Eli Roth Quotes & Sayings

I want an iPhone 5, someone said something nasty on twitter, or my boyfriend isn't texting me back, like whatever the thing is that seems so major in your life, when a real disaster hits you suddenly strips it all away and you see what's really important and who you really are. — Eli Roth

I love movies. I mean, I really, really love movies. — Eli Roth

The one negative to horror is that it's always law of diminishing returns. When you go in the funhouse, the ride is never scary the second time. You will never have that pure experience as when you first watch it. — Eli Roth

Anytime you make a movie, the goal is a wide theatrical release, with the right distributor. — Eli Roth

I have so many different projects, I hear voices in my head - the characters talking all at once - and I have to write to make them stop. — Eli Roth

Twitter is wonderful. You can kill rumours instantly. — Eli Roth

I have a strong art-history background. — Eli Roth

As a kid, I was the neighbourhood baby-sitter - very responsible, always in charge. — Eli Roth

Horror audiences don't need to see some TV actor they're familiar with. — Eli Roth

I like movies that work on two levels - like The Simpsons, kids can watch it and adults can watch it. Teenagers can watch Hostel and if they want to see a blood and guts violent movie they're going to have a great time. They're going to scream and yell, it's a great date movie because they're going to squeeze their date and their date is probably going to be too scared to go home ... so you take them home and put on Dirty Dancing and everybody wins. — Eli Roth

One of the great joys of life, now that you can afford a nice suit, is getting one for free. That's why I like to do press tours - I always say making movies is just an excuse to get free clothing. — Eli Roth

Chile could work as a double for L.A.; it's very production-friendly and there's terrific talent down there. — Eli Roth

It's just assumed that a horror sequel is going to be bad. It's never going to be as good as the first one. — Eli Roth

Las Vegas is a 24-hour city. It never stops. — Eli Roth

I've always wanted to be involved in an exorcism movie. But I thought, "How do you make something scarier than The Exorcist?" The answer is you don't. But that doesn't mean you can't make something that is original and interesting. — Eli Roth

Everyone is so terrified of being labeled a racist. — Eli Roth

I think filmmakers, in general ... There are some awesome, really great filmmakers - but on the whole, filmmakers, actors, I think they are the biggest bunch of whiny, over-paid babies on the planet. — Eli Roth

I need to eliminate 'like' from my vocabulary. I begin sentences with, 'That's seriously like ... ' I hear myself talking in this Los Angeles high-school student kind of way, and I hate it. — Eli Roth

Life is a series of avoiding horrible situations until ultimately you're dead. That's how I feel about things. — Eli Roth

I have control issues. For sure, no question. — Eli Roth

I started the film [Hostel Part II]with the girls in an art class and there's a nude male model. People think that women are objectified, well here you go! Here's a man being objectivized but now it's under the guise of art. — Eli Roth

I think in a post-9/11 world, with the images coming back from Iraq, everybody knows more and more people who are going over there ... the images on the YouTube phenomenon where the violence is so immediate. Direct people need something stronger to respond to. I think that there's definitely a wave of directors - who are labelled the splat pack - who really, really care about making great scary movies. — Eli Roth

We live in an age now where so many people watch movies based on what Netflix recommends. It learns your taste and they really understand viewer habits. — Eli Roth

I want a movie that 30 years from now, people can look back and see it as a reflection of where the culture was at - as a barometer of the culture. — Eli Roth

I'm from Boston, and in Boston, you are born with a baseball bat in your hand. And actually, most of the bats in Massachusetts are used off the field instead of on the field, and we all had baseball bats in our cars in high school. — Eli Roth

Look at comic books. It used to be something that only geeks were into. And now it's everywhere. — Eli Roth

All the copycat movies were always PG-13 and people said: "Nobody wants violence." — Eli Roth

I think characters are most terrifying when they're relatable. It's best when your most horrible characters make sense, and are believable. That's when a movie is most terrifying. — Eli Roth

I look at careers like Ben Stiller and think that's a great career to have where you're doing movies that you write and direct, and also act in films, although he's primarily an actor. — Eli Roth

I've always been a fan of 3D, going back to movies in the '50s. I was part of the early '80s 3D craze, which was coming at you in Jaws 3D, so I've always wanted to make a 3D film. — Eli Roth

Hopefully we'll get to a point where people realize movies don't cause violence. It just reflects the violence going on in the culture. — Eli Roth

You do need an outlet to release all of those fears. You build it up and then, when you go to a movie theater, it's the last place that it's socially acceptable to be terrified. It's saying that, for the next 90 minutes, you're allowed to be afraid and you're not a coward for feeling that way. — Eli Roth

I'd love to see us get to a point where you can make a movie and not worry about the limits of the violence. Then I think they'd get so violent that people would get bored of it. — Eli Roth

I generally follow my own compass and make films about what's scaring me. — Eli Roth

'Beatrice Cenci' was an amazing film. If it were released today it'd win Best Picture. It's so well done, it's so contemporary, and the filmmaking is so smart. — Eli Roth

I think you should make movies as long as the story dictates. — Eli Roth

The best movies now are called 'thrillers.' Because if you use the word 'horror,' people's associations are straight-to-video crap. — Eli Roth

It's very flattering to feel like you actually helped create a sub-genre. — Eli Roth

When I was 22, I had this horrible psoriasis outbreak. It was all over my legs, I couldn't walk because my legs were cracked and bleeding. Weird things like that can happen to your body. — Eli Roth

Everybody has to know where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, who they are. These are essentials. — Eli Roth

I felt people responded to two things. One, obviously, is the gore and the scenes like the eye gauging. — Eli Roth

A comedy can actually get funnier and funnier. Even though you know the joke, you enjoy it so much, it's the facial expression, you laugh. The laugh doesn't wear off. It could be with you for thirty years. — Eli Roth

When you make a film for a million and a half dollars and it opens at 20 million, the next question out of everyone's mouth is, 'When's the next one, when's the next one, when's the next one?' — Eli Roth

The difference is in Hostel it's in the theatre - it's in public but it's in a private place. You have to actively make a choice to want to go see it. It's not being forced on anyone. Whereas 24 you can be flipping channels and it's right there in your living room. Anyone has access to that. But that just shows how mainstream it is and how people are seeing this stuff on YouTube. People are scared of it. This is a subject matter that everyone's talking about and everyone's thinking about, particularly in American culture. — Eli Roth

People want to be disturbed when they go see a horror movie. — Eli Roth

My parents love it! They're on set. They make cameos in the movie. My father is a psycho-analyst and a professor at Harvard and he told me how many of the other professors at Harvard have gone and seen it. They love Hostel and they love the thought behind it. — Eli Roth

I think in the late '80s and early '90s horror was dead. — Eli Roth

Sometimes you have this tragedy which turns into an incredible opportunity. — Eli Roth

With Hostel II I thought I had a very, very strong female audience so I'm going to make a movie that's going to appeal to them. The guys will love it, they'll have their moments. But there'll be a lot more male nudity in this one. I have a lot of sausage in this one! — Eli Roth

There's a crazy, false notion that audiences are not patient or will not watch a story, that you have to put in a scare every ten minutes. But I always thought that was insane. — Eli Roth

I have the infinite galaxy from '2001' as my screensaver - so if I space out while I'm writing and it goes to screensaver, I can just stare off into the stars. — Eli Roth

I've realized that I can't multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time. — Eli Roth

Lucio Fulci is such a massively underrated director. Everyone knows him as the Godfather of Gore. — Eli Roth

I can think of endless horrible things to do to people! — Eli Roth

I feel like in the '90s, horror just lost its way and everything became so safe and watered-down. — Eli Roth

In musical theater, if you have a song, it has to advance the plot. If you have a song in a musical and it does not advance the plot, it gets dropped. — Eli Roth

When I'm filming a kill scene [as a director], I just get happier and happier as we chop up body parts. — Eli Roth

You know, I'm from Boston, and in Boston, you are born with a baseball bat in your hand. — Eli Roth

I'm not interested in going after a part. I think if someone wants me for a part and approaches me then I'll take it on a case-by-case basis and see what that part is. — Eli Roth

I think that many people are ashamed when they feel afraid. There's this thing in our society that you're not allowed to feel scared. You have to be a man and put on a brave face, but we all have fears. — Eli Roth

If you don't want to be scared in a horror film, don't close your eyes. Close your ears. — Eli Roth

As a director, you have to know what actors are doing. You're the one telling them what to do. The actors' job is to come prepared to the set, but sometimes, if they're beginning actors or people who are non-actors, you have to teach them how to act. — Eli Roth

Quentin Tarantino faced the same backlash when his films came out until eventually people felt they were actually much smarter. — Eli Roth

So when I was beating the guy, I started thinking, 'What if I was Hannah Montana?' ... And little do they know that that's why I look so insane ... I'm torturing myself with thoughts of, 'How could I actually pull off being a high school student and a pop star at night?' — Eli Roth

Dawn Of The Dead is about how we're just a country cannibalizing itself, turning into one shopping mall, and everyone at the mall is just brain-dead, wandering around. Capitalism gone awry, and the worst parts of human nature coming out. All these different things that people read into the films that are all there, very strong anti-Bush sentiments that went into making those films. It's great. I like it when people get it the second or third time, when someone else points it out to them. They don't realize it's been there all along. Those are my favorite movies. — Eli Roth

I've always dreamed of having a year-round haunted house. — Eli Roth

Horror movies are the best date movies. There's no wondering, 'When do I put my arm around her?' — Eli Roth

If you are having fun on the set, you are not getting things done. — Eli Roth

I was listening to music to kind of pump myself up and get psyched up, like I was listening to Iron Maiden and Misfits and Dead Kennedys, and it was like my '80s Massachusetts parking-lot heavy metal and Guns N' Roses. — Eli Roth

I want to have an ending where people say: "That's the most shocking ending I've ever seen in a mainstream horror film." — Eli Roth

You'd be lucky to get tortured to death in one of my films. It's the best thing that could happen to your career. But I'm very aware that as soon as you put women in this situation, all of a sudden people are like: "Wow, well wait a second!" Immediately, people become very sensitive to it. — Eli Roth

Anytime you're the first to speak out against something, there's going to be a backlash. — Eli Roth

You can pretend everything's fine, but if there's an unhappiness or you're not having sex or you're not communicating or you're made to feel third best in the house and you don't address it and you just try to put on a nice face and a smile, that kind of aggression and anger is going to come out in some sinister way. — Eli Roth

Horror is like comedy. Woody Allen's comedy is going to be very different from Ben Stiller's comedy which is going to be different from Adam Sandler's comedy which is going to be different from Judd Apatow's comedy. They're all comedy, but they're all very different types and you can enjoy all of them. Horror is the same way. — Eli Roth

As a kid, my idols were Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, and I get into crazy races with myself. Raimi was 21 when he made movies, and when I didn't get 'Cabin Fever' made that fast I thought I'd failed. — Eli Roth

Some disaster movies look like you're watching someone else play video games. They're fun but it's not real. — Eli Roth

When you're making a television show, it's about the story and arc of the show rather than any particular episode or director. — Eli Roth

I think in life we get very caught up in the minutia and, unfortunately, it generally takes some sort of tragedy in your life to put things in perspective. — Eli Roth

I never put out a vanilla edition of a DVD. — Eli Roth

Much of my youth was spent in the parking lot or inside a Dunkin' Donuts. — Eli Roth

I don't want people to feel: "Why am I watching this? It's sick and sadistic." I want people to watch and think it's scary but they can't wait to see what happens next. I also wanted to make a movie that was watchable. — Eli Roth

You know, the dirty secret in the Director's Guild is that the average life expectancy of Director's Guild members is 57 years old. The stress level is so high and directors are generally really out of shape, cause they sit in the chair and they eat craft service. — Eli Roth

Possession and exorcism is something that's in every religion and every culture. It's a real primal fear: Is the body a vessel for our spirits? What happens if something else takes over it? Where does the spirit go? — Eli Roth

Imagine trying to relive your worst break-up, your worst fight, the most painful death of a loved one, and just really relive it step by step, and bring it up and apply it to the scene you're in. — Eli Roth

You have to write scenes and design scenes that are scary and horrific, but that are also watchable. I didn't want people to just feel like they got punched in the stomach. — Eli Roth

What is important to me is that people know I respect the business of making movies. — Eli Roth

It's the difference between hunting a lion and hunting a deer. If someone hunts a lion, it's like: "Wow, they're brave!" But if they're hunting a deer it's like: "That poor deer!" I know that. I know that guys getting killed is horrible but people have seen it before. You've seen The Evil Dead. With girls, it's like: "I don't want to see that happening ... " I know that. — Eli Roth

What I've always thought I would do is make a bunch of movies and then stop to teach for awhile. And then just teach at film schools - you know, teach children. — Eli Roth

I hear what people say, I read all the reviews, all the blogs, and I am always curious to hear it, because you can't always listen to the good press, you have to hear the bad press, too. — Eli Roth

I always feel that there's no violence in a movie - it's not real, it's a magic trick. Nobody is really dying. In fact, the people that die in my movies have gone on to become extremely successful! — Eli Roth

If I don't come home covered head to toe in fake blood then I haven't done my job as a horror director. — Eli Roth

Even the European critics ... They said Hostel is the smartest film they'd seen on capitalism and how it's gone too far. — Eli Roth

'Hostel' is that's how I feel about what's going on in Iraq. There's people that just want money and people are being sacrificed for it. — Eli Roth

The world is changing. Social media is a way to sell movies and to build a fan base. The truth is that you have followers because they know you are into it and you're funny and you like it. I think it's great. — Eli Roth

I think that horror films have a very direct relationship to the time in which they're made. The films that really strike a film with the public are very often reflecting something that everyone, consciously or unconsciously feeling - atomic age, post 9-11, post Iraq war; it's hard to predict what people are going to be afraid of. — Eli Roth

Natural disasters are terrifying - that loss of control, this feeling that something is just going to randomly end your life for absolutely no reason is terrifying. But, what scares me is the human reaction to it and how people behave when the rules of civility and society are obliterated. — Eli Roth

Hopefully we'll get to a point where there are absolutely no restrictions on any kind of violence in movies. I'd love to see us get to a point where you can go to theaters and see movies unrated and that people know its not real violence. It's all pretend. It's all fake. It's just acting. It's just magic tricks. — Eli Roth

Creative writing and shooting are muscles that atrophy. But when you work them, you become a self-generator who can branch out. — Eli Roth

You know, the best thing you can say about a horror film is, 'Don't see it.' — Eli Roth

For a long time, I had a crazy girl dating habit. — Eli Roth