When Eli Roth‘s directorial debut Cabin Fever first hit theater screens back in September 2003 it had been riding a mighty wave of hype following several successful film festival showings.

Unfortunately that hype and the modest marketing muscle that a pre-Saw Lionsgate (back when they were Lions Gate) could muster couldn’t translate to boffo box office for Roth’s movie. Despite the failure of Cabin Fever to become a new blockbuster horror franchise the film managed to gross $30 million worldwide off a $1.5 million production budget and did even better on home video.

Did you know they were making a Hostel: Part III? Probably not. Those who do haven’t spoken much of it, as the movie is getting the straight–to–DVD treatment and most folks don’t care much for those types of films unless you’re a revival–in–the–making Futurama movie or a little gem called Trick ‘r Treat.

But for those of you who do have interest in the movie, this time being directed by Scott Spiegel who takes over for Eli Roth, you can see the first trailer below now.

Nothing like a little gore courtesy of Eli Roth to start off the holiday…

Watch the video below to revisit Thanksgiving, the R-Rated trailer for Eli Roth’s would-be Thanksgiving holiday horror, which was part of the fake trailers released with 2007’s Grindhouse.

Arrive hungry, leave stuffed.

This weekend saw quite a bit of movies released, none of which seemed particularly interesting, but one did pique my interest: Piranha 3D, a reimagining of the 1978 Roger Corman feature Piranha. While the original film was an attempt to hitch a ride on the success of Jaws, this new film is instead riding the wave of the recent 3D phenomenon.

Typically, when I find out a movie is in 3D, it actually makes me NOT want to go see it, as today’s 3D is more for high-definition picture quality, whereas I grew up in a time where 3D meant a harpoon was coming right at your face and that’s the 3D I want. Piranha 3D promised me this ‘gotcha’ 3D.

As far as the film’s subject matter, I must admit I’ve been intrigued by those South America fish with a penchant for flesh ever since thrash metal giants Exodus sang about piranha on their 1985 debut album. Of course, I was probably compelled by the song’s reference to them as “Loki’s children,” trapped in the depths of Hell brought up to one day waste mankind. But I was introduced to these deadly creatures nevertheless and the fascination began.

It helped a lot that Piranha 3D, directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hill Have Eyes remake), boasts a cast of Richard Dreyfess, Elisabeth Shue, and Christopher Lloyd, right there enough to get to me go see the film.

If you’ve seen Piranha 3D, then it’s time for some SPOILER TALK.

Continue reading for my SPOILER-filled thoughts on the movie, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Inglourious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbenderr, Til Schweiger, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Mike Myers
Rated R
Release date: August 21, 2009

I did not discover Quentin Tarantino at the same time everyone else did, but by the time his 1997 crime drama Jackie Brown, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, was released I knew who he was. I came by his movies on my own with my only knowledge of them being what I had read in magazines like Rolling Stone, Premiere, and Entertainment Weekly.

Pulp Fiction, his epic anthology of strangely believable adventures in the underworld, was the first. I rented that movie when it was first released on video but it took me all of the one-week rental period to watch it because I could not view it in the presence of my younger brother and sister. But as I watched Pulp Fiction, piece by piece every day before and after I went to school, I became captivated by what I was seeing and I began to understand why Quentin Tarantino was the talk of the town. Here was undoubtedly the most innovative and dynamic new filmmaker to emerge in a decade that had seen more than its fair share of cinematic underachievers and would see even more before the millennium came to a close. Tarantino’s films were heavily criticized for their violence but when weighed against the majority of the R-rated action fare that was coming out of Hollywood there was not much bloodshed at all. What gave the violence in Tarantino’s films its impact was its relative restraint. His films rely mostly on the integral developments of plot and character. When the violence does come, be it in a shocking gag (the accidental shooting of Marvin in Pulp Fiction) or an extended battle sequence (the House of Blue Leaves fight which takes up the majority of Kill Bill Volume 1‘s third act), it feels like a cathartic release of tension and energy. Tarantino’s own personal celluloid orgasm, if you will.