Green Inferno, The (2013)

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Green Inferno (2013)

Director Eli Roth has a love him or hate him affair with fans and critics alike. Personally i rate the Hostel films quite highly and thought his debut, Cabin Fever was a breath of fresh air to the horror genre. I haven't seen Knock Knock as of writing so The Green Inferno would be my first viewing of a new film by him in just over 8 years.

So was it worth the wait? Well, yes The Green Inferno is a cannibal film, a throwback to the 70's exploitation days of Ruggero Deodato, Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino. Days adored by fans of gut munching horror and reviled by censors. In many respects these films offered nothing more than a few folks from western civilisation out of their comfort zone and very much out of their depth, trecking through miles of South American rain forest before being captured, tortured and finally eaten by the natives...and The Green Inferno stays true to these roots.

This is where The Green Inferno and indeed director Roth is at his strongest. Bringing this often tedious part of the genre kicking and screaming into the present day. So it's a case of rain forest student activists armed only with hand held devices out to save the world, or in this case a tribe living in a patch of rain forest, from the evil western developers. The opening forty minutes concentrates on how the trip takes off and what happens to the activists. There's a lot of witty dialogue involved as director and writer Roth does seem to throw several of his own observations into the chat in a very Tarantino-esq fashion. Now this may annoy some viewers but i enjoyed it and agreed with much of what was said.

Naturally once in the rain forest things take a turn for the ugly, all is not as it seems with the activists agenda, especially group leader Alejandro, played by a slimy Ariel Levy and his relationship with group new girl, Justine. (A good performance by new girl, Lorenza Izzo). I won't spoil anything but i did think this added a lot to the film's overall impact.

History of the genre and a little more film making know how and indeed perhaps budget, although the film didn't have a huge amount spent on it - a mere $6m overall which is nothing when you consider what you are watching - a film with delightful cinematography, gorgeous South American locations and above all a superbly realized native tribe. It's here that the film really excells. The tribe look like a tribe. All painted red, all the men with similar bowl cut hair styles, not a bored passer by roped in, nor wrist watch to be seen nor even cars going past in the background (Looking at you now Cannibal Terror ) - They really do seem like a genuine rain forest tribe living near a river.

What also delighted me was the cannibals actions. No longer do they grab a victim haul them to the floor and start munching on their entrails. Pulling out liver after liver and kidney after another liver, oh no these cannibals believe in food preparation. Off come the arms, legs and head. Slicing off the tongue and gouging out and eating the eyeballs is about as exploitative as it gets. The torso is then seasoned and stuffed with herbs and spices and cooked properly in an oven before being sliced and served among the village. This segment of the film was a pleasure to take in as it really put the old tear em' and eat em' cannibal flicks to shame. (They were too tied up in making socio-political statements to take in Masterchef it seems ). One of the films major flaws is seemingly apparent in one of these food prepping sequences - How much marijuana does it take to knock out a whole village? Very dubious in it's outcome i have to admit but if you are prepared to accept it then it is the films only real flaw in my opinion.

Compared to the 70's films, Roth is quite restrained in the gore department. Perhaps playing on audience expectations following the grossness on screen in the Hostel films i was expecting The Green Inferno to be one really sick little puppy, but i was wrong, it isn't, not one bit. At the time of viewing i was expecting more entrails and general grossness but now the following afternoon as i'm typing this it really doesn't detract from the films overall plot or impact and to the average viewer it would be pretty hard to stomach. Roth shows his love of the genre towards the back of the film when a group of travellers are found Cannibal Holocaust style, impaled onto spikes, there's also a none too subtle reference to Martino's Prisoner of the Cannibal God but actress Lorenza Izza is no Ursula Andress, even so i found them nice touches, as indeed i did the final words of the end credits - Per Ruggero - a lovely thank you to Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato. There's also a long list of cannibal films and their directors in the credits which may amuse some viewers.

Coming some 30 plus years after the cannibal film explosion, The Green Inferno, along with 2008's Vinyan, makes a nice footnote to a once seemingly dead genre.

Recommended.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Apologies for the loss of comment posts guys.

I added Rik's review to the thread, but noticed it became the opening post on said thread being from last year. When i removed it it removed the entire thread as it had become the headline post.

So feel free to comment again. All welcome.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Here is Rik's review post.

The Green Inferno- I've been wanting to watch this for years, ever since I first heard about it. Unlike the majority of people these days, I'm a fan of Eli Roth and have enjoyed everything he's done thus far (besides The Sacrament that I watched last night, which doesn't even deserve one of my famous 3 word reviews!), and being a fan of the Italian Cannibal cycle of films from the 1970's and 80's, I was interested to see how this subject matter would be tackled in this day and age.
For a start, I enjoyed it and will most definitely watch it again. For those unfamiliar with the plot, it's about a group of student activists who travel to the Amazon to stop it from being destroyed by a big corporation.
Cue lots of gun toting soldiers? threatening to shoot one of the activists, until it's announced that the entire thing is being broadcast online, followed by the plane they arrived in crashing as they make their way home after a successful protest.
What follows is where the film really takes off, characters are attacked by the local cannibal tribe, with the surviving members of the group being locked in a bamboo cage straight out of Jungle Holocaust, before being picked off one by one. Yeah, we've seen it before, but who cares when hardly anything is original these days in horror!

Even though it's title would suggest it was influenced primarily by Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust, I thought it was more like Cannibal Ferox, certain aspects emphasise this,a character who is dressed fairly similar and acts much like Giovanni Lombardo Radice's Mike Logan for example.
It's pretty gory in places and animal lovers will be happy to learn that no animals were killed on screen.
Much like Rob Zombie did with House of 1000 Corpses, Roth's film is a homage to some of his favourite films, with his own stamp thrown in.

Recommended for fans of Cannibal films and the films of Eli Roth, not recommended for bandwagon jumpers

[J Harker]

I've been trying to pick up Green Inferno this week but no one seems to be stocking it on blu so I'll order from Amazon tomorrow.

[Nordicdusk]

Bandwagon jumpers ?

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

Bandwagon jumpers ?

People who hate Eli Roth because everyone else does, ie jumping on the bandwagon

[Nordicdusk]

Oh right. I didn't like the film for a few reasons but Eli Roth was not one of them. I am going to give it another chance when I pick up the blu ray.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Quite enjoyed it.
Glad that there was no animal brutality.

In the old cannibal flicks,I watched through flinching eyes.
These days since I got a dog,I don't know if I could watch those scenes at all now.

Glad Roth steered away from that aspect.

Yeah,someone mentioned above-these are the Jamie Olivers of the gut munching community.

Perhaps Hannibal could pass on a recipe or two...

[keirarts]

When this was preparing to be released a lot of Facebook commenter's suggested wholesale theft from genre classics.
Refreshing to see then, that Roth seems to have focused on making his own Cannibal film rather than simply cobbling together bits from other works. It actually manages to feel like a modern film rather than a straight homage to 70's cinema so I rated it more than I thought I would.
Picked it up in HMV yesterday for £10.99/

[mr 420]

Originally Posted by J Harker

I've been trying to pick up Green Inferno this week but no one seems to be stocking it on blu so I'll order from Amazon tomorrow.

Its on the sky movie store just now if you are "dying" to see it , J.