Wicked and Wild section - review - THE GREEN INFERNO by Eli Roth

Directly channelling Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust as well as James Whale’s creed of horror having to be as comedic as much as frightening, Eli Roth takes us on a gory and insane adventure with his latest work The Green Inferno.

On paper, the story is about a group of collegiate activists setting off to save the Amazonian forests only for them eventually being kidnapped by a group of Peruvian jungle cannibals. The central figure of this story, Justine (Lorenza Izzo), allows herself to be lured by this crazy world of twitter activists, or slacktivists, who discover the difference between liking a comment and acting out to make a difference the hard way.

Of course, this satirical aspect is quite central to the story. The sentiment is that Eli Roth focuses his frustrations at the phony nature of current times activism by allowing them to be torn to shreds in the middle of the darkest jungle. Pointing out to the two dimensional characters and easy plot line is hypocritical. Roth follows up a tradition of horror that channels and plays with superficiality to perfection.

Furthermore, it is okay to laugh – comedy is part of The Green Inferno’s nature. Following up his creative torture scenes with instant comedic appeal makes for a bizarre horrific effect. For instance, a scene in which one of his central characters is killed by getting chopped alive limb from limb is followed up by the natives cooking him up as thoughtlessly as a big happy family making Sunday roast.

Ambitiously truly filmed in the darkest and deepest of Peruvian forests and making use of natives – some of whom had never seen a film before – adds a feeling of authenticity that makes for a more immediate reception of horror. This can be seen, for instance in Izzo’s choked up screams in the film’s ending starkly contrasting a tradition of Fay Wray shrieks. The Green Inferno is a post modernist descendent of a tradition of B-movies that can either be hated or loved.

Nevertheless, it s certainly a crazy, confident and gory rollercoaster ride that should sit well with fans of the genre and will not disappoint fans of Roth’s.