The Green Inferno (2013) Reviews

• Gore-hounds will be satisfied, people expecting a good horror movie won't be.

  lnvicta2015-10-18

  The Green Inferno is a standard Eli Roth fare - gore galore, cannibalism, and occasional humor - set in the Amazon rainforest. The acting is terrible right off the bat, but thankfully it isn't an issue halfway through the movie when the body count starts up. The characters themselves are paper thin, only about 3 of which are given actual personalities while the others are just fodder for the natives. The premise of the movie is disturbing and will sound appealing to most horror fans, including myself, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, the gore is done very well; as usual Roth uses great practical effects to create some wince-inducing scenes. The problem is that the first half of the movie feels like a student film. Really bad acting, horrific dialogue, and the documentary style filming doesn't help at all. It's not so much an issue once the characters are captured, but you aren't able to get immersed into the world from the get-go so you're never truly frightened or concerned for them when the bloodshed begins. The biggest issue is that The Green Inferno isn't scary in the slightest. Apart from a cheap jump scare near the end, there's little to no suspense or tension in the movie. It's just a linear storyline with characters getting killed off one by one with very little left to the imagination. It also isn't funny. There's maybe two times I chuckled at the tongue-in-cheek jokes. Most of them come across as forced, partly due to the acting and partly due to the jokes not being very funny. Roth tries for a darker, more disturbing atmosphere and he succeeds, but he sacrificed the potential fun to be had with the film. It's not terrible - Eli Roth fans will get exactly what they're expecting - but it also isn't anything new. The Green Inferno is a decent effort but a wholly mediocre movie watching experience.

• Eli Roth returns with an uneven cannibal flick

  Red-Barracuda2014-06-21

  Eli Roth is a director whose fame certainly goes before him. These days you don't really get many directors unashamedly dedicated to the horror genre like you did in years gone by. I like Eli Roth for this reason and I do find him a somewhat engaging, funny and entertaining guy. On the flip side I would have to say that I have found his output to be somewhat patchy and uneven. And frustratingly sparse at that. The Green Inferno is his first feature film as director since Hostel: Part II from way back in 2007! It's a long time to be out of the game. The question would have to be has he came back in a good way? Well, despite the undoubted promise of the central idea, it's a film that is kind of as frustrating as most of his other work. The basic idea here is to bring back a type of movie that only really existed briefly over thirty years ago. The cannibal film was a particularly notorious sub-genre. Most of the films got banned here in the UK; some still remain so to this day in their uncut forms. Their combination of graphic violence, sexual assault and real animal killing made them real bad boys of the horror genre. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is the one film that Roth has mentioned in particular as an influence and for this viewer it is easily one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen. Its docudrama, found footage style mixed with a proper mean-spiritedness made it a pretty gruelling film but very well made. The Green Inferno takes a decidedly different approach to its material and it's not always a successful one. Where Holocaust was relentlessly confrontational, Roth's film is often quite jokey. This approach means that the tone overall fluctuates wildly but it definitely dissipates the overall threat posed by the cannibals. The choice of protagonists points to the change immediately in that it centres on a group of eco aware students who travel into the middle of the Amazonian rain-forest to stage a viral protest against some environment destroying workers, needless to say things take a bad turn and they wind up captive by a tribe of cannibals. The very fact that the film centres on a group of students makes this film surely the first cannibal film that doubles up as a teen movie! It's an awkward combination with a pretty ropey script and – the main girl played by Lorenzo Izzo aside - unlikable characters. The social commentary is not so unexpected for this type of movie, as Cannibal Holocaust had that too but it is modernised considerably here – the target is after all viral warriors who are more interested in being famous than for doing the right thing. So how does it work simply as a horror movie? Well, it certainly has its fair share of gory violence. But it has less impact than it should because of the silly jokey tone that permeates it, even once the students have been captured. Because they aren't taking their situation seriously enough, it's hard for us in the audience to either unfortunately. The on-location photography certainly adds a fair bit it has to be said and the cannibals themselves are quite distinctive too, in particular the more prominent members of the tribe were somewhat creepy. I can't help feeling though that if Roth had reigned in the silly stuff and went full-on with this material with a more disciplined approach then it would have made for a far better film. It feels slightly like a missed opportunity and I am sad to say this as I was really on this one's side and had quite a bit of optimism for it.

• Gore galore, but a slavish re-tread of the Deodato/Lenzi films. Not that that's entirely bad thing . . .

  Coolestmovies2013-09-08

  NOTE: slight spoiler in the second last paragraph, duly noted below. I've always found Eli Roth's films to be mixed bags. GREEN INFERNO is by far his best picture, but as in most of his other films his limitations as a dialogue writer are foregrounded too often, albeit thankfully to nowhere near the extent they were in the RZA's execrable vanity project MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS. His character development skills, however, show unexpected signs of refinement during his six year absence from the director's seat. In particular, Roth's take on environmental activists -- all of the main characters in Green Inferno are self-serious, latte-drinking "save the rain forest" university types who infiltrate a clear-cutting operation deep in the Amazon jungle and chain themselves to the logging machinery in order to protest "corporate greed" via satellite linkup with their iPhones -- cuts effectively deep for a filmmaker not usually given to social criticism. Most criticism that could be leveled at the film's dialogue and subtext, however, is irrelevant since the drawing card for horror buffs will without question be the exotic, "dangerous" location (which promises enough stories for multiple gory sequels, according to Roth), and the copious scenes of torture, dismemberment and cannibalism that ensue when the protagonists' plane -- possibly due to sabotage, it's later implied -- crashes into the forest on the return trip home (the opening protest mission is entirely self-contained, and actually successful, or so it seems at first). Enter the natives -- reportedly played by an authentic Chilean tribe, albeit one not prone to dining on human flesh -- and the feasting begins. The grisly makeup effects are by a team led by legends Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger (who aren't credited at IMDb as of this writing, but ARE listed in the opening credits of the film), and they certainly deliver, particularly the squishy, screaming dismemberment that sets the ball rolling. As far as cannibal movies go, the special effects in GREEN INFERNO are certainly the most elaborate to date, but considering the most notable (and notorious) run of this genre happened thirty years ago, that probably goes without saying. Manuel Riveiro's full orchestral lends the film an appropriately ominous sense of portent -- especially when it accompanies sweeping flyover shots of dense jungle -- and a feeling of scope and import that belies the fact that GREEN INFERNO is ultimately a throwback/valentine to the works of Ruggerio Deodato and Umberto Lenzi, almost to the letter, in particular Lenzi's CANNIBAL FEROX (aka MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY). Speaking of those two, Roth's film is actually dedicated to Deodato, and the credits list most if not all of the films in this sub-genre that one should probably see or at least be aware of going in or coming out. At TIFF, Roth claimed this list (along with numerous tweet handles in the final roll) was simply a great way to insert some marketing magic directly into the film itself, but one could also read it as a preemptive strike against critics (and fans) who might realize just how shamelessly he treads familiar ground with this show and attempt to dock points for it. Mind you, if enough future audience members haven't seen any of the late 70's or early 80's Italian cannibal pictures -- and let's face it, a whole new generation or two probably doesn't even know they exist -- that might bode well for this picture, especially via DVD/streaming, as there's nothing like experiencing a dedicated cannibal movie for the first time, and with a strong stomach. It's also now very likely that some of GREEN INFERNO's predecessors will get fancy new Blu-ray re-releases thanks to the existence of this film. So there's that. As for gratuitous skin -- always a component of the originals -- Roth treats us to more of Daryl Sabara's junk than most viewers probably ever thought they'd care to see, for what that's worth, while for the likely-to-be-predominantly-male demographic of this type of picture, Loranna Izzo spends a fair portion of the final act bounding through the rain forest in a skimpy little muslin jungle bikini (and -- SPOILER AHEAD!! -- appears oh-so-briefly topless during her FGM "preparation" scene), while she and a couple of the other actresses have fleeting moments sans pants getting "examined" by the tribe's cataracted, jaundice-skinned resident witch doctor and gynecologist. Such as it is, the skin quotient -- when it's not being ripped and chopped apart, and cooked and eaten, at least -- is more or less on par with the original films. Thankfully Roth and company avoid scenes of animal cruelty (even faked) altogether, so those who uncomfortably recall such unpleasantness from the Deodato/Lenzi films can rest easy; it's only the humans who get eaten this time out. Finally, a dangling subplot involving one character will undoubtedly serve as the foundation of the just-announced sequel, which reportedly begins production almost immediately. To be honest, I'd almost forgotten about this character until the drive home, which was probably the point all along.

• Uplifting

  walkerjake2017-10-24

  The Green Inferno is a charming little flick, perfect for cozying up and enjoying with the family. Its structured with profound emotion rippling through our hearts as we cheer on a wonderful cast on an adventure into unknown plains. This movie is full of touching moments between broad characters with so much chemistry we cant help but fall in love with them. Its such a joy to see them interact with one another. There is as much stamina in this picture as there is passion. It captures you into its heavily spirited sentiment and never lets go. As the story progresses it only burrows deeper into your soul and leaves you in a state of peaceful wonderment. Don't put off watching this monumental cinematic eye opener any longer.

• Big disappointment

  Sweet_and_Lowdown772015-09-26

  Since Eli Roth broke out on the scene with his indie CABIN FEVER, he's never stopped talking about how much influence Cannibal movies were to him growing up. Well, it didn't translate to his own film. This was laughably bad. Bad writing, acting & directing. The one good thing was the look of the Cannibal tribe. They looked like a remote tribe of cannibals. There are WAY too many issues to list. I'll keep it to 3. 1) A couple ounces of weed stuffed into the mouth of a human, who's then cooked would NOT turn an entire village into goofy messes. Unfortunately, this wasn't just a "dumb" horror film moment. It was a plot point. Roth & his co-writer NEEDED the village to be distracted for 2 of the kids to escape. AND THIS IS WHAT THEY CAME UP WITH? The MAIN problem Roth has is with the villagers. He clearly doesn't know what he wants them to be and he doesn't take a side. The Villagers are shown as victims and just in their actions in some scenes and then barbaric, erratic & just vicious for vicious sake in others. While I understand they are cannibals, Roth doesn't give the audience any clue he knows who they are. They seem to have principles & traditions, then seem to ignore them. They seem to be extremely well organized one moment, and then the 3 Stooges the next. They are expert sharpshooters hitting people 50 yards away through heavy foliage one scene, and the next won't/can't hit a character in the wide open. Why were some humans sedated at the plane crash & why were others bow & arrowed to the head? 2) The Almost female circumcision scene. This scene served no purpose, it was completely "attempted shock" for "attempted shock" purpose and not for anything that in any way made sense. I say "attempted" shock, but nothing happens. It was supposed to make you squirm, but this scene was stupid & shows that not only did Roth NOT know the natives he created, but, IMO, took a massive step BACK as a filmmaker. We are told early in the film's WAY TOO LONG exposition setup, that tribes around the world, including in S. America, view the horrible act of female circumcision as a right of passage from being a girl to being a woman. Horrible but that's what they think. When the humans are brought into the village, they're treated like food. The pigs are kicked out of the pen & the humans put in the pen. Now, either the villagers are truly cannibals or they simply eat the captured people they believe to be enemies. The kids weren't their enemies, but they were wearing the clothes of the construction guys, so they mistake them for their enemy. So, they are either simply eating the kids b/c they're food or that consuming the bodies of the enemies make them stronger. So why on Earth would they care about circumcising their food before they consume it? Why would they care if the lead girl goes from being a "girl" to "woman" before they eat her? Roth goes out of his way to explain that this is a time honored tradition for the natives. Why would they show their food/enemy the same respect they show their blood? Do they circumcise the pigs before they cook them too? No. It was all simply to make the audience wince. And it didn't. 3) Lastly - and most importantly - it wasn't scary. I have to wonder if Roth even ever watched ANY Cannibal movies. Roth may have peaked with HOSTEL. I personally think HOSTEL 2 was better, but I think I'm alone there. This was a huge letdown.