It's been six years since we've been treated to a film from Eli Roth. The dude had mad game going into the mid to late aughts and then took a brief hiatus mainly due to money and production issues. Trailers for The Green Inferno were up way back in early last year and was supposed to be released in September of 2014, but due to a failing production company the film was delayed almost an entire year essentially sabotaging any and all money this film would make. And while it has been given a bit of advertisement, I'm willing to guess most out there wasn't aware of its existence or has just forgotten. Me, I eagerly awaited this film as a fan of good horror (and if I'm not getting good horror from Eli Roth, at least there will be good gore) and a fan of Eli Roth. And while it isn't his magnum opus, it is a lot better than his last film, Hostel: Part Two.
We begin with Justine, a freshman at NYU, wanting to become a social activist along with the hippies in the courtyard staging a hunger strike for the janitors to get paid higher salaries. She makes friends with shy, chubby Jonah and he introduces her to mysterious and accented Alejandro who ropes her and a dozen other students into going down to the jungles of Peru, chain themselves up to trees and protest the bull dozing of the Amazon. While down there, after their successful protest, and on their way back, their plane crashes into the heart of the jungle. After half of the students eat it in the plane crash, the rest are attacked by a cannibalistic Amazon tribe and taken captive. As the tribe believes the students are part of the bull dozing company, they aren't exactly treated with respect. They're tortured, hacked apart and eaten in front of our very eyes.
There is a definite statement that Eli Roth is trying to shove down our throats with a red hot pocker to fillet our insides, but that statement more or less gets lost in the violence and inhumanity of the tribe. While this is a fictional tribe played by a real one (they're actually peaceful and had a blast being in the film) the statement of privileged white people going into a place they don't belong and trying to bend other cultures to our will is the one that is prevalent for awhile and then seems to get lost in the bloody carnage of the rest of the film.
There is a substantial amount of gore in the film, but none of it ever feels that vomit inducing as Roth has been able to provide in the past. Yes, watching a bunch of Amazonian people chop up another human limb from limb, gouge out his eyes and tongue and eat it isn't exactly like watching magic pixies dance on clouds, it's not the same level of masturbatory gore we saw in Hostel. This could be due to restraint on his part, or it could be a little bit of maturity as well. And while the movie doesn't necessarily need a significant amount of gore for the sake of gore, I did expect Roth to up his blood game up a little bit. However, there isn't really any unnecessary gore either. Everything makes sense and ups the tension and fear for both the characters and us as movie goers.
I will give him credit, however, he was able to include a decent amount of humor in the film. Half the movie I'm rolling my eyes at the nonsense these "activists" think they're improving upon, then I find myself cringing at the brutality of the tribe's dinner plans, then I'm laughing at the ridiculousness of the characters, then I'm rooting for the characters to get away, I'm groaning when it doesn't happen. There are a lot of audience emotions to be had in this film beyond Eli Roth trying to gross you out for no reason. It's an enjoyable film to a point if you get out of your own head trying to find reason and meaning behind the violence... as there is only one-- if you're white and tree hugging in the middle of the Amazon for a cause you're not even certain what it is-- you might deserve to be eaten.
I saw the 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust... it's quite possibly one of the nastiest films ever made and clearly a lot of Roth's career inspiration has come from this film. And The Green Inferno is a definite nod to that film. But, the problem is, that Cannibal Holocaust is disturbing even for today's standards that there's no way to out-do that film in any capacity without being laughed out of every MPAA meeting you make to try and get an R rating. Roth gives his best homage to the film, but even thirty-five years later, Cannibal Holocaust is the superior film. Both in message and in the unbelievable amounts of on-screen gore that will leave you feeling like you need to puke and take a shower at the same time. And while I get that they were different times (hell, Cannibal Holocaust has the cast kill a few animals and eat them onscreen... for real) The Green Inferno may just make you have to set down your popcorn for a few minutes. That's all.
B-
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