Eli Roth is a disruptor. The horror filmmaker doesn’t have a filmography as dense as many of his contemporaries, and for good reason. Every film Roth approaches feels like it’s been years in the making. Love them or not, there’s no denying the singularity with which Roth has repurposed old horror ideals and created something altogether new. He’s as much a modern master of horror Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven were in their prime, and his influence can be felt to this day.

In honor of Roth’s latest, Ice Cream Man, hitting theaters on August 7, we’re taking a look back at our four favorite Eli Roth movies. Ice Cream Man is a nasty, delicious delight, and it feels like this century of Roth swirled into one tantalizing treat. The road getting there was bloody as hell, so take a look at the best carnage Roth has unleashed.

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The Green Inferno

The Green Inferno bears a lot in common with Hostel. There’s a strong idea at its core (an homage to Cannibal Holocaust for a new generation), but the execution doesn’t always allow the conceit to reach its full potential. Horror is always confrontational, and The Green Inferno certainly wore its controversy on its sleeve. The gore is expectedly savage, and while it might be in bad taste, there’s no denying it triggered plenty of visceral reactions regardless (and emerged as a box office success because of that). With a stronger thematic core, The Green Inferno would have been stronger, but as it stands, it’s still one of the most daring and original horror movies released this century.

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Hostel Part II

Hostel Part II is a mean, mean movie. While Eli Roth first took the world by storm with Hostel several years before (successfully ushering in a new era of horror alongside Saw and High Tension), that film didn’t quite balance its darkly comedic nihilism with its uber-nasty brand of torture. The follow-up, conversely, is a much more confident (and dare I say, probing) interrogation of extreme wealth, violent tourism, and the disposability of human life. Roth maintains the same undercurrent of grim humor, but with stronger leads, better deaths, and a resonant, affecting thesis flowing throughout, Hostel Part II revolts just as successfully as it tickles the brain. When we’re accounting for this century in horror, Hostel Part II will endure as one of the most significant.

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Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever was something of a dare back in the early aughts when it was released. It may not hold the same cultural cache today it once did (I’d blame the shot-for-shot 2016 remake for that), but at the time of release, Eli Roth’s directorial debut was no less captivating than, say, The Blair Witch Project several years before. Everyone was talking about it, telling their friends to see it, daring their siblings to sneak it into a Disney case at Blockbuster for a stealthy rental. Roth’s simple tale of friends and a flesh-eating virus was debut horror filmmaking at its most electric. Nasty, intense, and imbued with so much personality, it immediately augured Roth as one of the defining voices in his generation of horror. Much like his whole catalog, some might scoff at Roth’s dispersal of his unique brand of dark humor, but for those on its wavelength, Cabin Fever will eat right through you.

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Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, Eli Roth’s most recent before Ice Cream Man hits theaters in August, is also his best. Strange as it might sound, it’s exactly because Roth pays homage to the slasher films of the 1990s that Thanksgiving works as well as it does. This century, slashers have never really slowed down, and there’s been considerable effort to recapture the feel (and aesthetics) of the subgenre’s heyday. I’d argue nothing really has, and the best slashers have instead opted to do their own thing, modernizing themselves in the process. Color me surprised, then, that Thanksgiving feels like Jamie Blanks by way of Eli Roth. It’s old-fashioned in the most complimentary terms, balancing gore, tension, humor, and a genuine murder mystery within the context of a high-concept slasher. Our own Chad Collins even argued it has one of the best slasher openings of all time. Roth accomplished the impossible here, and we’d argue Thanksgiving isn’t just one of the best this century – it’s an all-timer slasher.

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Ice Cream Man follows an idyllic summer town as it descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.

The slasher stars Ari Millen (Orphan Black) as the creepy ice cream driver delivering sweet treats.

Ice Cream Man is in theaters everywhere on August 7.

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Tags: Cabin Fever Eli Roth Hostel Part II Ice Cream Man sponsored Thanksgiving The Green Inferno

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