Eli Roth's love letter to Italian cannibal flicks of the late '70's and early '80's...You'll either be a fan or you won't, especially considering the niche
genre. I thought it worked well and in this era of "safe" sequels and remakes, good to see something original steeped in such an obscure era of splatter
cinema. Not quite as grainy, disturbing, or unexpected as the epics in this genre- MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY and CANNIBAL FEROX, and blessedly lacking any
unnecessary animal cruelty for "shock value", Roth gets to make a $5 million dollar budgeted homage to cannibal flicks. Storyline is pretty simple- group of
activists go to stop construction companies from destroying trees and tribes of people living in them deep in the Amazon jungle. They stream their chained
tree gauntlet on the Internet with phones and seem to "win" a small battle, but are later double crossed and have a plane wreck, expertly staged. Those that
survive are taken by an Amazon tribe who proceed to see them as a gift from the gods...as food! Survivors are thrown in cages and slowly consumed as
nutrition as each person waits their turn in sickening drudgery. There are some escape attempts and scenes of crazed slaughter and cannibalism. There are
trademark scenes of Roth humor, but they didn't seem overdone or to take away from the story. Roth and company really braved the Amazon jungle and even
enlisted a real tribe of folks living out there as actors, who had never seen a movie before! This makes the proceedings much more interesting and dangerous
feeling, simply knowing this. Now for the splatter that matters, as Chas Balun used to say. We're treated to eye gougings [and gulpings], heads on a post,
the ol' bamboo sticks through the anus routine, bodies being ripped apart and liberated intestines springing forth like a slinky and gratuitous flesh eating
[both uncooked and cooked meat]. There's throat slashings, death by CGI ants that look very unrealistic [but maybe a tad better than the ones in INDIANA
JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF THE LOST SKULL or whatever that last one was- what is it with CGI ants being hard to pull off?!?]. Anyway, the ant scene wasn't too
bad, other than they seemed a bit overlarge and perhaps a homage to EMPIRE OF THE ANTS? There's also sadistic virgin checking for the girls, some cool chase
getaways fighting the rapids, and effects by KNB [minus the B, I think!] that reminded me of DAWN OF THE DEAD '78---flesh-ripping necks and stomach rips.
Roth is obviously making a grande fanboy film here, so again, you're either in on the enjoyment of it or you're not. Lead actress Lorenza Izzo is a hottie
and completely dedicated to her role, even when she becomes the nekkid goddess sacrifice for the tribe when they discover she's a virgin. Izzo became Mrs.
Eli Roth shortly after this flick wrapped, and I see why! She's a brave actress and comfortable in her birthday suit. I liked the twist ending and there's
even another twist in the middle of the end credits [setting up a sequel, perhaps?] and overall, I had a great time with this movie. It was fun, disturbing,
political, and kept my attention. Shooting on location with real tribes, educating them to what films are with a showing of MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY...this is
classic filmmaking inspiration, you know? All the tribe actors did well and were downright scary, especially the dude on the poster and the leading tribe
lady. There was a CGI tiger in the movie that seemed to be there for no reason and almost looked like a hologram, didn't understand that bit...Overall, under
the constraints of an "R" rated theatrical release, THE GREEN INFERNO is messy, disturbing, and wild. Recommended for splatter fans and cannibal film
purists. How could you NOT like this? I mean...group of annoying idiots head out the the jungle and are eaten alive, you know? I kept waiting for Rambo to
rescue everyone, though- perhaps the captivity plot seemed a bit close to the last Rambo epic in Burma and there was a trailer to CREED, the latest in the
ROCKY saga, saddled before INFERNO unspooled, and I do think Rambo 4 was a bit more violent than INFERNO, but seriously, who knows how much splatter will be
added when this thing hits Blu Ray in an uncut form?
Eli Roth's love letter to Italian cannibal flicks of the late '70's and early '80's...You'll either be a fan or you won't, especially considering the niche
