Review #1,045: 'The Green Inferno' (2013)

Ever since writer/director/producer/actor Eli Roth made audiences squirm with unimpressive yet popular horror sequel Hostel: Part II and directed arguably the best of the three faux-trailers shown in between Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof in their failed experiment Grindhouse back in 2007, the once-horror prodigy has fallen under the radar. For his big comeback, he turned to a long-dead sub-genre for inspiration - the cannibal flick. These blood-spattered, animal-torturing movies churned out in Italy during the 1970's and early 80's are clearly movies Roth holds dearly, especially Cannibal Holocaust (1980). But the main issue with taking heavy inspiration from what are generally appalling movies - Ruggero Deodato's masterpiece aside - is that you're going to end up with another appalling movie.

Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a freshman at Columbia University, starts to involve herself with the on-campus social activism after her eye is caught by the group's hunky leader Alejandro (Ariel Levy). Soon enough, Justine, Alejandro and the rest of the bearded, bead-wearing hipster types that make up the group are heading to the Amazon rainforest to highlight and hopefully stop an evil corporation who are tearing down chunks of a United Nations-protected area and massacring the native tribes in the process. When their plane crashes and poisoned darts start to fly into their necks, the group discover that the local tribe would rather be feasting on their flesh or mutilating their genitals.

Visually, The Green Inferno looks rather splendid with cinematographer Antonio Quercia nicely capturing both the lushness and the natural brutality of the Amazon. There are also some very convincing effects work done during the scenes of dismemberment and eye-gouging, with plenty to satisfy gore-hounds. But aside from the technical aspects, there is little else positive to say about the film. Izzo is the only one who convinced me that she was a professional actor, with the rest a bunch of extremely annoying lambs for the slaughter, struggling with an awkward script. While I didn't care much for either Cabin Fever (2002) or the Hostel movies, there was enough there to established Roth as a film-maker of promise. Here, it seems he's lost his way, fumbling around from one scene of gore to the next and managing to defy all sense of logic at the same time. Where Cannibal Holocaust got under your skin, The Green Inferno just gets on your nerves.


Directed by: Eli Roth
Starring: Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Magda Apanowicz
Country: USA/Chile/Canada

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie