"Fresh Meat" - Horror Hottie of the Month - Eli Roth ~ *Viewer Discretion Advised - A Home for Horror, Sci-Fi, Cult, and Exploitation Films

I frequently see horror websites that only recognize the heterosexual male portion of their audience with "Hottie of the Week" features showcasing stuff like Danielle Harris in a Maxim spread. Hey, I love the ladies of horror as much as any guy, but why not: a) realize some of your readers like the dick, and b) also pay tribute to that person's accomplishments as well as their sexiness? That is why I have decided to start this feature tentatively called "Fresh Meat" to honor horror's more masculine hotties. If anyone would like to suggest and better/less corny title for this feature, please comment or email me!

This month's honoree is today's birthday boy, Eli Roth. The Massachusetts-born director exploded onto the horror scene with his fantastic debut, Cabin Fever. Eleven years after its release, this tribute to cabin-in-the-woods horror films is still my favorite Roth film. Aside from being delightfully gory and hilarious, I always loved that the victims are not hunted by some killer or demon but rather turn on each other at the very suggestion of a flesh-eating virus (which was based on Roth's real-life experiences with a skin infection). Biological menaces are nothing new to modern horror movies, but usually they manifest as zombies or something similar. Not here - the villain is unseen and often not even responsible for the carnage ensuing!

Eli's follow-up was Hostel, a film that is often blamed for starting the "torture porn" trend in horror. Because of that, it tends to get an unfair reputation and people forget what a smart entry in the genre this was. It holds a mirror up to our violence-obsessed society, and it defies genre conventions in clever ways (like *spoiler* killing off the nice guy almost immediately and making the asshole the hero). And for a film constantly accused of being graphic, the movie is surprisingly restrained in its violent content.

Hostel 2 is also unfairly dismissed, and it's possibly even better than its predecessor! Anyone who thinks Roth simply copy-and-pasted the first film but with chicks instead of men is not watching closely. What makes Hostel II very interesting to me is observing this torture industry from the other side. We see the head honchos, the initiation of new members, and "normal" people from all over the world bidding for victims on their PDAs like it's an eBay auction. This is a fascinating idea to me. And oddly enough, I find it believable! Roth really taps into human beings' natural sadism and fetishism with this fantastic sequel.

And then of course there is the short but awesome Thanksgiving, Roth's fake trailer for Grindhouse. It came second ONLY to (today's other sexy birthday boy) Edgar Wright's trailer, Don't! Thanksgiving was a pitch-perfect throwback and definitely a fan favorite. Eli next flexed his acting chops in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, where he played the much-loved Bear Jew. If the ladies weren't already paying attention, then they definitely started taking notice now:

Eli also directed (uncredited) the fake propaganda segment of Basterds called "Nation's Pride." He has had a couple of cameos in various films, but the one I have to mention is his hilarious cameo in Piranha 3-D where he got one of the film's greatest deaths!

Next up for Eli is the Netflix series Hemlock Grove (of which he is a producer and directs one episode) and his Cannibal Holocaust-inspired, The Green Inferno. I'm still holding my breath for a Thanksgiving feature and the proposed fake-trailer film, Trailer Trash. Like most horror fans, I anxiously await everything Eli touches. And who wouldn't wanna hang out with the guy? He seems as excitably geeky and knowledgeable about horror films as I am (probably way more). And yes, bringing us back to the point of this article, he's fucking hot. Here is further evidence: