Eli Roth, the guy who brought us Cabin Fever & Hostel has ignited a firestorm of outrage and bad publicity after his Sturmgruppe short film featuring Lana Del Rey being raped is leaked.
By Jacob Engels
Look, by now you have surely heard of the “NSFW” video made by Eli Roth where there is a scene that depicts him raping hipster high priestess Lana Del Rey. The short film, which samples heavily from the Marilyn Manson music videos “No Reflection” & “Slo-Mo-Tion”, is unsettling – but not anything anyone should be surprised or outraged over.
Eli Roth is not someone who crafts PG “safe for work” content, he never has and probably never will – it’s simply not his style. The release of this new footage should not cause any longtime fans of his work to do a double take and ask “Wow, did that really happen”? Sturmgruppe can be watched below….
“Sturmgruppe 2013 Reel”
I mean, he is the guy who gave us this incredibly gross & depraved scene in his 2005 film Hostel. Not going to lie, it almost made me throw up – just think Broccoli Cheddar soup.
From Roth’s Hostel (2004).
Anyways, Roth himself acknowledged the existence of this “sick” video in an interview with Larry King in 2013. When asked by a viewer if he would ever work with Marilyn Manson, Roth quipped that he already had.
“Actually I shot a video with Marilyn Manson and Lana Del Rey. The footage is so sick it’s been locked in a vault for over a year,” said Roth. He went on to say that Manson is a good friend who came to his Passover Seder. Manson is long known to have a deep affinity for the Third Reich and Nazi memorabilia.
“We made Marilyn Manson sing The Four Questions. He did it brilliantly. I would definitely collaborate with Marilyn Manson, we’ve already done a video and a Seder together,” Roth continued.
Which is why I find it hard to believe or understand Marilyn Manson’s team distancing the singer/actor from Sturmgruppe, now that it’s been leaked.
“Manson did not direct this, shoot it, nor was it for a Marilyn Manson video or outtake footage made by him or to be used by him with his music,” said Manson’s representative, Kathryn Frazier of Biz3. “It must be a fan video splicing up old Manson video footage with someone else’s Lana Del Rey footage.”
Marilyn Manson has made a name for himself by embracing insanely creepy makeup to accompany his equally chilling wardrobe choices, delivering some of the scariest/weird/WTF on stage performances, and his routinely horrific music videos. So why has he gotten a weak stomach all of a sudden when it comes to the rape scene depicted in Roth’s Sturmgruppe? This is the guy who has reportedly purchased skeletal remains of a child and human skin.
And to say it must be a fan video….come on – Eli Roth’s Sturmgruppe is no hastily made fan video compiled on Windows Media Player. Furthermore, Sturmgruppe (the title of the video) was a group of heavily armored fighter planes in the Luftwaffe (Nazi Germany’s aerial warfare branch) Jagdgeschwader 4 – a fighter wing in WW2. You can’t honestly tell me that a Nazi fanatic like Manson didn’t have something to do with that selection. Oh and by the way, Strumgruppe is an LA based digital arts company Manson has worked with in the past, whose website is currently a landing page with a pentagram displayed & “coming soon” the only visible text – hmmmm.
The rape scene is not even that gruesome or degrading either (feminists heads will explode in 3…2…1). In modern cinema, I can think of several rape scenes that have made myself and female viewers who were with me at the time VERY uncomfortable – specifically the rape scene in the remake of the 70’s classic The Last House on the Left, if you want to get specific.
And to those saying that this is somehow “glam rape” being promoted by Roth and Del Rey – get a fucking grip. While it’s not as graphic as some rape scenes we have seen in film or on TV, it’s hardly a PSA voicing support for forced sex.
Anyways, with Del Rays silence on the matter and Marilyn Manson distancing himself from it – I’m left to believe that this was a project that all parties (Roth, Del Rey, Manson) worked on together when they were all on good terms a few years back – not ever really coming to a conclusion on whether or not to release it. Maybe Manson is just pissed that it was leaked or maybe he and Roth had a falling out and he is trying to make it seem like they never knew each other or worked together. Or, maybe they are all just trying to drum up business for Manson’s pals at Sturmgruppe in LA. Who knows??
What’s that old saying about there never being any such thing as bad press…..
Jacob Engels, is the Founder of East Orlando Post & Seminole County Post. He is a seasoned political operative who has led numerous statewide political groups and has worked on several high-profile local, statewide, and national races. Jacob has been interviewed on national television & radio programs, with his work having been featured in the Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald and other publications nationwide. He can be reached at info@eastorlandopost.com
