The 2024 adaptation of the popular Gearbox video game series arrived with high expectations and a star-studded ensemble. Directed by Eli Roth, Borderlands featured Cate Blanchett as Lilith alongside Kevin Hart, Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis, and others. Despite the pedigree and franchise recognition, the film opened to weak reviews and underwhelming box office returns that marked it as a significant commercial failure.
Eli Roth told Variety that the project, which cost $120 million to produce, drifted far from the punk-rock approach he originally envisioned. He explained that larger budgets naturally make studios more risk averse, clashing with his preference for material that sits left of center because that approach has defined his earlier successes.
Studio executives sought a PG-13 rating for Borderlands and requested multiple changes to secure it. Those notes and alterations left the finished film as “something that belonged to nobody,” Roth said. The final cut no longer reflected a single clear creative voice or the tone associated with the source material.
Roth noted that the result tried to satisfy too many audiences at once without fully committing to any of them. “It’s not a kids’ movie, but it’s trying to appeal to everybody. It’s for gamers, but it doesn’t have the violence the gamers want because it can’t be that extreme because it costs too much. You just wind up with a movie that’s neither fish nor fowl,” he explained when describing the compromised middle ground that emerged.
The production also saw additional oversight when Tim Miller stepped in to handle reshoots after the principal photography phase. Those later changes further diluted the original direction Roth had set for the adaptation of the chaotic, irreverent game world. Characters and set pieces that thrived on excess in the interactive medium ended up tempered for broader theatrical appeal, creating a product that satisfied neither hardcore players nor general audiences seeking a more conventional action-comedy.
Roth has since stepped away from that level of studio oversight. His new film Ice Cream Man operates under completely different conditions. He raised a modest $5.5 million budget independently, largely through foreign pre-sales and tax incentives, and will release it through his own company, The Horror Section. The story follows an ice cream truck driver whose products turn children into killers, embracing the extreme and transgressive elements Roth has long favored in titles such as Hostel and The Green Inferno.
By retaining ownership of the underlying rights and distributing the movie himself, Roth aims to avoid the residual and creative limitations that have grown more pronounced in the streaming era. He pointed out that novelists retain control of their creations while screenwriters traditionally surrender those rights, an imbalance he no longer accepts. Ice Cream Man will open without a rating, free from the ratings-board negotiations that shaped Borderlands.
The contrast between the two projects highlights the lessons Roth drew from the larger production. A high-budget video game adaptation required constant compromise to hit a specific rating and protect a substantial investment. The smaller, self-financed horror film allows him to pursue the exact tone and content he wants without external notes reshaping the final cut. Roth plans additional titles under The Horror Section banner, keeping budgets controlled so that creative decisions remain with the filmmakers rather than studio committees.
