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While some filmmakers try to make sequels that build on a previous film\u2019s without alienating any potential audience who hasn\u2019t seen the the original film, writer\/director Eli Roth has crafted the follow up to his immensely popular 2005 shocker Hostel to start exactly where the first film ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cHostel II<\/strong> picks up literally the next cut where the first one left off,\u201d Roth states. \u201cI love sequels — I think Friday the 13th, Part 2<\/strong> did that. I wanted to literally pick up after the next cut, so that you could take out the credits from Hostel<\/strong> and watch one and two back-to-back.”<\/p>\n It\u2019s mid-February, but Roth is already making the publicity rounds for Hostel II<\/strong>\u2019s release later this summer. Just little more than a year ago, Roth\u2019s Hostel<\/strong> \u2013 the story of a group of friends hitchhiking across Europe who become the victims of a kill-for-pleasure resort \u2013 was breaking winter box office records and becoming the first hit of 2006. The sequel will focus on another group of friends, this time females headed by Bijou Philips and Heather Matarazzo, who come into the clutches of the kill-for-thrill Slovakian vacation spot.<\/p>\n With a world-renowned psychiatrist for a father and a painter for a mother, Roth doesn\u2019t seem like the leader of a new breed of horror film directors. Thin as a rail and with still a trace of an accent belying his New England roots, Roth more looks like the kind of guy who shows up at the ten year class reunion having taken the business world by storm. Oddly enough, though, he has taken Hollywood by storm with his first two films \u2013 2003\u2019s Cabin Fever<\/strong> and Hostel<\/strong> were both made on miniscule budgets and returned many times their investment at the box office.<\/p>\n But while his films have proven popular with audiences, some critics have raised issued with some of the extreme moments of violence and horror that pepper Roth\u2019s scripts. But for Roth, there\u2019s no limits as to what he should be able to put on the screen and it is with that philosophy that he proceeded into work on Hostel II<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cHere’s the thing,\u201d Roth explains. \u201cI just want to create a story, and make it scary and interesting. I want everything to be about the next level. The movie is really about the next level of depravity \u2013 that sex doesn’t get you off, that violence is a substitute for that. But at a certain point, I don’t want the whole movie to be about that, I just want to tell a really good scary story. And if you just try to make it the most shocking, disturbing movie \u2013 I mean, it’s been done before and it’s been done better. I love Cannibal Holocaust, I love movies like that. And you’re never going to do something more shocking and disturbing than those films, so I just want to tell a good, scary story from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking at the sequels that I love, like Road Warrior<\/strong>, Aliens<\/strong> and Empire Strikes Back<\/strong>,\u201d Roth explains. \u201cThose were the models. You came out of those movies, and you were like, \u2018Oh my God, that was actually better than the first one.\u2019 So that’s what I was really going for. Let’s take the things that I think worked best on Hostel<\/strong> and really build on that for the story of the sequel. But it was really a challenge, because with the first one you don’t know what’s going to happen. So how do you make another scary film, and include surprises and twists when everyone kind of knows what’s going to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer to that, Roth states, is changing the formula from the first film.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fun of [the first movie] was using the structure almost of a sex comedy — taking the first half of the movie and completely pulling the rug out,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt starts out safe and bright and colorful, and then once Josh gets killed, suddenly your main character is gone, the color is drained away, the lenses get tighter — it’s more handheld — and you actually see how the first and second half kind of parallel, sort of mirror images of each other.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, the fun of Hostel<\/strong> was taking people on that ride, and then having that tonal switch. But you can’t do that again. You can’t re-set, and have Hostel II<\/strong> start off as a fun, safe comedy. What I decided was that, tonally, I wanted the movie to pick up exactly where the last one left off. So, with Hostel II<\/strong>, I really wanted to start off in that creepy place and just stay there. I wanted to have a sense of dread throughout the whole film.\u201d<\/p>\n With time to go before Hostel II<\/strong> hits theaters, Roth is already looking ahead towards his next project, an adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s recent bestseller Cell<\/em>. But does that mean there are no return visits to the frightening world of Hostel<\/strong> in the works?<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cI’m sure the answer is, \u2018It depends on how Hostel II<\/strong> does.\u2019 But I think for right now, I don’t want to make a bad Hostel III<\/strong> and I don’t want to force it. I feel the story ends at Hostel II<\/strong> and let’s just leave it at that for now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/Features\/FeaturesImages\/EliRoth2.jpg\")
Pushing the envelope wasn\u2019t Roth\u2019s only mandate when he started to work on Hostel II\u2019s script. Roth went back and looked at other sequels that surpassed their progenitor for inspiration on expanding his own films\u2019 world.<\/p>\nWhile some filmmakers try to make sequels that build on a previous film\u2019s without alienating any potential audience who hasn\u2019t seen the the original film, writer\/director Eli Roth has crafted the follow up to his [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1695],"tags":[202,8130],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features","7":"tag-eli-roth","8":"tag-hostel-ii"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t