--- title: Origins: Eli Roth | TIME description: The Hostel director and Inglourious Basterds co-star talks to TIME contributing nerd Gilbert Cruz about his creative influences. canonical: https://time.com/video/8C24wyoY/ og:title: Origins: Eli Roth og:description: The Hostel director and Inglourious Basterds co-star talks to TIME contributing nerd Gilbert Cruz about his creative influences. og:url: https://time.com/video/8C24wyoY/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8C24wyoY/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Origins: Eli Roth twitter:description: The Hostel director and Inglourious Basterds co-star talks to TIME contributing nerd Gilbert Cruz about his creative influences. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8C24wyoY/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Origins: Eli Roth > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Origins: Eli Roth [Watch (HLS stream): Origins: Eli Roth](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8C24wyoY.m3u8) (4:08)  _Published 2010-01-04. The Hostel director and Inglourious Basterds co-star talks to TIME contributing nerd Gilbert Cruz about his creative influences._ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:17 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences](/video/F33RkXSE/) ### Origins: Sucker Punch Director Zack Snyder on his Film Influences [Origins: What Influences James Cameron](/video/cLkQE5xO/) ### Origins: What Influences James Cameron [Origins: The Director of 'Up' on His Influences](/video/J1PLAO6X/) ### Origins: The Director of 'Up' on His Influences --- ## Transcript >> This is Gilbert Cruz for TIME. com and you're watching Origins, a video series in which we get actors, directors and other notables to talk about the movies, music and television shows that have most influenced their work. Eli Roth is the director behind horror films Cabin Fever and Hostels 1 and 2. He is also sometimes actor, and fellow gore- obsessive Quentin Tarantino has cast him in his film Death Proof where he plays a tale obsessed meathead. >> So after we bring the girls drinks, in fairly rapid order, But not obvious, we order two milder shots. >> And this year's Inglourious Basterds, now out on DVD. In that film, Roth plays Donnie " The Bear Jew" Donowitz. >> Hey Donny! >> Got a German here who wants to die for his country. >> Oblige him. >> Bloodiest member of an old Jewish Nazi hunting out but behind enemy lines. >> You know Alien, [ unk ] on me and that was the movie that made me want to be a director, and I was eight years old when I saw it in the theater. The chest- burster scene, I knew right from the opening shot I was terrified. But that chest- burster, I never jumped like that before in my life and at the end I was about to leave because I was so scared that Sigourney Weaver started taking off her clothes. I was like, wait, wait, wait. That was the last 10 minutes of it standing there, I was frozen. >> Beautiful! >> Raiders of the Lost Ark was some of those movies that we knew that was the next Star Wars. But my parents were concerned because I was going through a phase where I would throw up in movies, and projectile vomit like five rows. My parents said no more gore. No more gore. And then Raiders came out and everyone knew that this was the next Star Wars and they said you can't see it because faces melt. So I went to see it and I didn't puke and I came out. I was like, I didn't puke! And from that point on I got really into makeup effects and deconstructing how it was done. Well, it was wonderful to see them all melt at the end, to see their heads explode. So I was really, really, really into gore movies but Evil Dead was-- I remember that movie. I've never been that petrified in a film before. And then I started reading Fangoria, that Sam Raimi was 21. I thought geez I'm like 13. That's not too far away. Sam Raimi made it when he's 21 and I'm moving 21. God! He made Evil Dead. I got to write my Evil Dead and that's why I wrote Cabin Fever. >> Were there echoes of Evil Dead in Cabin Fever? >> Cabin-- I found that cabin to look like the cabin from Evil Dead. I said I'm going to make my movie with five people in the woods. Five friends in the woods and it's like-- it's basically they are getting possessed but they get possessed by the flesh- eating disease, and you're with your fiend but you have-- you know-- I love Evil Dead because you're with your friend but suddenly you have to kill your friend or your friend is going to kill you. And they all isolate whoever is possessed and they locked that girl down in the basement and that's why we locked Karen in the shed. >> I wanna go home. >> I was in soundtrack when I read it, I mean the scene where Edward Woodward is by Britt Ekland in the Wicker Man. The Wicker Man is my favorite score of all time. I think it's brilliant and there is a song called Willow's song that she sings when she is seducing and pounding on the door. >> I remember that. >> Well the Sneaker Pimps covered that song, did an amazing updated version. I tracked that down. I was like the Hostel was very very influenced by the Wicker Man. >> You can watch more of the Origin series at TIME. com / video. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Origins: Eli Roth","description":"The Hostel director and Inglourious Basterds co-star talks to TIME\rcontributing nerd Gilbert Cruz about his creative influences.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8C24wyoY/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-01-04T23:08:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8C24wyoY.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/8C24wyoY/","duration":"PT4M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/8C24wyoY/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```