Eli Roth is known for his horror films like Hostel and Knock Knock, but he tells ABC Audio the “scariest” film he’s ever done is the new documentary Fin.
Co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and released today as part of Discovery’s Shark Week, Fin took Roth behind the scenes of the environmentally disastrous commercial shark fishing industry.
The documentary maintains that 100,000,000 sharks are slaughtered every year, for use in products from shark fin soup to lipstick. “I didn’t want to be another kind of Hollywood person with a cause,” he insists to ABC Audio. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening.”
He explains it was, “a chance for me to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made because it’s real…you don’t even have to try and make it scary,” Roth insists. “You just have to show what’s happening.”
Roth found that out straightaway, in a scene reminiscent of one his most famous characters, who dispatched Nazis with a baseball bat. “When I got out on the sea the first day of shooting, they killed a Mako shark with a bat. I thought, ‘Wow, this is crazy because I’m so known for that scene in Inglourious Basterds and now I’m watching a shark get beaten to death with a bat…”
A swim with sharks to confront his fears changed his life. “You’re coming from this place of ‘This thing wants to eat me,’ to, ‘Oh, my God, this thing reminds me of my dog.”
The movie fan says, “You know, the most famous horror film of all time is Jaws. And it’s certainly time to show the other side. And I really wanted to make a film that just put into context just how necessary sharks are and how what we’re doing to them is so completely insane.”
Roth urges those who want to seek an end to the global shark trade to visit FinTheMovie.com, where they can find information to contact their representatives in government.
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