Eli Roth Talks Clown And The Future Of Viral Horror

With the recent release of the grizzly, yet hugely enjoyable ‘Clown’, we caught up with its producer, Eli Roth, to talk all things horror.

Roth’s collaboration with its director Jon Watts came about by chance and after a gamble on Watts’ part. “It was at Halloween 2010 when suddenly my e-mail started to explode with all these notices that people were angry,” Roth shares. “I looked online at all the links and there was this trailer for ‘Eli Roth’s Clown’.”

Turns out something that started as a joke erupted on the internet, which brought it to his attention. “These guys had done the funniest fake trailer; it was amazing and it looked like a real movie! They had even used the ‘Hostel’ music to imitate the style.. I loved it!”

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After tracking down those responsible, Roth’s focus was turned to the spoof’s director, Jon Watts and partner Christopher Ford. “I contacted them and said I love the trailer, and Jon said, “Thank you for not suing us.” He told me that they actually had an idea for it as a feature and they’d love to do it.”

"Those are the kinds of directors you want to help out and give a break to direct their first feature," which is a refreshing attitude to have within the often cynical world of film.

'Clown's' early developments came right after 'The Last Exorcism' — a period where Roth's mere association with a title was hot property. “A lot of people wanted to finance any kind of horror movie I could present or produce. So I met with Vertigo Films and we made a distribution deal to finance both 'Clown' and 'Aftershock'."

And amazingly he was able to get financial backing based solely on the trailer with Roth’s insistence that they be allowed to make the movie they wanted. “My deal with Jon was: if you can make this for a low budget then we will have total creative control. You can do it however you want, and you can cast whoever you want. I am going to get you the money and I’ll have final cut which means that you’ll have final cut.”

"Jon is a very smart, visual and stylish director," the ‘Cabin Fever’ helmer says. "If you look at his music videos that he did for Swedish House Mafia or if you go on jonwatts.tv you’ll see that he does have that Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze kind of an eye – he has this fantastic visual style."

“‘Clown’ is a very bizarre character piece, and what I love about the movie is that it isn’t exactly what people expect. It is kind of like ‘The Fly’, in which you like the main character and you don’t want him to do this — and he doesn’t want to do this — but there is something that has completely overtaken and transformed him.”

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The comparisons to horrors gone-by are worth noting, but ‘Clown’ does manage to tap into the indie-horror niche extremely well. “We wanted something that was very scary but stylish, smart, psychological and dark, and which actually at its heart is a very dark character piece.”

Whilst we’ve seen clowns feature in various movies such as ‘Poltergeist’, ‘Killer Klowns from Outer Space’ and, most notably, Stephen King’s ‘It’, there’s an inherent relationship we have with them.” Obviously kids love them – they capture your imagination and there is the playfulness. But I think the thing we can’t get over is when we see that it is an adult dressed in makeup and doing that. Look, I have a respect for clowns and clownery, but you think about what if someone just put on that makeup and went out in public and children automatically trusted them. The idea that someone would use that for evil, to get a child to instantly trust them, is terrifying.”

'Clown' brings to the table some unsettling, yet very real issues surrounding child killers and, to a degree, paedophilia, which is a relevant issue in today's climate. “I think that people are scared of clowns because children will instantly trust them and they are supposed to have a responsibility.”

When sharing his ideals on the future of the horror genre, Roth remains positive with the direction it’s going. “Right now we are getting exciting movies coming out of Australia like ‘The Babadook’, which I thought was a terrific film. There are a lot of great filmmakers out there. I think what Blumhouse has done in the US with horror movies that have come out in the theatres and have done so well at the box office is really healthy for the genre. I’ve actually started a digital horror network called The Crypt, and we have over 125 shows in production right now. So I think there is a whole new world emerging in global horror that I am really excited about.”

Similarly, he believes the creative freedom horror offers filmmakers is arguably its unique selling point. “Now there is so much great content on your iPhone, iPad, your Apple TV, that you have constant creativity from all over the world that are able to make these terrific scary films and share them with people everywhere. I think the next Slender Man will be viral, and the next character that will capture people’s imagination, and which people will become obsessed with, is probably going to come from a viral video or something that starts online.”

While ‘Clown’ is evidently a low-budget movie; its story, SFX and fear it evokes sees it succeed as an indie horror that will arguably have already amassed a number of fans since its release last week.

'Clown' is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.

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Picture credits: Cross Creek Pictures, Studio Canal.