Eli Roth Checks In One More Time to 'Hostel II'

By Fred Topel , Special to Hollywood.com | Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Hostel 2

Horror fans fell hard for Eli Roth’s Hostel, but the director hopes his sequel will "blow away the first one"--just like Road Warrior or Aliens.

"I just wanted to make a movie that was a badass, scary ass sequel," said Roth. "There’s one scene [where] we spilled more blood than every scene in Hostel combined. And then the ending is even more."

Hostel: Part II continues the story of the eastern European company that runs a business kidnapping tourists at a youth hostel, then selling the opportunity to murder them to the highest bidder. It's a statement about cultural desensitization, but it's also just a horror film with outrageous deaths.

Hollywood.com was invited to chat with Roth and his cast. Here's what we found out:

Bijou Phillips
The Victims Are Also Voluptuous Vixens
Some say that the killer is the most important thing in a horror movie, but he'd be nowhere without some beautiful babes to slaughter. Hostel: Part II delivers Bijou Phillips, Heather Matarazzo and Lauren German as a trio of distinct personality types in peril.

Heather Matarazzo (Lorna): "The way I've been describing her is like Blanche Dubois where she just wants magic, constant magic. And when she's put into a situation where she feels vulnerable or uncomfortable, we get to see the complete flip side of her which is just full of anger and fear and rage."

Bijou Phillips (Whitney): "She's sort of a little bit ditzy and likes boys and likes to do drugs and kind of act crazy. She falls into situations and Lauren German's character sort of always saves her and it's just amazing. I totally relate to my character. I think if you don't relate to your character, there's a problem. Definitely there's a lot of me in Whitney and it was a fun movie to make."

Lauren German (Beth): "I play sort of the reserved, not reserved really but I think that's just kind of it's an honest person, it is a kind of self confident person but a little more subdued than, say, Whitney, Bijou's character. Lorna is the other extreme, the antithesis of Bijou's character but I'm sort of somewhere in between and just curious about what else there is in life."

Roger Bart
Desperate Actors Can Be Sadistic
Hostel: Part II follows two of the businessmen who pay for the opportunity to torture and murder kidnapped tourists. They happened to pick two of Desperate Housewives' bad men Richard Burgi and Roger Bart.

Roger Bart (Stuart): "That's a complete coincidence. Eli, I don't think even ever watched Desperate Housewives."

Richard Burgi (Todd): "You know, those guys are pretty screwed up. I don't think there was any forethought to that but it just goes to show you what life on Wisteria Lane will do to you."

Roger Bart: "George was pretty F'ed up, man. George was a sociopath and this guy made a mistake and then has a bit of a psychic breakdown, a psychological breakdown which is not really the same as George. George was I think very pathologically fucked up right from the get go, had real issues with women. This guy has some issues with women but you'll see."

Eli Roth
The Splat Pack is the New Brat Pack
Joining writer/director Eli Roth at the event were fellow horror movie filmmakers James Gunn (Slither) and James Wan (Saw). The friends hang out in various combinations outside of Hollywood shindigs. Roth calls them the Splat Pack, after the Brat Pack and the more recent Frat Pack.

Eli Roth: It's kind of like a Perfect Storm of horror right now. You've got the fans, the appetite is there. People want to see it and you've got filmmakers like these guys, myself, Rob Zombie, Neil Marshall, Alex Aja that really care about really making good old fashioned gory horror movies.

James Wan: Yeah, it's good that I guess we're not selling out so to speak. Not yet.

James Gunn: "I actually don't know the Saw guys but he does. He's friends with them. I'm buddies with Eli and Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie and all the older guys, Mick Garris and Tobe Hooper. There's a real camaraderie and it's a fun thing. Those Masters of Horror dinners are the coolest for me at least. It's like being surrounded by people who were my idols when I was 13 and 14 years old treating me like somewhat of an equal. That's a great thing."

Eli Roth: "Honestly, I gotta tell you, these guys are the only ones that can scare me. So if they're outdoing me, I'm the happiest guy in the world and I go hats off to them. I think it keeps all of us sharp. It's great. I met [Wan and cowriter Leigh Whannell] when I had done Cabin Fever and then they did Saw and it's amazing what these guys have done for horror. It's just been a great ride for both of us."

James Gunn: "I think that horror movies are necessarily, people who make horror films are outcasts for the most part. So we sort of go towards each other. People who make horror movies, a lot of them, especially today love horror movies. They're interested in talking about horror movies, remembering horror movies, sharing the esoteric films that we know that the other one doesn't know. I don't think action movies are like that. Action movies have always been a mainstream entertainment. I think probably mainstream directors are friends with mainstream directors."

Lauren German
Sometimes Actresses Just Need a Bloody Makeover
Of course Hostel: Part II is full of gory torture scenes, so all of the actresses had their days in the chamber, getting mutilated courtesy of the special effects wizards.

Lauren German: "Well, I can't tell you if it's as bad as actually getting tortured in real life. I would assume not but it was very intense and draining. Not the funnest time I can remember in my life."

Bijou Phillips: "Between takes you're laughing the entire time but you definitely go into some dark places. It would be lunch and I would have been crying all day and during lunch, you know when you're five and you get the hiccups from crying so much? I'd be like, 'So, you're wife's pregnant, hic, oh, that's awesome, hic.' I'm totally fine but I got the cry hiccups."

Heather Matarazzo: "Honestly, Eli set such a tone from the beginning where we just felt vulnerable and safe enough to go to these places that I don't think as actors we're normally allowed to go to. So when it came to specifically my torture scenes, it was just really about doing the best job I could do and feeling free enough and secure enough to do it."