Poster, trailer released for docu-series Eli Roth’s History of Horror

Last Updated on December 27, 2022

Next month, AMC will begin airing the seven episode documentary series Eli Roth’s History of Horror – which is, as the title implies, hosted by genre filmmaker Eli Roth. The premiere episode is set to air on Sunday, October 14th, and the marketing has begun with the release of a poster and a trailer for the series.

IGN got the first look at the poster, which I take issue with. Unless there’s a segment on the show that deals with the common misconception that iconic slasher Jason Voorhees carries a chainsaw around, there is a glaring error on this poster.

Brushing that aside, I am intrigued by this series, and the trailer (which made its debut at Collider) does look promising.

The synopsis for Eli Roth’s History of Horror:

Executive produced by award-winning horror film director, writer, producer and actor, Eli Roth (“Cabin Fever,” “Hostel”), the documentary series brings together the masters of horror – the storytellers and stars who define the genre – to explore its biggest themes and reveal the inspirations and struggles behind its past and present.

Each one-hour episode will take viewers on a chilling exploration of how horror has evolved through the eras and impacted society, as well as why loyal fans remain addicted to fear. The series features A-list storytellers including Stephen King, Quentin Tarantino, Jordan Peele, Jason Blum, Robert Englund, Linda Blair, Tippi Hedren, Rob Zombie, Tom Savini, Haley Joel Osment, Jack Black, Joe Dante, John Landis, Mick Garris, Jamie Lee Curtis, Elijah Wood, Slash, Catherine Hardwicke, Greg Nicotero, and Norman Reedus, among many others.

One of the main reasons why Roth wanted to put together a documentary on the history of horror is to preserve the stories of the filmmakers who worked on the genre’s classics. Speaking with IGN, he said,

You know, when Wes Craven died, all those stories died with him. Tobe Hooper told a story about when he was shooting Texas Chainsaw Massacre, about how the investors came to set and they just wanted drugs and girls. And they had all these dead animals and people were throwing up. Then they said, ‘We gotta burn the animals because they smell so bad!’ Just insane stuff like that, and those stories died when Tobe died. I wanted to get some sort of record to document these directors talking, while going through the history of the genre.”

When asked what the highlight of making these seven episodes was, Roth answered,

To get Stephen King in front of me, at his house, and to have him take 40 minutes out of his schedule — which ended up turning into 90 minutes — and having the first thing out of his mouth be, ‘Even the worst horror movie, it’s f***ing great!’ Well, that just sums it up! Even the worst horror movie you’ve ever seen, it was still f***ing great. That, to me, is the spirit of the horror fan … that they can see the gold in any of these movies.”

If this edition of History of Horror is well received, Roth would like to keep it going.

The great thing about horror is there’s always another subgenre, another treasure chest, another director, and period of time to discover. …  If the series is a hit, I’d love to continue it. I’d love to do deeper cuts. I’d love to do giallo films, I’d love to cannibal films, I’d love to do ’70s horror, or a whole episode on Hammer Horror. You know, we touch on all this stuff, but I’d love to do full episodes on them. … We could do Japanese horror, British horror, go to Europe and get those directors involved.”

Here’s hoping that Eli Roth’s History of Horror will be a truly great series, a celebration of the genre that will be worth revisiting again and again. We’ll find out when it starts airing on AMC in just a few weeks.