Eli Roth delivers B-movie nirvana with The Green Inferno, the controversial film that was stuck in distribution hell for two years before horror super-producer Jason Blum swooped in to save the day.
It's about a group of college activists who travel to the Amazonian jungle in order to protest the rampant deforestation going on in the area. A miraculous turn of events finds the students crossing paths with cannibalistic natives who kidnap and terrorize them.
This movie is something of a love letter to the cannibal exploitation films of the late 1970s and early '80s. Roth even provides a nice curated list of the specific movies which inspired him at the bottom of the credits just in case you're in the mood for more blood, guts, dismemberment and live animal killings.
Having seen Ruggero Deodato's 1980 cult classic Cannibal Holocaust, I can say that Green Inferno is like watching My Little Pony in comparison. That is in no way negative criticism.
Though Cannibal Holocaust doesen't cease to genuinely shock even 35 years after its release, Green Inferno has far greater entertainment value. The performances are inconsistent, especially in the film's first 30-45 minutes, but the looks of utter terror on the actors' faces never get old once the "fear of the unknown" really sets in. Though nobody will be rushing to hand awards to Lorenza Izzo, Daryl Sabara or Kirby Blanton later this year, it's refreshing to see horror-movie characters appear so genuinely, outwardly horrified. It doesn't look like anyone is acting.
The movie also earns points for its wonderful practical gore effects from the legendary KNB FX Group (led here by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger). Nobody does barbecued torsos, detached limbs and gouged-out eyeballs better than those guys.
Despite all the gristle and gore, Roth never forgets to approach it all with a sly wink to the straight-up goofy, just to let us all know that we're privy to an exercise in B-movie making for the iPhone era. Whether it's tarantulas in your shorts or some cunning use of your recreational drug of choice, there's no shortage of comedic relief here.
At the end of the day The Green Inferno is much more than a straight-up gorefest. It's a scathing indictment of generation Y entitlement, political correctness, foreign capitalism and geopolitics.
The Green Inferno is not for the faint of heart. If you can't stomach blood and guts, then I cannot recommend this movie to you.
However if you can look past that and savor the film as a solid product of its context (the subtexts, the practical special effects, the B-movie sense of humor, the use of actual native tribesmen, the social media zeitgeist surrounding it), then you will have an absolute blast.
I loved The Green Inferno, and it will likely stand as the most abhorrent-in-content mainstream release for some time. They're just too scared to make 'em like this anymore.
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