Thanksgiving Director Eli Roth Talks Seasonal Horror

Eli Roth‘s next horror film, Thanksgiving, is set to release later this year, and despite over 20 years of directing, Roth says he still loves to get covered in fake blood.

Speaking to ComingSoon, Roth was asked about an infamous quote he once said, about how he doesn’t feel like he’s done his job as a horror director if he isn’t coming “home covered head-to-toe in fake blood.” Roth joked that there’s clothes he doesn’t want to be dirty nowadays, but he’s still heavily involved in every aspect of filmmaking.

“Well, that was before I could afford nice clothes. [Laughs],” said Roth. “And let me say that that should have an asterisk. If I’m not wearing Missoni, like if I have a beautiful Missoni knitwear sweater, I do not want to get blood on that. But I actually have my blood clothes and, for sure, on Thanksgiving … I have clothes now that I only wear when I’m directing. They’re the same pants, they’re the same sweatshirts, and they are designed to get soaked in blood. So yeah, I love to get in there, I love to mix it up, and I also like to show the crew that I’m not afraid to literally get down and dirty.

“So if we need to do something with blood or something needs to get sticky, I’m the first one to do it and it kind of breaks the ice and puts everyone at ease. So yeah, whenever I’m shooting these scenes, there’s sometimes where I don’t even want to wash it, but then it starts to get sticky and make a mess and you get bugs, so eventually you have to wash them. But I, for sure, have bloodstained shoes, bloodstained shirts — it’s the best. It’s a sign that you’re, you’re doing something right.”

Roth shares seasonal horror influences

When it comes to Thanksgiving, Roth mentioned that a handful of other holiday-centric films helped serve as inspiration, including films like Silent Night, Deadly Night, My Blood Valentine, and more.

“For sure. I mean, look, obviously, I grew up in Massachusetts, so every year at Thanksgiving, Jeff Rendell — who I wrote it with — we were waiting for a Thanksgiving slasher film,” Roth said. “It never happened. We had Halloween, you had Silent Night, Deadly Night at Christmas, you had My Bloody Valentine, you had April Fool’s Day, you had Mother’s Day. But there was never one for Thanksgiving. It seemed so obvious to us, so from the time we were 12 or 13 years old, we always wanted to do it, because Thanksgiving is obviously is a huge deal in Massachusetts with the pilgrims. You went to Plymouth Plantation/Plimoth Patuxet in Sturbridge Village and saw all these pilgrim recreation villages. So we really wanted to do a modern take and create a new mythology and a new slasher film. The way I think of it is that if you love Thanksgiving, you’re going to want your kids to be into horror films.

“And that’s why, for the parents, there’s Thanksgiving. But for the kids, there’s Fright Krewe. With Fright Krewe, we really wanted to create a show for people that grew up with Scooby-Doo and want their kids to be into scary stuff. Or the kids like stuff scary, but it’s going to be safe, it’s going to be okay. You’re not going to get nightmares. But there’s a whole world. Kids love monsters. In Scooby-Doo, it’s always the guy in the rubber mask. We wanted real monsters with real mythology. So it’s a whole new world of monstrous creations that I think the kids are going to love. But we wanted a show that the parents and the kids could watch together. But then in November, you get a babysitter. They can watch Fright Krewe, the parents will go out to Thanksgiving, but something for everyone in the household.”