Eli Roth made his debut in the horror genre in 2002 with the hilarious gorefest “Cabin Fever,” and he followed it up with the savage torture porn “Hostel” in 2005. For a while, Roth was associated with carnage. However, his work on the PG-rated movie “The House With A Clock In Its Walls” and “Fin,” a film on the unregulated shark finning industry, suggests a shift away from the cheesy thrills of gritty horror toward a more mature aesthetic and subject.
In 2021, Eli Roth took a break from making fictionalised horror and produced the T+E series “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life,” which chronicles and dramatises the traumatic experiences of regular people who stumbled upon paranormal phenomena. A quick glance at the audience ratings for his gorefest films suggests that moviegoers would welcome a change from the filmmaker, but his latest decisions as a producer had quite a few people scratching their heads.
In an interview with ET Canada, Roth admitted that his time on the series has only strengthened his belief in things that go bump in the night. Prior to its release, audiences were divided over whether the series was even worth watching, but curiosity must have gotten the better of a sizeable chunk of viewers because the series just premiered its second season.
What if it’s real?
What happens when you become the target? That is the subject that “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life” tries to address.
Some fans were surprised by Roth’s transition from horror movies to reality television, but he has always been open to the idea that there might be supernatural activity in the real world. In an interview with Rue Morgue, Roth disclosed that he has encountered the unexplainable:
” I’ve had strange moments, vivid dreams I swore were real, seen things that happened and have had fully formed complete creative ideas in my head that appear out of nowhere. You’re tapping into something if you’re open to it.”
It seems sense that, given his background and love of horror, Roth would come up with a concept that combined the two. In an interview with The Wrap, Roth remembered presenting his proposal to Travel Channel General Manager Matt Butler:
“I said I wanted to know, do people have supernatural stalkers? Like, what if you’re on a date and your stalker shows up and your stalker is a ghost? And they knock the candles over and they spill the drinks. I said, ‘Does that happen? He said that’s a really interesting premise, and we started looking into it.”
The stories and supporting materials “further enhanced [his] belief in some type of life after death,” according to Roth, who claims they got “hundreds of submissions, some of which included genuine films and images the victims shot of their otherworldly stalkers.”
However, other things, such as paranormal reality television, ought to be given a tranquil rest.
Nothing new under the bed
Although “Celebrity Ghost Stories” featured interviews and dramatisations of paranormal claims by celebrities in 2009, and “Paranormal Witness” followed exactly the same format in 2011, except that the claimants were regular people, Roth’s idea to interview victims of paranormal phenomena and create reenactments of their stories is hardly a revolutionary one.
The only difference between Roth’s show and its predecessors, in my opinion, is that the horror director is attached to it, which might lead you to believe there is some new angle for “Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life” The victims supply all the exposition and set up the dramatisations, and then the creepiest parts of their experiences are brought to life with effects make-up, simple tricks, and amateur actors.
To be fair, the series was renewed for a second season, so it’s keeping enough people tuned in to hang on, but it’s only a matter of time before boredom sets in and they go looking for some more self-proclaimed ghostbusters to follow around. Unfortunately, Roth’sshow, like many of his horror flicks, is derivative and lacks imagination. This fact is only exacerbated in the series as he can’t rely on graphic sex and gore for cheap shock and a
