The Green Inferno

The Green Inferno

Starring Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Aaron Burns, Kirby Bliss Blanton

Directed by Eli Roth

The Story:
Justine (Lorenza Izzo) is a college freshman at Columbia University, and she encounters a group of protesters who hold meetings outside her dorm room that keeps her awake.  She investigates and falls for their charismatic leader Alejandro (Ariel Levy).  At first he is condescending to her and kicks her out of the group, but she persists and he reluctantly invites her to join his group as they're going to the Amazon to stop a logging company from destroying acres of the rainforest and eradicating an ancient native tribe there.

It looked like the group succeeded in their task, and as they're flying back home the plane mysteriously crashes, killing the pilots and several of the members.  Justine, Alejandro, and a few other survivors are captured by the same native tribe they tried to protect, and are taken to their home, where they're treated as enemies and brutally killed and cannibalized, one by one. 

The Synopsis:
"The Green Inferno" was completed in 2013, and was supposed to be released in 2014, but problems with the production company halted the project, and it seemed like it would never see the light of day, until Blumhouse Productions picked up the project, and it finally received the public release it deserved.  After eagerly anticipating this film for two years, I admit that it was well worth the wait.

Not for the faint of heart, "The Green Inferno" harkens back to the Italian cannibal movies of the 70s including "Man From Deep River," "Mountain of the Cannibal God," and "Cannibal Ferox," as well as the go-to cannibal movie, "Cannibal Holocaust."  This film will fall in line with those classic subgenre films, and Eli Roth finally achieved a goal he set for himself when he first started directing - "Cannibal Holocaust" was his major reason to start directing, and he wanted to direct a film like it.

Several critics have deadpanned the film, and I fail to understand why.  Roth found a tribe in the Amazon that had never been filmed by the Western world, and whom had never seen a movie in their lives, and cast them as the tribe, which added a true sense of realism to the film ("Cannibal Holocaust" did the same thing). 

The actors did very well with what was given to them.  Lorenza Izzo (Eli Roth's wife) was magic as Justine, a woman who had major flaws, but also a fighting spirit and a never-give-up attitude.  As Alejandro, Ariel Levy was delectable in his narcissistic role, and really made you detest him.  The remaining survivors all played their roles well, as background characters you knew would die in the most horrible ways.

The gore for the film was surprisingly tame, or it could be that 1) I've grown entirely desensitized to violence or 2) I know that it's a film that's fake and I don't overly indulge myself so bad that I become a part of the film.  I hope it's the latter and not the former.  Anyway, there is some great scenes of gore (particularly with the first kill), but when compared with Roth's other outings - "Hostel," "Hostel II" and particularly "Cabin Fever"- the gore seems rather tame. 

There's even some comedic moments that had me laughing so hard I felt bad because I felt wrong for doing so, but I couldn't help it.  Seeing what happens when marijuana is introduced to a group that's never used it is quite entertaining, and one particular scene of a girl with her flatulence problem is downright laugh-out-loud comedy.

On a political subtext, Roth seems to invite the notion that Americans aren't the heroes they think themselves to be.  A group of hippies decide to save a group of people from mean evil loggers eventually receive their reward at the brutal hands of the tribe they set out to save.  Sometimes, Americans don't have all the answers, and "The Green Inferno" gives new meaning to the phrase "No good deed goes unpunished."

The Summary:
After two years of waiting, "The Green Inferno" erupts with blood, gore, and an interesting story.

The Score: A-