- Okay. Let's put you in the situation.
So, you're there
and you're diving in a pool. - [Eli] I'm in a thong.
I go in the pool,
and the guy comes in with a chainsaw.
(chainsaw revving)
- Hey, I'm James A. Janisse.
Some of you may know me as Dead Meat.
If you do, you probably already know
that I love to watch people die,
you know, like on screen.
I've always wanted to talk to before legends
who put those kills on screen
and find out what scares them,
and also if they could survive
their favorite kill scenes. (scream)
This is, Meat Up.
Today's guest, Eli Roth.
Eli Roth is making a kid's movie?
When are we going to get another Hostel...
Hey, man. Hey, how's it going? - How are ya dude?
Good to see ya. - Good.
I was just admiring your display here.
- Yeah, welcome to my new house.
- It's very lovely.
I like it, good location.
Yeah, you want to talk about it more over coffee?
- Yeah, I'd love too.
- Cool, lets go.
- Lets do it.
(jazzy piano music)
- Hey, we're here with Eli
at Commissary Coffee in West Hollywood,
a place that you actually picked out.
Is this your favorite coffee spot
- This used to be my Sunday spot,
kinda before I got into editing,
I would just walk down here with my dog,
have breakfast.
- Were any of your movies written here?
- I generally write at my house.
I usually go to coffee places to read.
I find if I get a script and I read it,
and I'm reading at my house,
I always fall asleep,
and that's just a bad, bad way to read a script.
Cuz, you're just cozy, and you have a snack,
and you just fall asleep.
But, you know, in a coffee place you're like,
Oh, by the time this coffees done
I'll be finished with the script.
- Cool. I just ordered whatever you ordered.
What'd we get?
- I went for the iced almond milk cappuccino,
because they have a nice almond milk here.
I make my own almond milk.
I'm really like an almond milk snob.
(James giggling) But, I cut out sugar.
So, I'm super hard-core, no sugar.
I had a real sugar addiction problem
that I certainly indulged on Death Wish.
(James chuckling)
So, for House of the Clock, I was like,
I gotta do something, man.
And I 100% cut out sugar,
just so I'd get off being addicted to the taste of it.
So I stay off it now.
- Haven't you actually been labeled
as one of the fittest directors before?
- That was actually a great scam
that I pulled - Oh Yeah?
- Yeah. One of the early scenes,
Back when your IMBD trivia was kind of everything
and a journalist would just look for that.
A friend of mine from college
was doing an article for Men's Fitness Magazine
or Men's Health Magazine
and he was like,
hey, can I put you as most fit director?
And, I was like,
absolutely you can. - Nice.
- So, he put me as most fit director
and man did that piss off the other directors.
I really did it to (bleep) with the
other directors.
- Did anyone in particular
say like - All of them. Quentin's like,
I'm taking your (bleep) title (James laughs)
And Edgars, Edgar Rowe's like,
(in nasally voice) oh, it's the most fit director
(James laughs)
I'm gonna take your (bleep) title next year,
and then you'd see like
director, I saw Rich Kelly's all jacked up.
He's like, guess who's going to be most fit director?
So, it's funny that,
you know once I got labeled that,
so of course I put it on my IBMD trivia,
and then it just got into the vernacular of Eli Roth,
the most fit director.
And that's just like,
it's just,
I didn't think I was going to win an Oscar
with Cabin Fever, so it's just a good way
to needle everybody. - Yeah, sure.
- It's like I might not have that, but I do have this title.
(island drum music)
- With you're new movie
it's rated PG.
Did you feel like you had to approach the set differently
then you would for Green Inferno? (laughs)
- Yeah, sure.
I mean, Green Inferno we were in the Amazon,
and it was all adults.
But look, there were kids around in the village
in Green Inferno, but they didn't speak English.
That was the difference.
I wanted to make a PG movie.
I miss PG movies.
I miss scary PG movies.
You know, I miss movies like Gremlins, Goonies,
Poltergeist, ET, Raiders.
The movies people are still watching
are Gremlins and
Beetle Juice and films like that.
There isn't that movie that's your stepping stone
to really scary, intense horror.
I mean I didn't start out, I mean I was the exception.
Yeah, I started out with Alien
- Yeah. - The Exorcist, but most kids,
(James chuckles) they didn't start out with
Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
A lot of those violent movies,
I remember seeing Texas Chainsaw Massacre
when I was 12 or 13 because these are VHS movies.
But the movies that I saw in the theaters,
with your parents that were scary and fun,
or at a birthday party, a whole group of kids would go see.
Those are the ampler movies.
Those were big, fun, scary theatrical experiences.
And the movies were fun,
and they had a sense of humor too.
But they got you excited about scary,
they showed you the fun of being scared.
And the thing about those ampler movies was
they always did something you were like,
Whoa! Can they do that in a kid's movie?
- Yeah. - Like even in ET
when he was like, it was nothing like that penis breath,
and we were like, (James laughs)
did they really just say that in this movie?
It was like, even when ET is dead in the movie
you're like,
Oh my God, they really killed him.
And they were like leaving.
- Yeah. - I was crying. I was a mess
when Et died.
Then the plant, the flower goes up
and you're like,
the flower, look at the flower.
So, all those moments,
they really push you to that emotional extreme,
and Spielberg's hits me.
I had a really great meeting with him before
and he was like, make it scary.
Really, really, make it scary.
Cuz kids love to be scared. They love it.
I think people are getting that
fix with Stranger Things. - Yeah.
- I think they're getting it in other places.
But, there isn't the movies that's like,
wow, that's darker than I thought it was going to be.
- Yeah. - A movie that was scary,
properly scary. - Yeah.
(light instrumental music)
- So you mentioned History of Horror,
that's your latest project?
- Yes. History of Horror for AMC.
- And that's interviewing a bunch of horror legends, right?
- Yeah, I've been wanting for a long time
to do a documentary series that fully catalogs the genre.
No one has ever really done a deep dive
saying this is where this came from,
this is where vampire movies started,
and there's something in it for everybody.
From the casual fan to the super geek.
You know we've got everyone from Stephen King
to Jordan Peele, Tarantino, Tippi Hedren,
Jamie Lee Curtis, Rob Zombie, Greg Nicotero,
I mean like the most incredible list of people,
Catherine Hardwicke, Jill Shoemaker,
so we went after everybody.
Not everyone was available but you know,
we said, let's do a thing that's for all time.
That this can be the definitive series
on the history of the genre.
And I finally got to sit down with Stephen King
and ask him his thoughts on The Shining,
and it was amazing to hear his insight.
And talk to Tarantino about Get Out
and Rosemary's Baby.
And the influence of Abbot and Costello
meet Frankenstein on him. - Yeah.
- Tarantino and I did a whole thing
on mashing up his two favorite genres.
When he was a kid it was like,
whoa, he loved horror movies and he loved comedies.
So, he was talking about his movies today
being a confluence, like this mash-up of different genres.
It's like it's really, really fantastic.
I'm really proud of it.
It's a way of keeping the movies alive
and a way of you know, sorta teaching people
this kind of oral history.
Cuz after Wes Craven died, Tobe Hooper died,
Romero died,
I was like we're losing the stories these guys have.
- Yeah, that's how I felt. - Not only are we losing
these masters.
They have these amazing stories that go with them,
so let's get everyone on camera,
and tell their stories,
because 10 years from now,
who knows who's going to be around?
(mellow jazz music)
- In this segment,
What Would You Do?
We're going to put you in a scene
of the movie that you chose, Pieces,
and ask what you would do in the situation.
- [voiceover] Warning.
What you will see in the movie Pieces
cannot be revealed.
(chainsaw revving)
Cannot be described.
(loud scream)
Cannot even be imagined.
(chainsaw revving) (loud scream)
- So, I chose the scene, - Right.
- where the character Jenny goes for a little swim
in the schools pool and then she gets cut to pieces
with the chainsaw.
- Of course.
- Before we put you in that scene and ask you
what you would do,
we're going to have you draw some items
from my chum bucket here.
- Okay.
- Draw three out of there.
Okay what do you got there?
- Okay, I have a pair of stiletto heels,
a pair of furry handcuffs,
Smash Mouth's debut album.
- That's Walking on the Sun.
That's their best work I would say.
- Wow.
- Okay. Let's put you in the situation.
So, you're there.
And your diving in the pool. - I'm in a thong.
I go in the pool and the guy comes in with a chainsaw.
And it's to me,
what do I do?
Well the first thing you do is,
you want to get the pair of furry handcuffs,
and try to get his leg,
and cuff him to like the top of the railing of the pool,
where you get in and out of the ladder.
- [James] Okay.
- So at least for a moment.
Now if this person has a chainsaw,
(chainsaw buzzing) they're going to get out
of there pretty quickly.
But that gives you enough time to get up
and go to the record player,
because it is 1982,
even though Smash Mouth hasn't been invented yet,
(James chuckles)
to put on Smash Mouth's debut album
And they are so smooth this wild beast
is so distracted by sounds of Smash Mouth
they can't stand it because they're used to
the beautiful score by Stelvio Cipriani
and then it's making them think of that kid on YouTube,
who basically takes any song and sings it
to the lyrics of All Star.
So, he's thinking about that
(chainsaw revving) He goes after the
record player with the chainsaw.
- Are you out of the pool yet or
you're out of the pool? - Well you're out of the pool
because you've got the stiletto heel
and as soon as he turns around you
jam one (chainsaw maniac screams)
in his eye and then you take the other one
and quickly fasten it onto his foot,
and he's so jarred by what just happened
with the thing in his eye and the heel on his foot,
he goes backwards (chainsaw buzzing)
and the chainsaw's very likely to chop his own head off.
- [James] He just falls right onto the chainsaw?
- [Eli] No, he falls and then the chainsaw falls on him,
So, if he falls onto the chainsaw he didn't see it.
- [James] Right. - [Eli] If he falls
and then the chainsaw falls on him.
- [James] That sounds like you survived the scene
much better than that character did.
(clapping) cuz she wound up
naked against a pillar getting cut into pieces.
- But the best part is about her death is afterwards
the extras that play the police officers
are kinda like circus clowns,
they have to come in and they put the stretcher down
and it's clear that they're like,
what do we do? Okay let's just..
So they like pick up a leg and move it onto the stretcher
and then they're like,
you can tell they're just Spanish dudes that have never
been in a medical.. - Yeah.
- situation before.
- They weren't given any direction.
- No direction whatsoever.
It's interesting with Pieces.
Like the whole thing of the girls crotch missing
in the jigsaw,
he's doing a naked jigsaw puzzle
and the mom catches him and he kills the parents.
But the crotch is the last piece and it's missing,
so of course, then he makes a human jigsaw puzzle.
But, there's a lot of
shall we say phallic
imagery in the movie.
It's one of those movies that Carol Clover
could dissect for years.
It's really really interesting about,
think about the directors frustration,
his difficult
sexual relationship with women,
it's difficult relations..
You think about the time he made it,
he was probably in Franko to very repressed Spain.
Being openly gay director,
all of those things.
But made a lot of fun movies.
He did another film called slugs
where there's some amazing deaths.
But anything that's directed by J.P. Simon
it's Juan Piquer Simón.
- Well, thanks so much for - Thanks James.
- joining us on this first episode
- This is great, this is fun.
We actually, we're filming this on the release day
of House with a Clock in it's Walls.
- Yeah, it's amazing.
- But it's so cool,
but this is going to air right around when
History of Horror starts.
- That's some good synergy. - At midnight
October 14th on AMC.
- Yeah. - So.
Set them DVRs.
- Set em. I'm very excited for em.
- Alright, tune in. Let me know what you think.
- Thanks so much.
- Awesome.
- Appreciate it a lot.
(smooth music)