Out of Cabin fever To Borderland, Eli Roth has experienced many ups and downs in his film career, but which of his films is the best (and which is the worst)? Roth’s breakthrough came with his low-budget debut film Cabin feverabout a group of college students who travel to a remote cabin in the woods where they encounter a deadly flesh-eating virus. Cabin fever made Roth famous and established him as one of the most exciting new voices in horror cinema.

What followed was a surprisingly varied career. Roth alternated between gruesome horror films, such as his bloody cannibal thriller The green inferno and the hostel Franchise – which pioneered the so-called “torture porn” subgenre – and family-friendly fare like The house with the clock in its wallsHe has made extremely low-budget films, such as the kitschy home invasion thriller Knock knockand he has made major studio films with huge nine-figure blockbuster budgets, such as BorderlandThroughout his career, Roth has produced both great and terrible films.

10 Borderland

Roth reached a new low with his big-budget adaptation of Borderland. The Borderland Games are not as well known for their three-dimensional characters and emotionally complex stories as, for example, The Last of Us or Red Dead Redemption. They are better known for their ridiculously gruesome violence and their colorful cast of lovable villains. However, a film adaptation could have been successful just by copying these elements.

But by opting for a PG-13 rating and a confusingly atypical cast – such as the choice of Kevin Hart for the role of the stoic gunslinger Roland – Borderland Film didn’t even manage that. The Borderland Play games like an even crazier remake of Mad Maxbut the film seems like a mediocre Guardians of the Galaxy Rip-off. Borderland ignores everything fans love about the games and offers nothing exciting for newcomers. So who was this film made for?

9 Death wish

After languishing in development hell for over a decade, Roth took over the long-awaited remake of Death wish in 2018. The original Death wishReleased in 1974, it is one of the most controversial films of all time because it seems to advocate vigilantism. The film is about a mild-mannered average citizen who takes the law into his own hands when his family is attacked and the police do nothing. Bruce Willis replaces Charles Bronson in the role of Paul Kersey, and Hollywood glitz replaces gritty thrills.

The original Death wish may not be a masterpiece, but it was made with passion and righteous anger against the post-Watergate machinery. But the remake is too dull and unimaginative to provoke such outrage. There was controversy surrounding its release, but that had more to do with the timing than the film itself.

8 The green inferno

Inspired by the “cannibal boom” of the late 70s and early 80s – especially the infamous 1980 cult classic Cannibal Holocaust – Roth wanted to make his own cannibal thriller in 2013 The green inferno. It revolves around a college freshman who goes into the jungle with a group of activists and ends up clashing with a cannibalistic tribe. The green inferno uses a rich satirical vein and mocks young people who are actively involved for fame rather than for the cause.

But it doesn’t say much about the mendacity of this kind of modern activism. Stylistically, it’s a fun throwback to the gruesome B-movies that graced the screens of grindhouse drive-ins in the ’70s and ’80s. It strikes that unique balance of being hard to take but impossible to look away from.

7 Hostel: Part II

After the unexpected box office success of hostelRoth quickly set to work on a sequel, Hostel: Part IIplaced directly after the first one. Hostel: Part II doesn’t do much to reinvent the wheel. Much like the first film, it centers on a group of American tourists who have the misfortune of ending up in a Slovakian village where an underground organization is kidnapping and torturing people.

Hostel: Part II basically just offers more of the same. But because it had already been done, it didn’t feel as exciting and revolutionary as its predecessor. When the first hostel it was unthinkable that a horror film would simply cut out the middleman and offer 90 minutes of non-stop bloody terror. But when the sequel was released, not only the first hostel already done; all hostel Scammers had done this too.

6 Knock knock

Keanu Reeves plays the lead role in Knock knock as an architect who stays home alone to work while his wife and children go on vacation. In the middle of the night, during a rainstorm, two young women – played by Lorenza Izzo and a young Ana de Armas – show up at his front door, claiming they want to find out the address of a nearby party. After he reluctantly lets them in, they seduce him, then capture and torture him.

It would be generous to say that Knock knock is a fascinating genre metaphor for a married man facing disastrous consequences for an extramarital affair. The film isn’t really smart enough to make that clear – it’s pure exploitation. But Reeves’ performance just about carries the film. He’s engaging enough to take the audience along on his character’s wild journey.

5 The house with the clock in the walls

In 2018, Roth wanted to do something completely different. The director of Cabin fever And hostelwho had taken the depiction of violence on screen to a whole new level, set out to make a children’s film. With his adaptation of John Bellairs’ The house with the clock in its wallsRoth wanted to create a horror film for children in the style of Amblin’s classic 80s films. The Gooniesbut in the end it was more of a third-rate Harry Potter Clone.

Jack Black, Cate Blanchett and the film’s young star, Owen Vaccaro, all deliver outstanding performances in the film, elevating C material to B+. There is nothing in The house with the clock in its walls this hasn’t been done in other films (and has been done better in other films), and an abundance of explanation makes the story seem uneven. But the film succeeds when it just focuses on the fun.

4 hostel

With the support of executive producer Quentin Tarantino, Roth directed his second feature film. hostelin 2005. The film revolves around a group of American tourists who are kidnapped by a shady organization that brings unsuspecting torture victims into an underground network of sadists. There is not much more to hostel as bloody, over-the-top violence, but for fans of this kind of horror, it’s just the thing.

hostel paved the way for the controversial “torture porn” trend of the 2000s; in fact, the term “torture porn” was coined to criticize hostel. There’s something to be said for pioneering a whole new subgenre. While the term is used pejoratively, Roth still managed to create something that felt new and fresh in horror cinema – something they didn’t yet have a name for.

3 Cabin fever

Roth was hailed as a wonderful new voice in horror cinema when his debut film Cabin fever burst onto the stage. Cabin fever is about a group of college students who rent a cabin in the woods during October break, isolating themselves from the outside world and unknowingly battling a deadly flesh-eating virus that has infected many of the locals. Cabin fever The critics were polarized: either they loved the mixture of merciless bloodshed and offbeat humor, or they hated it completely.

The genius of Cabin fever is that none of the characters are actually killed by the virus; they are all killed by their paranoia and distrust of each other. In that sense, it is a kind of horror version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. This hilarious twist adds a refreshingly ironic touch to all the bloodshed.

2 fin

In 2021, Roth made his first documentary, finin which he joins a group of scientists, activists and researchers to uncover the dark history behind the extinction of sharks. The documentary received support from organizations such as Oceana, Sea Shepherd and Wild Aid and was executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Nina Dobrev. Millions of sharks around the world are killed and fin goes in search of the truth about what is happening to them.

It is a truly just cause, and Roth is obviously very committed to this issue. fin captures both the majesty of sharks and the viciousness of finning. The majority of Roth’s filmography consists of gruesome horror films that revel in gore for gore’s sake. fin is one of his few films that is actually about something and has real substance.

1 thanksgiving

In 2007, Roth shot a fake trailer for a holiday-themed slasher called thanksgiving for the double feature directed by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse. It’s about a serial killer disguised as a pilgrim who kills his victims around Thanksgiving Day. Roth spent years trying to put together a feature-length adaptation of this trailer. thanksgiving became his passion project. When the feature film version was finally finished in 2023, it did not disappoint.

The murders are devilishly creative, the satire on the madness of Black Friday is just right and the Scream-style crime thriller is really exciting. At a time when slashers had become very boring and unimaginative, thanksgiving came along to give the genre a much-needed boost (or kick in the ear). thanksgiving started as a fake trailer, but was ultimately Eli Roth‘s best movie.