LOS ANGELES Reuters - Since coming on to the horror film scene fifteen years ago with "Cabin Fever," filmmaker Eli Roth made a name for himself in the genre with the "Hostel" franchise. An occasional actor, he got a chance to shine last year as the infamous "The Bear Jew" in Quentin Tarantinos "Inglourious Basterds."
Roth sat down with Reuters to discuss his latest producing effort, "The Last Exorcism," which opens in U.S. movie theaters on Friday. The film is about a minister who lets a documentary crew film his last exorcism. A non-believer who has swindled plenty believers in the past, he is unprepared for what he encounters.
Q: What kind of childhood did you have that would make you grow up and create such scary and gory movies?
A: "I grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, in the safest neighborhood, in a very wonderful, loving household. My father Dr. Sheldon Roth was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and my mothers a fantastic painter. I was the neighborhood babysitter and never got in to trouble."
Q: Where there signs of blood and guts in your future back then?
A: "Id say, I want to film someone being chopped in half with a chainsaw and my parents would say, Thats wonderful honey. Heres a saw, be careful. They never saw it as real violence; they always saw it as creative expression."
Q: With parents like that, you must have your own psychological theories when it comes to horror films.
A: "Horror movies are the last place in society where its socially acceptable to be scared. We cant be scared at home, we cant be scared at our jobs. But when youre scared at a movie, theres no shame. Youre not a coward. We all have feelings we bundle up our whole lives and when we watch a scary movie, we are able to release them."
Q: Your latest film, "The Last Exorcism," is about a young woman possessed by the devil. Can that really happen?
A: "Having been raised by a psychiatrist, I was told anything psychological was a mental illness. Then I saw the 1973 feature "The Exorcist" and it changed everything. It really freaked me out. I told my dad, Whats this whole possession thing youve never told me about? He said, Dont worry about that. Were Jews. We dont believe in that."
Q: Did that quiet your fears?
A: "No I was certain it was going to happen to me. I thought I was going to be the test case for the Devil. Hed be like, See? I got you Jews too"
Q: And today, what do you believe?
A: "Exorcism and possession is the kind of thing Im almost scared to believe in. On the set of "The Last Exorcism," the brother of one our drivers was an exorcist. Hed talk about it like it was no big deal, like he went to the store and bought milk."
Q: Youve done cameo roles in movies here and there, but "Inglourious Basterds" was your biggest role yet. Do you consider yourself an actor?
A: "I think of myself as a writer-director first and foremost. Even when I was acting in Inglourious Basterds, I still shot the film-within-the-film, Nations Pride. I couldnt quite let go of my directors hat. I might actually write a part for myself one day and then Ill be able to combine all three."
Editing by Jill Serjeant
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