The Green Inferno

Eli Roth is a director whose style is evolving, reaching a more refined level. In his beginnings he was much more direct and dirty, if I may say so, which has its advantages, because he gave you what you were looking for, a no-holds-barred gore, which sometimes turned into real fun-fests, but at other times became excessively repetitive and flat. This level up helps to cover up what for me, is his biggest Achilles heel, his limited level as a dialogue writer, which still hasn't improved. Focusing on The Green Inferno, we have a clear homage to the Italian cannibal cinema of the 70s and 80s. If you're familiar with Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox and liked them, you'll surely love Green Inferno, but if you disliked those, I don't think this is the film for you. Because let's face it, when you're about to see a film whose plot is cannibalism in the Amazon, well, Roth isn't fooling you. He may offer it to you in smaller quantities than you expected and yet it's still more substantial than the average level of horror today. Perhaps what most sets him apart from the older films is that first part of the film with a social critique never before seen in Roth's filmography. The presentation of the characters, both activists and indigenous and their interpretations are more than correct. You get to empathize with some of them, which may not be very pleasant when you know what awaits them... The music by Manuel Riveiro is a success, as well as the photography by Antonio Quercia and the FX by Ozzy Alvarez.

Because let's not fool ourselves, hell may be green, but its smell is red.

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.

Gory, torture and alot of screaming. Its an Eli Roth movie, what do you expect.

Would've rated it higher but the ending in the credits made no sense.

The Green Inferno (2013)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A group of college students decide to head to South America where they're going to protest some developers who are damaging the rain forest and threatening a tribe that has lived there for thousands of years. Their plan doesn't quite work when their plane crashes in the jungle and soon the survivors have the unlucky fate of being served up for dinner.

Eli Roth's homage to the Italian cannibal movies of the 70s and early 80s is a rather mixed bag. After the movie was over I really didn't know what to think about it because there had been so much hype built around it. For the most part I don't think the film lived up to the hype but this is going to depend on your knowledge of the genre. If you have no idea what CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, EATEN ALIVE and CANNIBAL FEROX are then there's a great chance that you're going to be shocked and horrified at what you see here. If you're familiar with those films then you're going to see THE GREEN INFERNO as a watered down American film.

Again, it's really hard to judge this movie but I'm overly familiar with the Italian cannibal movies so let me get that out of the way. I think this film is going to shock, outrage and gross out the majority of the people who watch it as there's no question that this contains some of the most graphic and goriest violence that has ever been in an American film that had to go in front of the MPAA. How this got a R-rating is rather shocking in itself and it really makes you laugh when you watch something like this and think at one point something like SCREAM had to be cut to avoid a NC-17 rating. Again, the gore effects are rather great with many practical effects that are quite effective. The gore and violence, again, will shock most people.

With that said, if you're familiar with the brutal films in the genre then you're not going to blink an eye here. There's really nothing shocking, outrageous or too graphic if you're familiar with the films that I mentioned before. This movie certainly doesn't have the animal violence but it also doesn't have the graphic rape, mutilations or any of the infamous moments from those films. You'd think that this homage would wink at those movies and their graphic moments but the film doesn't even try. This just gives the movie an overall watered down feel that fans of the genre are going to notice and especially when you consider that there's not even any real nudity in the picture. If you can't show nudity then you know certain elements of violence aren't going to be shown.

I think another disappointing thing is that the jungle settings really aren't used. Those Italian movies worked so well because you could enjoy them as adventure stories but that's not the case here. I will say that the build-up was a lot more entertaining than I expected it to be because the violence doesn't happen until the last portion of the movie. The performances are certainly better than you'd expect with Lorenza Izzo making for a good and likable lead. The story itself is okay with some sly humor thrown in at times but then again there are some really stupid moments. There's one girl in the cage who gets "sick" and this scene is just downright stupid. There's an incredibly awful jump scare towards the end, which will have you rolling your eyes.

THE GREEN INFERNO is a decent movie but at the same time it doesn't quite live up to all the hype that people have created for it the past couple years.

So first of all if you're not into gore or slather elements I wouldn't suggest watching it. I myself had pretty high expectations of this movie , since people told me it's very disturbing but I was disappointed. The movie isn't more brutal then any other cannibal movie ; well at least in my opinion. Honestly the Movie is just like wrong turn but with more cannibals and in a different terrain.the beginning was unnecessarily long ; especially one part where two of the people go taking a piss ; like the scene was so long and unnecessary in my opinion. Basically it's just a normal cannibal movie that's overrated in my opinion ye.