Eight Deadly Words, the audience sentiment that will kill any story: "I don't care what happens to these people." You don't have to like the protagonists, but you have to want to spend an hour and a half with them.

That's not the case with the characters in Eli Roth movies. They're just concretely, relatably obnoxious. In Hostel, they're a bunch of frat boys constantly throwing out casual sexism and homophobia. Their interests, motivations, and values aren't interesting. They're not likeable and they're also not terrible enough to be entertaining in a train wreck way. They're just shallow.

This is, of course, except for Josh in Hostel. Josh does obnoxious things, but we see hints of internal conflict, of the fact that he's a good person who wants to do better. Insofar as final boys are a thing, Josh has great potential. I think it's unintentional on Roth's part, but I get the impression of a really interesting potential plotline about Josh coming to terms with his sexuality. But, then, either for shock value or because he's just a bad writer, Roth kills him off early and leaves us with the simultaneously unpleasant and boring Paxton. He's nothing but still grates. Going fully into the, at best uncomfortable, sexual politics of Hostel would require a whole other post and this one is rambling enough. What stands out in terms of Roth as a filmmaker, is that I don't think the sexism and homophobia originates from a deliberate, calculated malice. My impression is that Eli Roth just doesn't think.

That, and the movie is just ugly. Not in the way that something like the August Underground movies are, where there is meant to be an oppressive atmosphere of misery and malice. For the most part, the direction offers nothing. There are numerous shots of naked women that are clearly meant to be sexy. (I think to highlight the horror of the later violence, like the comedy cops in The Last House on the Left), but they are shot in a way that drains any eroticism. Look, I'm a pig; it is very, very hard to make a naked woman not sexy. Roth does it effortlessly and not intentionally. Everything feels rote and uninspired. (When I think about it, the only rare good moments of direction are in scenes with Josh and the Dutch businessman).

The rape scene in Cabin Fever (in summary: the protagonist is in bed next to his love interest, who he is not in a relationship, and fingers her in her sleep; Roth acts like the more horrifying thing is that this is how he finds out she has the flesh-eating disease; the rape is never mentioned and we are supposed to sympathize with our monster of a protagonist after this; I'm not sure if Roth knows this was a rape scene) would make any movie irredeemable, regardless of the rest of the quality of the rest of the movie. But, Cabin Fever is also full of blandly unlikeable characters, whose goals and interests are uninteresting. Karen, the woman who is assaulted, is as far I remember, the most kind of likeable character, and again is killed off early.

What Cabin Fever had to offer was just being a showcase for the disease effects. That's valid: the diseased flesh is disturbing to look at, and contagion is an inherently horrifying concept. If the story was window dressing, just to highlight that, it would have a purpose. August Underground, for example, only exists to provide an excuse to show off the gore effects and unsimulated brutality. Cabin Fever bogs itself down in a boring story with a bunch of boring characters.

As far as The Green Inferno goes, I like the whole Amazon cannibal genre of the 70s and 80s. They all have a fascinating aesthetic and general feeling that is really enjoy. But, I also think it's a genre that's stuck in its time. The movies were hideously racist; that's just unescapable. There was a brutal reality to them that was compelling, but in practice so unethical that no quality of film could justify them, and I'm not just talking about the actual animal deaths. You can't just replicate an Amazon cannibal movie in the 2010s, no matter how much you love them. They're like museum pieces. As a creator and fan, you have to exercise a kind of self-awareness and self-control. Maybe he could have paid homage to the genre by interweaving it with the current folk horror trend. Again, I haven't seen The Green Inferno, but from what I know of the movie, Midsommar seems like the far better modern iteration of Cannibal Holocaust.

In the interests of balance, I liked him in Inglourious Basterds. His talent might actually be in acting. I mean, he was terrible in Cabin Fever, but I think that's just because it's an Eli Roth movie.

I'm sorry that this is kind of a jumble of thoughts. If anyone can name an Eli Roth movie that they like that avoids these problems, I'm open to taking suggestions and giving them a chance.