The good scribes over at Slasher Studios have just posted a link to an interview with Eli Roth from the Daily News Los Angeles in which he discloses a list of his favorite horror films. Some of his choices seem to be no-brainers but a couple might surprise you. Check out the trailers to his choices below and then hop over to Daily News Los Angeles to read the complete interview with Mr.Roth.
“Sleepaway Camp” (1983): Ah, “Sleepaway Camp.” I remember watching this film at a sleepover with Lenny Mead and a bunch of friends in the mid-’80s, and when the movie ended we literally stood up out of our chairs and screamed at the top of our lungs until we ran out of air. I will not say why – and don’t go looking up the spoilers on the Internet because that will take all the fun away. Treat yourself to a wonderful surprise.
“Troll 2” (1990): In the past few years, this has become the most made-fun-of horror movie for many, many reasons, all of which are documented in the excellent film “Best Worst Movie.” The director, the inimitable Italian maestro Claudio Fragasso, had a script that had nothing to do with trolls, but he could get it financed if he changed the title to “Troll 2.” Fragasso let the financiers change the title but refused to change anything else, and as a result there are many goblins, but not a single troll in the entire film. It will take hours to get through this gem because you’ll keep pausing and replaying the lines over and over.
“Creepshow” (1982): George Romero was the king of horror then, having made the classics “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead,” Stephen King was the scariest author on the planet (and still is, as far as I’m concerned), and Tom Savini had upset nearly every parent in America by creating the goriest makeup effects in the nastiest horror films of the golden era. The three of them teamed up to create an old EC Comics-style scarefest that is “Creepshow.”
“Zombi 2” (1980): One of those rare sequels that isn’t actually a sequel.
It was just called “Zombi 2” because, in Italy, “Dawn of the Dead” was released under the title “Zombi,” and the producers wanted to trick people into thinking this was the second one, even though the two films have nothing to do with each other. Other than zombies, that is.
“Pieces” (1982): Watching this film with a crowd is the most fun experience I have ever had watching a movie. I showed it to a packed house at a film festival I held a few years ago, and people had so much fun that, afterward, they were actually depressed they’d never have that good a time at the movies again. This was the movie where on the poster you saw a chain saw, a stitched-up dead girl, and the tagline: “It’s exactly what you think it is.” Some movies don’t exactly live up to their poster. Juan Piquer Simon’s does. But “Pieces” is also one of the craziest, most random and insane slasher films ever made. You think you have it figured out and then the film blindsides you. There are many, many classic scenes, like the infamous tennis match, which has some of the best extras casting in the history of cinema.
