Eli Roth
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Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
influenced Cabin Fever (2003), Knock Knock (2015)
Themes Plot
If you’re expecting anything like intelligence, subversion or social commentary—something that’s no stranger to the horror genre, from classics like Night of the Living Dead to more recent films like The Babadook and It Follows—you’ll walk away from Knock Knock disappointed.
That's because most of the film is nothing but a series of references and homage to previous releases ranging from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to "Night of the Living Dead" and a whole host of others.
Entire bits of the film are lifted from Evil Dead 2 and Night of the Living Dead and numerous other films.
For the audience, we are treated to a 90-minute homage to the true classics of the horror genre: "Evil Dead," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Night of the Living Dead" and others.
Roth's knowing homage to the gory glory days of 1970s American horror cinema draws inspiration from "Night of the Living Dead," the collected works of David Cronenberg, and every stupid kids-trapped-in-the-woods slasher movie.
The movie is actually not as nasty as he claims, though there are some nasty images of lesions and the like, and plot-wise it has more in common with The Stand than Night of the Living Dead.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Directed by Ruggero Deodato
influenced The Green Inferno (2014), Knock Knock (2015)
Themes
Still, with that in mind, it's interesting to see how Roth's fanboyish impulse to top "Cannibal Holocaust" director Ruggero Deodato and his Italian contemporaries winds up inadvertently revealing the relatively humanizing aspects of "The Green Inferno" as a cultural critique.
Between one of the captives experiencing a bout of explosive diarrhea and another formulating a plan to get their captors high by stuffing a corpse with a bag of weed, it seems as if Roth was as inspired by Cheech and Chong as he was by Ruggero Deodato (whose notorious “Cannibal Holocaust” provides “The Green Inferno” with its title — the exact same as found-footage forerunner “Cannibal’s” film-within-a-film).
While not as luridly violent or extreme as that notorious touchstone Cannibal Holocaust directed by Ruggero Deodato, it's still a full-on, nerve-rattling experience.
The story of Cannibal Holocaust and The Green Inferno is the tale of two different approaches to horror filmmaking.
But his work, as with the films of “Cannibal Holocaust” maven Rugero Deodato, is technically assured and has always been slyly satirical, even thoughtful — nuances that are often lost in the pursuit to eviscerate him for eviscerating his characters.
The Goonies (1985)
Directed by Richard Donner
influenced The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Themes Visuals
Based on the 1973 novel by John Bellairs, who came to specialize in young adult gothic and supernatural mystery stories, it evokes both the live-action Disney films of the 1970s, including Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), Return From Witch Mountain (1978), and The Watcher in the Woods(1980), and the successive series of 1980s suburban fantastic movies—Gremlins (1984), The Goonies (1985), Explorers (1985), and The Monster Squad (1987)—most of which were either produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment (which produced House) or were inspired by them.
For the most part, Roth is interested in channelling the visuals and atmosphere of an Amblin classic from the 1980s, such as Gremlins or The Goonies , though he never manages to summon up the same emotional charm.
Roth adapts his style well in his attempts to capture the charm and warmth of his inspiration, the 1980s Amblin classics like The Goonies and Gremlins .
Looking back, Amblin Entertainment — that Steven Spielberg-hatched shingle responsible for such films as “Gremlins” and “The Goonies” — may as well have defined the concept of movie magic for a generation, only to see it watered down by all the computer-generated juvenile thrill rides that followed.
Roth and Amblin may have been aiming to make The House With a Clock In Its Walls a return to the Spielberg classics of the ’80s, but it’s missing the sense of adventure, memorable characters, and the imagination that made movies like E.T. and The Goonies so beloved.
I remember visiting the old Deuce — where I sat behind a guy who wasn’t just smoking pot, he was using a bong, great clouds rising to the peeling ceiling — to see Make Them Die Slowly, which I’d later learn was the American grindhouse title for Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox.
More than a decade later, this 2013 offering (which will crawl on to UK DVD this month after a fleeting theatrical platform) finds him regurgitating Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust and Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox, with added female genital mutilation.
He’s the brand of filmmaker who feels the need to combine the “parody” of something like a Date Movie film spoof with the likes of Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust or Umberto Lenzi’s 1981 Cannibal Ferox, crafting something that has neither the ostensible self-awareness nor the controversy of either.
Back to the Future (1985)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
influenced The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Themes Visuals
An odd and weird combination from the start, and hoping to be a nostalgic throwback to the realms of “Back To The Future” and “Casper” with a spice of “Jumanji” meets “Goosebumps” - Roth’s ‘The House with a Clock in its Walls” gets less interesting the more you dig deeper.
The period of Hollywood filmmaking that Roth is most keenly paying homage to is not the '20s or even the '50s, but the '80s, and the film is as much about tipping the hat to Amblin classics like Back to the Future (as well as the work of Spielberg himself) as it is a pro forma paean to embracing one’s weirdness.
Roth and screenwriter Erik Kripke (TV's Supernatural , Timeless ) also offer up plenty of allusions to another '80s hit – be it the opening clock scene, or the movie playing at the local cinema, this has Back to the Future homage written all over it.
In case we haven’t got the point, Roth’s 1955 set fantasy contains multiple allusions to Robert Zemeckis’s Back to the Future, pitching his fantasy as a film full of wonder and mischief, built on the relationship between a kid and his older, eccentric mentor.
Jon Hutman‘s production design is appropriately gothic, creating settings that invoke The Addams Family , A Series of Unfortunate Events and even Back to the Future .
The film is directed by Eli Roth, whose films Hostel and its sequel put him in the first rank of "torture porn" makers – which could be a problem, but it seems that he seized the chance to embrace the PG world because it meant working with Amblin, the company responsible for Spielberg's classic, ET , along with Gremlins , Back to the Future and many more.
Midsommar (2019)
Directed by Ari Aster
influenced by Hostel (2006), The Green Inferno (2014)
Plot Themes
En cualquier caso, el pitch de esta película, antes de que Aster aceptara escribirla, fue hacer “una versión de Hostel (2005) en un rito folclórico sueco”.
This culminates in the film feeling like an arthouse version of HOSTEL or CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, with detached westerners coming in to judge a different society while displaying their own horrible ways.
It’s been a staple of the horror genre as far back as An American Werewolf in London (1981), and more recently the formula was honed with the likes of Hostel (2005) and The Ruins (2008).
Louder, more gory horror films have been made about this idea (“Turistas,” “Hostel”), but now comes an unusual marriage of cautious observation with twisted motivation.
“Torture porn” was still in vogue (in some sense, it’s never not) and the company was envisioning a Hostel -style movie involving “American tourists going to Sweden and them being killed off during Midsummer,” the summer solstice festival with deep pagan roots.
The remainder of Midsommar plays like a high-toned version of Eli Roth's xenophobic gorefests Hostel (2005) and The Green Inferno (2013), following the American tourists (and a couple of British students they meet along the way) as they come to realize that Pelle's seemingly peaceful commune is really a death- obsessed cult.
To nutshell Fresh , think of David Lynch & David Cronenberg co-directing a cautionary tale about online dating as written by early Eli Roth, whose Hostel films are echoed herein.
Know that the irresistibility of “Fresh” lies in the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously—all things considered, the film manages to stay light on its feet with its “Hostel” meets “Ex Machina” concept, mostly avoiding overt, self-righteous preachiness in its moderately-feminist tale where women’s bodies are perishable commodity.
A gory allegory for our dangerously impersonal consumption-oriented dating culture, “Fresh” has more than a little in common with past torture-porn movies: Think “Hostel,” with a wicked glow up and a lot more likes.
It shares more in common with Eli Roth’s Hostel than almost any other film we can think of, though there are elements of Get Out, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs throughout.
There’s also a fair bit of Hostel in Fresh, at least in terms of where body horror stands on the scale of sociocultural expression.
As far as midnight movie antics go, Fresh delivers macabre mutilations the likes of which they never attempted in Saw or Hostel.
Roth begs, borrows, and steals from the best, including a fair amount of George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies) and, of course, Sam Raimiâs first two Evil Dead films, but there are also echoes of other exercises in paranoia, including William Wylerâs The Desperate Hours, of all things.
Goosebumps (2015)
Directed by Rob Letterman
influenced The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Plot Themes
As if director Eli Roth hoped borrowing concepts from the likes of the Harry Potter films, Lemony Snicket , and Goosebumps would suffice, as opposed to creating something mildly original instead, House… at once fails as a scary tale for the young audience he’s clearly aiming for and as an enjoyable romp for the adults who will go along rather begrudgingly.
Which, combined with the rotund presence of Jack Black and the fact it’s based on a kids’ novel (by John Bellairs), suggests The House With A Clock In Its Walls might be little more than a Goosebumps doppelgänger.
Based on the novel by John Bellairs, this comic horror fantasy will initially remind viewers of another Jack Black family scarefest, Goosebumps , as it skilfully mixes humour and slick CGI with thrills as Lewis uncovers the secrets of both his uncle and his new home.
The recent Goosebumps revival is as close to this in spirit as anything in recent memory and, as with that film, it’s a reminder that Black is really great at a lot of things, including this.
It puts recent efforts like 2015’s Goosebumps (which incidentally also starred Jack Black, the erstwhile headliner here) to shame while at the same time reminding me of past favorites like Gremlins , Adventures in Babysitting , The Witches and even that first adventure of everyone’s favorite boy wizard Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone .
"House" has decent scares for a kid's flick, and an adventurous spirit reminiscent of "Monster House" or a chapter in the "Goosebumps" franchise.
Technical credits are uniformly high and the whole is driven by a wonderfully compelling score that combines Angelo Badalamenti's compositions with David Hess's music for "The Last House On The Left." Starring Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong, James DeBello, Cerina Vincent and Joey Kern.
Monster House (2006)
Directed by Gil Kenan
influenced The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Themes Visuals
"House" has decent scares for a kid's flick, and an adventurous spirit reminiscent of "Monster House" or a chapter in the "Goosebumps" franchise.
The fact that Amblin Entertainment is involved with this adaptation feels like an ideal situation, as Roth’s work in the film feels perfectly at home with some of the notable fantastical movies that helped cement the production shingle’s legacy throughout the 1980s—films like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Goonies, Gremlins, Casper , and even Monster House immediately came to mind when I was watching their newest production.
Sus ruidos, rechinidos, habitaciones, laberínticos espacios y hasta mobiliario viviente, harán que los espectadores evoquen casas como la de Monster House (2006) o el palacio de La Bella y la Bestia (1991).
Like Takashi Miike ’s horror classic, “Audition,” it sails along like a romantic comedy until it takes a sudden turn down murderous rapids.
Acknowledging his Eastern god, Roth also tosses in a cameo from the ice-cool Japanese director Takashi Miike, whose psychotic ''Audition" (1999) is a deserved cult treasure.
It takes a turn toward the unapologetically violent, as mean and visceral as the limb-chopping finale of Audition (Takashi Miike has a memorable cameo as a persona of evil in Hostel) or the gory, Greek tragedy tongue slicing in Oldboy .
Look for lots of asides and insider nods — homage to The Wicker Man as The Sneaker Pimps cover of Britt Eckland’s “How Do?” plays; Audition director Takashi Miike cameos as a bloodthirsty businessman; Paxton and Josh chase a coat-clad character ala Don’t Look Now, and so on — but watch for what’s all Roth, too.
The idea of snuff for sale has been around for a long time though - Johnny Depp made a film back in 1997 called "The Brave" (it was never released in the U.S.) based on the same concept - yet Tarantino claims to have never heard of this 'sick idea' before.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
Directed by Adrian Lyne
influenced Knock Knock (2015), The Green Inferno (2014)
Plot Themes
Evan lets trouble into his life, but the response is deliberately, absurdly disproportionate — Fatal Attraction with questionable consent, Funny Games as ranted out by a men’s rights activist.
It’s like Fatal Attraction for the naked-selfie generation.
Before you can whisper "Fatal Attraction," Evan breaks his marital vows with the women in graphic fashion (the movie earns its R rating).
Evan lets trouble into his life, but the response is deliberately, absurdly disproportionate — Fatal Attraction with questionable consent, Funny Games as ranted out by a men’s rights activist.
"Fatal Attraction" turns into "Funny Games," though, when in the morning the girls reveal a feverish terroristic agenda that involves upending Evan's life: tying him up, trashing his house, threatening exposure to his wife and preparing to kill him.
Part cautionary tale, part satire, part horror film, part erotic thriller, it’s Fatal Attraction for the social media era—yet that description does little to indicate just how riveting it is.
The idea of people being kidnapped in order to be snuffed by clients wealthy enough to pay for the privilege goes back as far as ”The Most Dangerous Game,” a tale from which Roth appears to have appropriated his ending (in the press notes, Roth says he was inspired to make ”Hostel” by a Web site about a Thai pay-per-slay industry).
Maybe it’s somewhere in the pages Justine’s copy of Moby Dick, where she keeps the flute necklace her mother gave her.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Directed by Drew Goddard
influenced by Cabin Fever (2003), Hostel (2006)
Themes Plot
Like its spiritual heirs - the "Scream" franchise, Eli Roth's "Cabin Fever" and the collected works of Sam Raimi - "The Cabin in the Woods" comes not only to praise the slasher-, zombie- and gore-fests of yore but to critique them, elaborating on their grammatical elements and archetypal figures even while searching for ways to put them to novel use.
The group seems fairly typical, comprised as it is of a high school jock (Chris Hemsworth), a nerd (Jesse Williams), a blonde bombshell (Anna Hutchison), a shrinking violet intellectual (Kristen Connolly) and a stoner (Fran Kranz), while the scenario seems fairly bog-standard and derivative of everyone from Sam Raimi (and The Evil Dead) to Eli Roth (and Cabin Fever).
After all the “Friday the 13th” films, the soon-to-be-rebooted “Evil Dead” films, Eli Roth’s 2002 effort “Cabin Fever” and last year’s abysmal “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,” what is left of this let’s-get-some-young-people-into-the-woods-and-slaughter-them genre?
It's not going to reinvent the horror genre, though, but if we get any sort of attendant backlash against the likes of Hostel and the Saw series, maybe that's good enough.
The set-up is executed with a tongue-in-cheek attitude but presented with a straight face that could be off-putting for viewers who are expecting a straightforward slasher film or a “gritty” and serious scare-fest (such as The Descent or Hostel).
Are the people behind some grisly "Hostel"-like enterprise that stages real-life horror movies for the delight of rich sickos who prefer their low-rent trash entertainment to come with an exceptionally nasty edge?
Return to Oz (1985)
Directed by Walter Murch
influenced The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Themes
In an era when movies made with children in mind play it too safe, this one harkens back to a time and tone similar to 1984's "Gremlins," 1985's "Return to Oz," and, perhaps most surprising of all, Bob Balaban's 1989 pitch-black suburban satire "Parents."
If the second half of Hostel is laden with grimy gore, sleazy slashers, and disturbing dispatches, then the first is more or less a mild remake of An American Werewolf in London, mixed with liberal doses of Porky’s-style boobiness.
Written and directed by Eli Roth (''Cabin Fever"), the movie tells one of those nightmare-abroad tales, like ''An American Werewolf in London" or ''Eurotrip."
Toward the end of the film, she’s painted solid white in preparation for a dire cannibal ritual, which invariably leads to unwanted thoughts of Bo Derek’s mud treatment in 1981’s Tarzan, the Ape Man.