It’s classic Roth crafting these short, punchy trailers throughout his career, proving that his bite-sized bursts of horror often pack a bigger punch than expected. Looking ahead, The Horror Section’s next
acquisition, Dream Eater, a found-footage horror film, hits theaters October 24th just in time for Halloween.
Now a full-fledged franchise, the Thanksgiving saga is far from over. When I told Roth, “I’m ready for leftovers,” referencing the film’s most satisfying line, he immediately lit up.
“Jeff Rendell, my co-writer, is supposed to give me a draft this week,” he said with a smile. “We’ve been finalizing the script and have to line up schedules with our amazing, busy cast.” He added that he hopes to shoot early 2026 for a fall 2026 release.
Roth is also expanding one of his most infamous projects: Hostel. He’s developing and directing a new television adaptation for streaming service Peacock. “I thought it’d be kind of like a horror White Lotus,” he said. “Something we could explore over eight episodes, and just change the setting season to season.”
While the news leaked ahead of the production date, Roth explained the original Hostel was inspired by conversations he heard by rich people the first time he flew business class after the success of Cabin Fever. “It wasn’t about the torture,” he said of the film’s inspiration. “It was about the insanely fucked up things that people with money do and what happens when their world collides with ours, and we get tangled in their web.”
That fascination with power, corruption, and fear has long pulsed beneath Roth’s work. But his next original feature, Ice Cream Man, has been living in his head for over two decades.
“I started writing it as a novel,”
“I started writing it as a novel,” he said. The tipping point came when he needed a new project for Cannes. “I told my wife, ‘I’m going to need to tune out,’” he said. “And I sat there, and it just came out of me. I didn’t even feel like I was writing. I felt like I was watching the movie.”
It’s not an unusual process for Roth, a man who orbits ideas until they explode onto the page.
“David Lynch called it catching the big fish. And Quentin [Tarantino] always says when he’s writing, ‘My pen is my antenna to God,’” he said of the two directors.
For Roth, ideas don’t always arrive on schedule. They come when he’s doing the dishes, in the shower, dreaming, or avoiding the work altogether. “I procrastinate during the writing process. I avoid it. And then you sit down and start doing it, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, that was so fun.’”
Roth’s creative process doesn’t stop at the script. He often hears full scores in his head, humming themes into his phone and texting them to composers. Ice Cream Man even includes one of his own warped jingles.
“There’s an ice cream song I wrote and sang into my phone,” he said. “I sent it to a group of composers who could orchestrate it.”
While horror has traditionally been bound to soften within ratings or studio formulas, Roth continues to keep the blood flowing, just like he always has. Screaming teens, practical effects, a twisted imagination, and crowds watching through the cracks of their fingers. And as the appetite for horror amongst fans becomes increasingly louder on social media for the love of the genre, Roth is open-armed to continue to push the envelope no matter what the critics or industry say.
Respectability, as far as he’s concerned, was never the goal. “We’ll never really be respectable,” he explained. “Because we’re doing something that’s provocative and offensive and shocking. We’re not begging for Oscars or trophies. The prize is always when people go, ‘I couldn’t watch it,’” he said with a smile. “That’s the highest compliment you can get with a horror film.”
“If you do your job right,” he said, “people are watching through the cracks of their fingers.”
That ethos goes back to a piece of advice Tarantino once gave him, that now guides everything he makes. “Quentin once said, ‘Don’t think about opening weekend. Think about if kids are still watching it fifteen years later at a sleepover.’”
And that’s exactly what Roth continues to chase: blood, chaos, and a good scream.
You might recognize Roth from somewhere beyond the director’s chair. In addition to writing, directing, producing, and composing, he also acts—most notably as the baseball bat-wielding Sgt. Donny Donowitz in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and frequently makes cameos in his own films.
“Quentin once said, ‘Don’t think about opening weekend. Think about if kids are still watching it fifteen years later at a sleepover.’”
And finally, he doesn’t hesitate when asked what films every horror fan should seek out.
“Obviously The Shining, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre—but those are ones everyone’s seen,” he said, waving them off like a warm-up round. Then he leaned in.
“Who Can Kill a Child? from 1975,” he said. “There’s also Pieces from 1982—a Spanish slasher that’s completely over the top. Pure junk food. And if you haven’t seen Sleepaway Camp, watch it. Don’t read anything about it. Just watch it. Then come talk to me.”
Don’t overthink it—just press play. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself watching through your fingers.
Because Eli Roth wants you to have the best time in the theater—whether you’re screaming inside or out.