ELI ROTH has become one of horror cinema’s loudest and most enthusiastic voices, with Hostel, Thanksgiving, and many more classics to his name. Now, the director has returned with ICE CREAM MAN, tackling one of horror’s longest-standing taboos – killer children! We recently sat down with the man himself to talk about the making of the movie and its many horror influences…
STARBURST: Killer or dangerous children have often been present in your movies. What is it about the idea that you keep coming back to?
Eli Roth: I love when children kill in a horror movie. It’s always so transgressive. I think that goes back to Night of the Living Dead. The girl biting her mother as a zombie was shocking to audiences. And when I was a kid, I saw a movie called The Children that really freaked me out! I did a whole episode of History of Horror on killer kids. We did Devil Times Five, The Brood, and Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s Who Can Kill a Child?, which is a masterpiece. There’s something that just goes against nature.
How did Ice Cream Man become a main outlet for that particular subgenre?
It was 23 years ago when I was on the press tour for Cabin Fever. It was summertime, and I saw an ice cream truck, and that music just triggered the memories of running towards the ice cream and being so happy. And I thought, “What if this person was poisoning the kids? What if the children started turning against their adults, and the music activated them to kill in the middle of the night?” That really disturbed me.
What made now the right time to finally explore that idea?
For years, people said, “You can’t make that movie.” We wrote a script and people said, “No, no, no, no. We’ll never do that. You’ll never get it by the ratings board. You can’t ask kids to do those things.” And then I had a baby girl, so I’m a father. I’ve seen my own fears now. I could really re-approach it as a parent, just to see where I’m thinking about how all you want to do is protect your children, and ultimately, you can’t. You can only prepare them. So, there’s something really scary in that idea. But I just wanted to make a movie that was, like, Terrifier 3 level – unrated, unhinged, and just totally insane.
Did you face any major challenges working with such a young cast?
The cast were incredible. I wanted great young actors. I didn’t want kid acting. You know, sometimes in a movie, there’s a kid, and they’re not great. Whereas when you watch Natalie Portman in The Professional [aka Léon, 1994] or you watch Los Olvidados [The Young and the Damned, 1950], you see a kid who’s just an incredible actor. That’s what I wanted. I said to the kids, “How do you want me to direct you? Like kids or like adults?” And all the kids were like, “No, no, no, talk to us like adults.” I told them, “It’s the same way I directed Kevin Hart, Jack Black, or Cate Blanchett. That’s how I’m gonna direct you.” And they appreciated it. They were like, “Oh, he’s treating us with respect. So let’s be serious, let’s be focused.”
Eli Roth’s ICE CREAM MAN is released on August 7th.
