ou'd be hard pressed to find a bigger horror fan than director Eli Roth. As a child, the future NYU film school graduate read genre magazines cover to cover and dreamed of being the next Sam Raimi or John Carpenter. At the age of 20, he sat down and wrote a story based on his lifelong fascination with predatory micro-organisms. Eight years later, the idea has evolved into Cabin Fever.
When the film opened in theaters on Sept. 12, general audiences discovered what those on the film-festival circuit had already dubbed an instant cult classic. Even Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson (who has a few horror films under his own belt) has called Cabin Fever "bloody fantastic." But are audiences ready for a return to the principles of the subversive, envelope-pushing films of '70s and '80s? Roth plans to lead the charge and find out.
At a recent press junket for Cabin Fever, the director sat down with Science Fiction Weekly to talk about his passion for horror films and the inspirations that fueled the making of his first feature film.
How did this film originally come about?
Roth: When I was 8, I was obsessed with becoming a horror movie director. And I remember reading in Fangoria when I was a kid that Sam Raimi had made Evil Dead when he was 21. So I was desperately trying to keep pace with him, which is ridiculous, but that's what you do when you're in film school. And I sat there and I wrote the story when I was 20. And then I sat down with Randy Pearlstein and we wrote the screenplay together. And just from there it started. That was in 1995. It started this eight-year journey to get the film made.
Where did you get the idea?
Roth: Cabin Fever specifically was inspired from a whole series of horrible, just horrific medical incidents that happened to me. When I was 12 years old, I got this weird virus ... that strikes one in a million kids. And I was paralyzed for about six weeks and just lay there in bed reading Fangoria and just thinking, "Oh my God, am I paralyzed?" ... But then I was 17, and I went to Russia and I got this parasite called giardia from drinking the water. And I had to spend about five months drinking this poison that basically killed the parasite that was eating my body inside me. And I would think about this thing eating me and eating me from the inside and it just made me nuts.
And then when I was 19, I went to Iceland and I had this experience where I sort of got this weird itch on this farm. I started scratching my face, and I looked at my hand. Just like in the movie, there were chunks of flesh and skin on my hand. So, of course, I went back to sleep. And the next day I went to shave and I just started like peeling off layers of my face. I wasn't even thinking about it. I'm like, "Oh, wow. This really is the only thing that is scratching that itch." And I'm like, "Did I cut myself? Is that a third of my face that's gone?"
You feel like, you could be fine one day and then wake up and you're just rotting away. We're not at the top of the food chain. It's viruses and bacteria that are going to get all of us.
Did you do any research on the flesh-eating virus for the film?
Roth: It's actually not a virus. It's interesting, everyone calls it a virus. It's a bacteria. My father's a doctor and I found an article in, of all things, High Society magazine, which I read, obviously, for the articles. And there was a thing that said "Flesh-eaters: is this worse than AIDS?" And I was like, "This is what I had." I started reading about this necrotizing fasciitis going, "Oh my god, I had this on my face. I had this on my face." And I started reading. ... There's like a few different Web sites where they have photos and survivor stories, and they're terrifying.
What were your biggest influences in making Cabin Fever?
Roth: The inspiration for this—definitely Evil Dead. I wanted to make kids in the woods. And I loved Friday the 13th, but I really loved Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I mean, that film was such a huge influence, as was John Carpenter's The Thing. And what I love about those movies is they're all about people in isolated areas. Those kids in Chainsaw are stuck on that farm. In Evil Dead they're stuck in this cabin. Obviously, in The Thing they're stuck in Antarctica. I was always terrified of possession movies, and I thought, wouldn't it be great to have a movie where people are stuck somewhere and there's possession? But it's sort of like the kind of possession that I felt, that I went through.
Stylistically, definitely structurally, it's those three films, but there's other influences. Obviously, Last House on the Left, using David Hess' music in there. Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, I love the zooms, the grain. The Crazies is in there. You can look at the early Cronenberg. I loved Scanners. I was really into Scanners. And They Came From Within. So those are the films that really very heavily influenced the movie. It's like I don't hide it. You can obviously see it.
You shot the film in North Carolina, in the same location as Evil Dead 2. Was that a specific creative choice?
Roth: It was wonderful karma that we were in the same location where they made Evil Dead 2. It just was a practical consideration that one of our producers, Sam Foelich, was from there and he had studio facilities, and there was a studio where we could shoot. So there was a stage where we could shoot. I knew that, location-wise, the woods, the cabin, North Carolina was going to be perfect.
What were the contributions of your co-writer Randy Pearlstein during the writing process?
Roth: I wrote the first draft, and it had all the same kills and everything, and I gave it to Randy, and he's like, "This is the funniest movie I've ever read." I'm like, "But it's supposed to be scary." And it was so ridiculous. Randy was very influential in that we watched movies like Hi, Mom! and After Hours and Rolling Thunder. After Hours, he's like, "Watch him go crazy. Look at Griffin Dunne being pushed to the brink of insanity." Like, "That's what we should be doing." ... We wrote it together and really, really toned down the humor.
How do you walk that line between comedy and horror?
Roth: I think that as long as the humor comes from a real place of horror and uncomfortableness, that's when it's appropriate in the movie. I think that anytime it's like, "Oh yeah, let's get a joke here and throw in a laugh," I hate that in horror movies. I hate it. I think that the humor should be used as a valve to release the tension, and there comes to a point where if you let people off the hook for too long too often, they're not with the movie anymore. Once you've said, "It's OK, you don't have to take it seriously because we don't," they're not going to take it seriously. So when we were editing it in the editing room—Ryan Folsey, who cut the film, and I—there were certain moments where if there was an extra joke that was thrown in there, like it was too much. We were trying to find that laugh, but in the bigger picture it lost something.
Some would say that horror and comedy are two sides of the same coin.
Roth: Yeah. I never thought of it that way. ... But horror movies have the edge over comedies for being the best date movies. You have a better chance of getting laid going to see Cabin Fever than How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. You really do. I swear to God. I can prove it. I have a theory that teenagers want to f--k. This is just a theory. And they go to the movies to get girls to have sex with them. They go to the movies to meet people to have sex. But in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days they're like, "When do I put my arm around her?" "Should I touch his hand? What do I do?" In Cabin Fever, every two minutes you can grab her hand, you can grab his knee, you can bury your head in his chest, you can grab onto his arm. I am giving you an opportunity every two minutes in Cabin Fever to get it on with your date. She should be sitting on your lap by the end of the movie. If you cannot get laid by the end of Cabin Fever, you are pathetic, because you come out of that movie and you'll be sitting there and she's like, "Oh, I'm so scared. I'm so scared." It's like, "Why don't you come home with me?"
You did a short cameo in the film. How did that happen?
Roth: That was an unfortunate situation where originally I wanted this role to be played by Michael Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum is a good friend and is a horror fanatic. And he's like, "Eli, I can't be in the movie because I just got this part as Lex Luthor on this show Smallville." [So I said,] "We'll fly you in for a day and you can do this one cameo." But Smallville turned out to be the biggest show in the WB's history and he's like, "I literally can't get out." So at the last minute we had to cast this person. I had only seen tape of them on commercials and things, and they showed up on set. And I felt so bad because the person was not right. ... And I had read the scene so many times during rehearsal that all the cast was like, "You should do it." I'm like, "Guys, there's way too much of me in this movie already." ... But then it was like day six of shooting, and as we were doing the scene I just stopped it and I said, "You know what? I don't know how we're going to figure this out, but this isn't working." We sent the kid home. And then, of course, I put on the makeup and the outfit and went and shot the scene myself. And half the crew was like, "Oh, now he's a f--king actor too?" Everyone second-guesses you anyway, especially as a first-time director, but the producer supported me and the cast was great about it.
How do you feel about the positive buzz the film has received?
Roth: All I hear going around—we've been to a lot of film festivals and screening this movie around—all I hear from horror fans is, "We miss original horror. We're tired of remakes and sequels." And the truth of the matter is that if people want original horror to come back, it's up to all of us. No one person can bring it back. I've done my part and spent years of my life making this film, but horror fans have to come out and support original horror in the theater opening weekend. Because when House of 1,000 Corpses did so unbelievably well opening weekend, it helps 28 Days Later. When 28 Days Later does well, it helps Cabin Fever. If you do a remake and it does well, it's good, but it's going to get you more remakes and sequels. Because people in Hollywood in the film business generally will only do what's going to be a safe bet.
Having said that, would you do a sequel?
Roth: Lions Gate wants to do a sequel, and at first I didn't think I would. But then I started coming up with really, really, really weird thoughts and theories and ideas of Deputy Winston and what goes on in his universe. I would do a sequel to Cabin Fever, but I'd only do it if I could have a few years off in between. I think Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 are some of the only sequels that worked. You just need time to let new ideas brew. And I'm also curious to see what people respond to. There's certain things I love in Cabin Fever, but everybody else might not. I'd love to see what people enjoy, what they dislike, and kind of expand from there. But I know that regardless, I've written a story for the sequel. I don't know if I'll direct it or not. If they want to make it right away, then no. But if they'll give it some time then yeah, I'll do it.
What are the things you love in Cabin Fever?
Roth: I love the violence. I love too many things. I love the music. I love the photography. All the stuff I didn't do. I was the kid who was sawed in half with a chainsaw at his bar mitzvah. And my bar mitzvah cake was a director's slate with blood splattered on it. ... So I watch the movie and it's this wonderful, happy, tearful, joyous experience for me, just watching these kids die horrible deaths and get dismembered. A reporter from Cosmopolitan in the U.K. fainted during one of the screenings. And one girl came up to me and said, "I'm so nauseous. That was the most disgusting thing." I literally wanted to cry. I'm like, "That is the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me."
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