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Stephen King calls Eli Roth re: horror

Kim Hollis: Surf's Up looks like a blockbuster hit compared to the $8.8 million opening of Hostel: Part II. This is not even half of the $19.6 million Hostel earned in January of 2006. What happened with the sequel?

David Mumpower: Eli Roth's barely hidden disgust with his target audience didn't help anything but at the end of the day, the original movie's shock appeal is not something audiences expect to happen twice. In fact, the most apt comparison is probably The Blair Witch Project instead of the one most frequently used for Hostel, Saw.

Tim Briody: By my estimation, this is the 47th horror film released so far this year.

David Mumpower: Putting it only seven behind CGI-animated family films!

Reagen Sulewski: I honestly have trouble telling half of these torture porn films apart anymore. Shouldn't this be premiering on Spike, or Cinemax?

Tim Briody: At least the first Hostel was at the start of the year, so it was only the second or third, so audiences weren't quite burned out on them just yet.

Kim Hollis: I tend to think that "gorno" has seen its day and that the audience is ready to move on to the next fresh horror thing. At least I hope that's the answer.

Tim Briody: Minus the Saw franchise Kim, I'd agree. That just doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing down.

Kim Hollis: We'll see in October!

David Mumpower: Saw is strangely anomalous. Look at other recent horror sequels like The Hills Have Eyes 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The Grudge 2 and now Hostel: Part II. All of them were disasters relative to expectations yet Saw keeps plugging right along. It's impressive.

Joel Corcoran: I think the success of Saw is due to in part to at least a somewhat original storyline in each film. It's not just splatter-and-gore, the movie has elements of suspense and intrigue around the different puzzles and traps people find themselves in. Hostel II is little more than a snuff film, and completely lacking in the homoeroticism the first one had.

Kim Hollis: Hostel: Part II also was a huge disappointment relative to tracking. People said they were aware and interested in Ocean's Thirteen and Hostel 2 this weekend, but just didn't follow through.





Tim Briody: I'm sure there was a Hostel III peniciled in somewhere, though that's rapidly being erased as we speak.

Kim Hollis: Actually, Tim, Eli Roth had said the second one was it and that he's through with the series.

David Mumpower: And that is what I was referencing earlier in terms of his contempt. He reminds me of that crazy director from Entourage. He seems to taste nothing in life save bile. Angry, angry man.

Kim Hollis: Yeah, he's a wacky one. And yet he gets to direct Cell, which has a chance to be huge.

David Mumpower: I expect him to get dropped from the project once he takes a swing at Stephen King.

Kim Hollis: How stupid would a person have to be to take a swing at Stephen King? That's just asking for a gypsy curse for the ages.

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