Hostel: Part II
writer-director Eli Roth and cast mates Bijou Phillips
and Vera Jordanova
took questions at the Los Angeles Fangoria Convention at the Burbank Hilton a
couple weeks back, and the answers, insights and good-naturedly gory
reminiscences came fast and furious.

While the brief clip from the Hostel sequel showing an abortive escape attempt by Phillips wasn’t
necessarily anything to write home about, Phillips did dispute gossip that she didn’t enjoy the Czechoslovakian shoot, or was hell on wheels on set, as apparently reported elsewhere in some gossip rag. Also, Roth talked at length about his
actors’ performances (making up for the fact that so few questions were lobbed
their way, perhaps), and said — however dubious a claim — that the Motion
Picture Association of America did literally
say/admit that “good acting” was responsible for an NC-17 rating on the
first-pass cut of the movie. Roth says he believes that the torturous scenes of
women in peril — and Phillips’ anguished reactions in particular — were the ratings
board’s chief cause of concern, because they played as so disturbingly real. That was kind of the point, he argued, and that, “People who come to see Hostel: Part II know exactly what kind of movie they’re getting into. They’re looking for some fucked-up shit.”

After the 35-minute-ish session, the aforementioned trio
signed autographs, but the most unnerving sight had to be folks posing for
pictures (some with their children!) with two fake-blood-covered slaughterhouse
torturers standing on either side of a bound, gagged and scantily clad model.
Still trying to figure out a way to pour some Purell on my brain after that one…

Meanwhile, for Roth’s thoughts about his infamous Thanksgiving trailer for Grindhouse
and more information on his future projects, click here.

In his latest film, Mr. Brooks, Kevin Costner plays a buttoned-up businessman whose family life masks a lifetime of serial murdering. It’s an audacious movie full of wild swings in plot, and one that refreshingly embraces certain excesses. Interestingly, though, one bit that could be overplayed but isn’t comes in the form of Mr. Brooks’ murderous id, Marshall, played by William Hurt. When Brooks has conversations with Marshall, time stops in the movie. But is the character, as seen, a randomly externalized presentation of Brooks’ inner psyche, or does Marshall actually have his own back story? According to Costner at the film’s recent press day, it’s the latter.

“I found Marshall
when I was 12 years old in a book of children’s dreams,” says Costner of his character. “And he would play
basically a Black Knight, an evil person. But I liked him so much in the book
because he was kind of cool. And I liked him so much, actually, I was afraid he
was going to die in the book, so I never finished it. And my father used to
discipline me with the idea that if I wasn’t good, that the Black Knight would
come and get me [because] he actually hid in my
closet. And like any young man, eventually you challenge your dad’s theory and
you open that closet. And there was my imaginary friend, and he was not scary
at all to me. So he’s been with me, sort of as my alter-ego. And that began
when I was 12 years old.” For a full review of Mr. Brooks, click here.