DexX

This film reeks of studio interference. The script is muddled and aimless, spending far too long on irrelevant scenes and skipping lightly over important plot. The effects are terrible, which wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many of them, but half the shots in the film feature poorly-lit digital creatures and unconvincing compositing. The direction, editing, and cinematography are completely bland, showing absolutely no style or flair. What a criminal waste of a truly excellent cast. David Harbour is a brilliant actor, but he just isn't given the material to work with. Awful film. Just awful.

Don't let the German language fool you - this is every bit as derivative, unimaginative, cheap, and lazy as the worst found footage horror films made in America.

Every trope is here: slamming doors, sleepwalking, video glitches, jump scares, and of course idiotic characters putting themselves wilfully in harm's way when any sane person would have run away screaming ten minutes in. If you've seen Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, and Grave Encounters, then there is literally nothing in this film you haven't seen before, and done much more competently.

Just one example of how shoddy this film is: when they needed the lights to flicker because of the haunting, they couldn't be bothered actually rigging up a dimmer switch. Instead they just dimmed the entire picture in post.

I resent the 85 or so minutes I wasted on this insulting piece of garbage.

Considering the experienced filmmakers working on this film and the genre of cinema to which it pays homage, I can't really understand how it managed to be so very bad.

The Green Inferno is badly acted, ineptly written, poorly directed and edited, and fundamentally misconceived. It has no idea what it is trying to say or how it is trying to say it, veering wildly between stark horror and puerile slapstick. One of the characters is so poorly-written that I actually shouted "WHAT???" at the screen in multiple scenes as they became a full-on villain with absolutely no justification.

Even worse, this movie seems to be making a case that student activism is pointless and that some "primitive" people are savages who deserve to be wiped out. Parts of it come across as full-blown pro-colonial propaganda.

Perhaps its worst sin, though, is that it chickens out on the gore and exploitation. Despite all the posturing about "reviving a lost film genre", there is clearly a line in the sand that the film refuses to cross, and as a result it feels cowardly. Nicotero and his team did a solid job of the gore, and it's insulting to their work that the camera shies away from showing too much of it.

Eli Roth may pretend to be following in the footsteps of Ruggero Deodato, but he doesn't have even a fraction of his imagination and sheer bravado. Deodato had his faults, but Cannibal Holocaust was at least an honest film that dared to go further than any other films dared. Roth is a weak copycat in comparison.