Eli attended the UK premiere of “The Last Exorcism” at the Film4 Frightfest 2010. So far, only four (4) pictures have been released of Eli attending the event, but hopefully more will surface. Head over to the gallery to check out all the latest pictures!

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Eli made GQ Magazine’s “Most Stylish Men of the Week” list for his “The Last Exorcism” premiere outfit. Eli came in at number six (6):

Eli Roth
The man behind The Last Exorcism recently threatened he’d like to make a Thanksgiving trailer. Such bad taste aside, he looks surprisingly dapper next to star Ashley Bell. Let’s just hope he has a darker suit for Frightfest in London this weekend.

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Ashley Bell saved the producers of The Last Exorcism a lot of money. That’s because the star was able to perform the neck twisting and back-bending moves without the help of any special effects. (Source)

“I did it all myself. I wish I could say I’m a hologram but I did it all myself,” Bell told OnTheRedCarpet.com at the Los Angeles premiere of the film. “Now I feel like I’m stuck. Like every time I go to audition for something, I have to do a back-bend and then read the sides.”

So how did the star prepare for her role as a possessed person? “I read every single book I could find on exorcisms that hadn’t been banned,” she said. “Going into it the director [Daniel Stamm] said to watch all the exorcist movies and then don’t do that. So we were immediately set to do something different and go our own way.”

The film’s producer and famed horror director, Eli Roth, stopped and crashed Bell’s interview to rave about her performance. “I want an Oscar stat for Ashley Bell,” Roth said.

“The Last Exorcism” follows Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a disillusioned preacher and exorcist who hired a documentary crew to expose those who purport to exorcize demons from troubled souls. They head to rural Louisiana, where a young girl (Ashley Bell) is said to be possessed, though Cotton hardly believes any of it. You can, however, bet that things soon turn freaky … and that not everyone is going to live to see daylight. Here are four “Last Exorcism” secrets revealed.

They Made No Cuts to Get a PG-13 Rating
After taking in a screening last week, I was shocked to realize the film wasn’t rated R. It was just too scary to think otherwise. Yet it’s actually PG-13, owing to a lack of foul language and very few bloody moments. But did Stamm have to cut anything out to get that rating? Turns out, they didn’t have to make any changes.

“We never shot for any particular rating,” Stamm explained. “I shot what I thought was scariest. To me, gore isn’t necessarily scary. It’s all about suspense and eeriness. It’s almost like shaking a bottle of Coke and the pressure builds up, but you keep the lid on it for as long as possible. Once you go into gore, you release that pressure and have to start all over again.

“There wouldn’t be any dirty language, because they’re on a farm of this very religious guy,” he added. ” ‘The Exorcist’ is a brilliant movie, but to me a demon is this timeless entity, and if a demon suddenly says ‘f—,’ that destroys the agelessness. I had no interest in having our demon use dirty language. When we were putting it together in the editing room, we thought this might very well be a PG-13 movie.”

There Is Only One Digital Effect
We live in an age of reliance — some might say over-reliance — on computer-generated special effects. But what’s often sacrificed with CGI is a gritty realness, which is why top-flight directors like Christopher Nolan use practical effects whenever possible, despite the often added expense.

Though he was hardly working with a budget on the scale of “Inception,” Stamm used only one visual effect in “The Last Exorcism”: to ramp up an enormous fire. What’s more, he barely used any special effects: one bloody cut, one bloody cow, one bloody cat, and one thing that will remain secret, lest we spoil the movie’s twisty ending.

For the special effects, Stamm recruited makeup effects guru Gregory Nicotero, who’s worked with nearly everyone in Hollywood, including Quentin Tarantino and Michael Bay.

“[Nicotero] sent the cow from Los Angeles in a huge box,” laughed Stamm. “He had his guy on set with the blood pump, who was all prepared to go full-out gore. It’s so tempting when you have a genius like that who can make anything look spectacular, but you always need to remind yourself to use restraint because that’s not the story you want to tell. Also, you don’t want to get into ‘Exorcist’ territory. We didn’t want to use any gimmicks. Our whole movie is based on the idea of whether she’s possessed or crazy, so we couldn’t have her levitate or have her head spin.”

She Did All Those Bends Herself
You can’t walk into a subway station in New York City without seeing the “Last Exorcism” poster: a black-and-white photo of Bell bending over backwards as the purported demon contorts her body. When this happens in the movie, it’s a shocking and scary moment. Turns out that this scene contained not a single visual effect and that Stamm didn’t even know he’d be able to pull it off until days before they shot it.

“She’s double-jointed,” he said. “I had no idea. I just cast her because she was brilliant. Two days before we shot the actual scene, which was planned completely differently, we were in the hotel lobby and I asked her if there was anything she wanted to try during the exorcism. She got up and said, ‘Why don’t I do this?’ and she bent over backwards in the hotel lobby. I ran back to my room and rewrote the scene and now it’s become the core of the movie.

“I made sure Patrick didn’t see that before the scene,” Stamm continued. “The first time he ever saw it was that first take. A lot of the stuff in the finished scene is from that first take because he just couldn’t believe what he was seeing.”

They Studied Horror Movies to Avoid Imitation From “The Blair Witch Project” to “Cloverfield,” Stamm and his team were so adamant that they not repeat anything that’d come before that they watched all of these films and excised any points that felt duplicative.

“We made sure we weren’t doing anything in these other movies,” Stamm explained. “And I also gained new understanding of these movies. ‘Blair Witch,’ when I re-watched it, I realized for the first time what a smart film it is, how it’s so tense and smartly built.”

They did, however, make one exception. The townspeople who talk about myth and superstition in “The Last Exorcism” were directly inspired by the townspeople recounting the legend of the Blair Witch. “We learned a lot from that,” Stamm said.

Source

Oscar-winning director-writer-producer-actor Quentin Tarantino will be tenderly roasted at a very classy Friars Club Roast that probably won’t go to the trouble of creating a creepy sculpture 17 times the size of him, like Comedy Central did for David Hasselhoff. Samuel L. Jackson will be “Roastmaster” for the event to be held Friday, Oct. 1 at the New York Hilton.

Other guests: Kathy Griffin, Pam Grier, Neve Campbell, Michael Madsen, Eli Roth, Patricia Arquette, Rob Schneider, Uma Thurman, Harvey Weinstein, Sarah Silverman, Rosario Dawson, Bob Weinstein, Michelle Rodriguez, and more! Maybe you, if you crash it! They’ll probably let anyone with a Vincent Vega wig in. Who are these “friars” to say you are not John Travolta? Oh my God. Are you John Travolta? (Source)

Prolific film maker Eli Roth, who is renowned for his gore fests like the ‘Hostel’ franchise and the creepy new film ‘The Last Exorcism’ that saw its worldwide release yesterday insists that he is helping men everywhere get in touch with their emotions with his disgusting, blood soaked films.

He said “I do think that many people are ashamed when they feel afraid, there’s this thing in our society that you’re not allowed to feel scared. You have to be a man and put on a brave face, but we all have fears. It’s not just fears of monsters attacking us, but fears of dying alone, never meeting or falling in love with the right person, or of losing your job. You do need an outlet to release all of those fears and when you go to a movie theatre, it’s the last place that it’s socially acceptable to be terrified. You’re probably on a date with someone squeezing your hand, and you scream and let it out and it feels good, and afterwards you’re energized. It’s actually a cathartic experience.”

The actor/producer/director can be seen currently in the critically panned ‘Piranha 3D’. (Source)

#1 “The Last Exorcism” ($9.4 million)
#2 “Takers” ($7.5 million)
#3 “The Expendables” ($2.7 million)
#4 “Eat Pray Love” ($ 2.2 million)
#5 “The Other Guys” ($1.9 million)

“The Last Exorcism” scared up major ticket sales on its opening day. The supernatural horror flick raked in an estimated $9.4 million on Friday. “Exorcism,” which is directed by Daniel Stamm and boasts gore-master Eli Roth of the “Hostel” series fame as a producer, drew enough moviegoers to grab the top spot. The film, which follows a documentary crew in rural Louisiana hired to capture the creepy antics of a supposedly possessed young girl, goes light on digital wizardry in favor of scoring scares with practical effects.

In the second place slot is the star-studded heist flick “Takers.” T.I., Chris Brown, Idris Elba, Hayden Christensen and Matt Dillon work the screen in a story about a crew of suave thieves set to carry out a major job. The thriller snatched $7.5 million in Friday ticket sales.

Sliding to third place is the heavily-armed action fest “The Expendables.” The fiery, butt-kicking flick raised $2.7 million on Friday, after ruling the box office for the past two weeks and sitting comfortably at the top spot. Friday’s haul edges the total domestic tally of the Sylvester Stallone-helmed enterprise near the $75 million mark.

“Eat Pray Love,” featuring marquee vet Julia Roberts, settled into fourth place. The soul-searching movie adapted from the runaway hit memoir of the same name, nabbed $2.2 million in box office receipts on Friday. The loopy cop comedy “The Other Guys” continues to power along, taking in $1.9 million and rounding out Friday’s top movies in the fifth-place slot.

Although “Avatar” wears the crown for the highest-grossing film ever, the re-release of the James Cameron adventure, revamped with previously unreleased footage, failed to crack the top ten with only $1.2 million in Friday ticket sales. (Source)

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is thrilled to announce the Award Winners of its 2010 edition. A record over 4,300 votes were cast by festival-goers this year to determine this year’s Audience Award Winners!

Audience Awards, Best Feature Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Fans Choice Awards, Best Horror Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Fans Choice Awards, Best Screen Play:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism (Huck Botko & Andrew Gurland)

Fans Choice Awards, Best Lead Actor:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism (Patrick Fabian)

Fans Choice Awards, Scariest Film:
1. Gold: The Last Exorcism

Source

Live in or near Burbank, California, and can’t wait until tomorrow to see “The Last Exorcism”? Then how about checking out a midnight show TONIGHT with producer Eli Roth in attendance as well? Eli took to his @eliroth Twitter account to invite fans to join him as follows:

“Who’s joining me in BURBANK tonight at the AMC 16??? #LastExorcism MIDNIGHT. See you there! Tix here: http://amcurl.com/MaH“

If you make it to the screening, be sure to “tweet” your own review and include the hashtag #LASTEXORCISM.

Eli attended the Los Angeles premiere and after party of “The Last Exorcism”. Eli looked fantastic at the premiere and it was nice to see Eli’s friends and family at the premiere to support him and the film. Head over to the gallery to check out all the latest pictures!

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