1991–2001: Early work and Cabin Fever At
NYU film school, Roth wrote and directed a student film called
Restaurant Dogs, an homage to
Quentin Tarantino's
Reservoir Dogs. The film was nominated for a
Student Academy Award in 1995, ultimately winning its division (Division III). Through his internship with
Frederick Zollo, Roth met
David Lynch and remained in touch over the years, eventually producing content for Lynch with his fledgling website in the late 1990s. He also met a member of special effects company
KNB EFX, which contributed to his first feature. In 1999, Roth moved to Los Angeles, where he wrote, directed, edited, produced, animated, and provided voices for a series of animated shorts called
Chowdaheads for Mandalay Sports Entertainment. They were to be shown between
WCW Monday Nitro pro wrestling matches, but they were never actually broadcast. In mid-2000, with financing from the website Z.com to deliver a five-minute pilot, Roth wrote, directed, animated, and produced a series of
stop-motion shorts called
The Rotten Fruit. Roth had co-written
Cabin Fever with his college roommate Randy Pearlstein. They based the premise on Roth's experience of contracting a skin infection while riding ponies at a family friend's farm in Iceland in 1991. Much of it was written in 1996, while Roth worked as a production assistant for
Howard Stern's film
Private Parts.
Cabin Fever was produced in 2001 on a budget of $1.5 million raised from private investors. The film was sold to
Lionsgate at the 2002
Toronto International Film Festival for $3.5 million, the biggest sale of that year's festival. Released in 2003, it was Lionsgate's highest-grossing film of the year, earning $22 million at the U.S. box office and $35 million worldwide. Lionsgate's stock rose from $1.98 a share to nearly $6 a share after the film was released; the company used its newly valuable stock to buy
Artisan Entertainment.
Cabin Fever made Roth a star in the horror genre. In a 2004
Premiere Magazine interview,
Quentin Tarantino called it "the best new American film". Cabin Fever was
remade in 2016 and directed by Travis Zariwny.
2005–2007: Hostel films and Thanksgiving , 2007 In 2005, Roth's second feature,
Hostel, was made for just over $4 million. It opened No. 1 at the box office in January 2006, taking in $20 million its first weekend. The film went on to gross $80 million worldwide in box office, and more than $180 million on DVD. Although the story is set in
Slovakia, all the exteriors were shot in the
Czech Republic. In the film, three friends are lured to visit a hostel where they think their sexual fantasies will come true. Instead, they fall into the clutches of an international syndicate that provides first-hand torture and killing experiences for rich, sadistic tourists. The film was rated No. 1 on
Bravo TV's
30 Even Scarier Movie Moments, and
Empire Magazine readers voted
Hostel the Best Horror Film of 2007. Roth reportedly turned down studio directing jobs to make
Hostel. He took a directing salary of only $10,000 to keep the budget as low as possible, so there would be no limits set on its violence. In January 2006, film critic
David Edelstein in
New York magazine credited Roth with creating the horror subgenre "
torture porn", or "gorno", using excessive violence to excite audiences like a sexual act. In 2007, Roth directed and narrated the faux trailer segment
Thanksgiving for
Grindhouse and appeared in
Death Proof, Tarantino's segment of the film. Roth and co-writer Jeff Rendell won a 2007
Spike TV Scream Award for best "screamplay" for their work in
Grindhouse, sharing the honor with Tarantino,
Robert Rodriguez,
Rob Zombie, and
Edgar Wright. In January 2023, it was announced Roth is developing a feature-length film version of
Thanksgiving. in Rome during the press tour of
Hostel (2006)
Hostel: Part II opened in sixth place in June 2007, with $8.2 million; it went on to gross $17.6 million in US theaters. The film, which cost $10.2 million, earned $35 million in theaters worldwide and $50 million on DVD and pay television. Lionsgate attributed the lower grosses to the summer release, opposite blockbusters such as
Shrek the Third, ''
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and Ocean's Thirteen'', as well as the film's workprint having been leaked online before its release. Close to two million illegal workprint downloads were tracked the day
Hostel 2 opened.
Hostel: Part II was nominated for six Spike TV Scream Awards, including best horror film and best director. It was on
Entertainment Weekly's list of the 20 best horror films of the past 20 years. In March 2006,
Dimension Films bought the rights to
Cell by
Stephen King and would produce a film to be directed by Roth. In 2009, King finished the screenplay, and actors
John Cusack and
Samuel L. Jackson joined the project; however, Roth did not direct.
2009–present: Career fluctuations In 2009, while acting in
Inglourious Basterds, Roth said that he would soon begin his next film,
Endangered Species. He has also produced the 2012
kung fu film
The Man with the Iron Fists, written, directed, and scored by
RZA who also stars in the film. According to Roth, Tarantino is involved as well. In an interview with
CHUD, Roth said, "This movie will have everything martial-arts fans could want, combined with RZA's superb musical talent. This project has been his dream for years, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. Fans should know that, yes, there will be blood ... This ain't no PG-13. Through his company, Arcade, with Eric Newman and Strike producer Marc Abraham, Roth produced the horror film
The Last Exorcism, (originally titled
Cotton) which was directed by
Daniel Stamm. Completed in December 2009 and retitled in February 2010,
The Last Exorcism cost $1.5 million to produce. It opened at more than $20 million in U.S. sales, and earned No. #1 opening spots in Canada and the UK. The film had paid for itself when rights in a few foreign territories were sold before shooting began. It earned over $40 million box office in the United States, and $70 million worldwide. In 2014, Roth produced the American supernatural horror film
Clown and had the minor role of "Frowny the Clown." He next helmed
Knock Knock (2015), a remake of the 1974-shot horror film
Death Game, about two women who seduce a married man and then do unspeakable things to him.
Keanu Reeves starred and executive produced. In a 2013 interview with
The Guardian, Roth indicated that he had suspended work on
Endangered Species to focus on 2013's
The Green Inferno. Roth directed the cannibal horror film
The Green Inferno (2013), which was inspired by his love of
Mondo horror films such as the infamous
Cannibal Holocaust.
The Green Inferno was criticized for its portrayal of indigenous people as cannibals, and it was described as a "new low in racist film making" by ''People's World.
In 2015, Roth was announced as the director of the adaptation of the best-selling shark novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, eventually called The Meg''. In 2016, it was announced that he had left the project due to creative differences. Roth hosted and executive-produced an episode of
Discovery Channel's TV series
Curiosity, titled "How Evil Are You?" The episode explored the scientific aspects of evil, with Roth undergoing a brain scan and
DNA sequencing at
University of California, Davis with
neuropsychiatrist Dr. James Fallon. Roth also re-created the infamous
Milgram experiments for the documentary, with results identical to those from 50 years earlier. Roth directed the pilot of
Hemlock Grove, a horror/thriller series, that premiered on Netflix on April 19, 2013. He also hosts
Shark After Dark on
Discovery Channel's
Shark Week. Roth helped with a project with
DreamWorks' TV show
Fright Krewe. Roth's 2018 remake of the film
Death Wish opened to $13 million at the box office. The film is centered around a trauma surgeon who turns to vigilantism after his family is attacked. The film was panned by critics as "pro-gun propaganda" and ill-timed in the wake of the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Roth defended the film, stating that the film was not pro-gun and that he wanted the film to focus on family, protecting one's family, and seeking justice for one's family. Also in 2018, he directed the fantasy comedy film
The House with a Clock in Its Walls, his first PG-rated film and his highest domestic grosser to date. In 2024, Roth wrote and directed an
adaptation of the
Borderlands games.
Other ventures In 2002, Roth brought a
shot-for-shot remake of
Raiders of the Lost Ark made by children to the attention of both
Harry Knowles and
Steven Spielberg. He had a copy in his video collection for years, and showed it at Knowles's
Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in December. The response was so great that Roth took the tape to his first meeting at
DreamWorks to give to Spielberg. An executive called the next week saying that Spielberg loved it and wanted to contact the filmmakers. Roth, feeling that their film was so powerful he had to do whatever he could to make sure fans saw it, introduced it at its premiere at
Grauman's Chinese Theatre in May 2008, five and a half years after he first gave the tape to Knowles. Soon, the three reunited friends were touring the world, doing charity screenings. Roth has talked of doing
Trailer Trash, another compilation of fake trailers. "
Trailer Trash is not a horror film," he said; "it's a comedy. It will be very R-rated and completely insane, and I'm producing it with
Mike Fleiss". Roth recorded an
audio commentary for
Troma's 1997 DVD release of
Blood Sucking Freaks four years before directing his first film, billed as a "Blood and Guts Expert". Roth is a frequent contributor to DVD "extras" content (liner notes, video commentary) for horror film distributors
Grindhouse Releasing/
Box Office Spectaculars, particularly for two of his favorite films
Juan Piquer Simón's
Pieces and the North American DVD release of
Lucio Fulci's
Cat in the Brain. Roth's most notable appearance to date is his role as violent Bostonian soldier Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in the 2009
Quentin Tarantino film
Inglourious Basterds. Roth's role in Quentin Tarantino's segment of the 2007 film
Grindhouse, Death Proof, came about because Tarantino was impressed by Roth's brief part as Justin in
Cabin Fever. Roth—who left pre-production on
Hostel: Part II in Prague and flew to
Austin, Texas, to film the scene at the Texas Chili Parlor—said that working as an actor for Tarantino is "like taking a master class in directing". Outside of these films and his own, Roth has appeared in a cameo role as a contest emcee in
Alexandre Aja's 2010 film
Piranha 3D and in the 2012 musical film
Rock of Ages, among others. Roth has also appeared in several projects that
David Lynch directed for his website davidlynch.com. In 2009, Roth wrote, directed, and acted in a PSA for
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) about the link between violence against animals and violence against people. Roth won a Telly Award for his spot (Public Service Category: Bronze). Roth is a curator of the
Museum of Pop Culture's exhibit "Can't Look Away", detailing the history of horror. He was selected, along with directors
John Landis and
Roger Corman, to represent three generations of film directors who have shaped the genre. In September 2012, he opened a
haunted house, Eli Roth's Goretorium, in Las Vegas. Haunted Desert LLC, which owns Goretorium, filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2013, and the attraction closed in October. Roth directed the music video for
Snoop Lion's lead single "La La La" from his
reggae-genre album
Reincarnated, which was released on April 23, 2013. In 2015, Roth partnered with Jack Davis to launch
Crypt TV, a digital company focused on short-form horror content. In 2021, Roth invested in
Jomboy Media, a digital media company that produces content focused on sports and pop culture. == Activism ==