Eli Roth

Eli Roth (birthname: Eli Raphael Roth) is one of the leading voices in American horror filmmaking, known for his taste in extreme situations and ultra-violent staging. Roth’s feature debut as director/writer/producer was the horror comedy, Cabin Fever (2002), with Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeBello, and Giuseppe Andrews, grossing a potent $30.6 million (on a $1.5 million budget) that triggered interest in sequels—including the Ti West-directed Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009, which Roth handed over to West as his project), the Kaare Andrews-directed prequel Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014), and a remake of the same title based on Roth’s original screenplay (with Roth executive producing) and directed by Travis Zariwny.

Roth’s second and third horror movies as director/writer/producer were the Lionsgate and Screen Gems-distributed Hostel (2005), with Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson, and its immediate sequel, Hostel: Part II (2007), with Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, and Bijou Phillips, and earning a combined $117.6 million worldwide gross.

Eli Roth then took a break from feature directing as writer and producer on Aftershock (2012), in which he starred under co-writer Nicolás López’s direction, and on The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), directed, co-written and co-starring Wu-Tang Clan leader RZA (who also co-wrote the music), with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, and Dave Bautista, and which earned $20.5 million globally. Roth was director, co-writer (with Guillermo Amoedo), and producer (with López, among others) of the cannibal thriller, The Green Inferno (2013), with Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, and Sky Ferreira, which grossed $13 million worldwide after premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Director/writer Roth once again collaborated with López (who was co-writer, along with Amoedo, and also a producer) on the thriller, Knock Knock (2015), starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, and Aaron Burns, grossing $6.3 million in a Lionsgate release after premiering at the Sundance film festival. Roth was director only of the long-in-gestation remake of the 1974 movie of the same title, Death Wish (2018), starring Bruce Willis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris, and Kimberly Elise, and which took in a global box office of $49.6 million via distributors MGM and Annapurna International.

Eli Roth directed his first studio-produced fantasy movie, Universal Pictures’ $42-million-budgeted The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018), starring Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Sunny Suljic, and Kyle MacLachlan, and grossing a solid $131.5 million worldwide. Roth continued his break from the horror genre on which he made his name as director of the Discovery+ non-fiction movie, Fin (2021), executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and documenting scientists tracking a shark extinction happening worldwide.

Roth returned to horror movies as director, story writer, and a producer of the slasher movie, Thanksgiving (2023), building from a “trailer” that Roth made for the paired Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino double-bill, Grindhouse (2007) and co-starring Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, and Gina Gershon, and earning a robust global return of $46 million, spawning plans for a sequel, Thanksgiving 2 (date to be announced), directed by Roth and co-written by Roth and Jeff Rendell.

Eli Roth is the director, story writer, and producer of the sci-fi comedy, Borderlands (2024), based on Gearbox Software’s video game series, marking Roth’s second movie with Black, Blanchett, and Gershon, and co-starring Kevin Hart, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, and Jamie Lee Curtis, and which was released by Lionsgate. Roth has been a producer-only on numerous movies, including 2001 Maniacs (2005), The Last Exorcism (2010), The Last Exorcism Part II (2013), Clown (2014), The Stranger (2014), Haunt (2019), and a co-producer credit on Baywatch (2017), which he had developed for a year as an absurd comedy before the project was put on pause by Paramount Pictures.

Unusual among his filmmaking colleagues, Roth also has several acting credits—beyond small or cameo roles in several of his movies (Cabin Fever, 2001 Maniacs, Hostel Parts I and II, The Man with the Iron Fists, and The House with a Clock in Its Walls)—in Terror Firmer (1999), Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000), Tales from the Crapper (2004), Piranha 3D (2010), and Rock of Ages (2012), as well as roles in two Quentin Tarantino movies, Death Proof (2007) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), and an uncredited role in Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006).