Review of The Green Inferno (2013) by Galen M — 12 Jan 2016

Here we have another grindhouse inspired movie from the long trend of such movies. It's a trend I'm all for, as these movies are a big guilty pleasure for me, but the best of them have to be done right. The best of them take the elements of what made grindhouse films fun, but add the benefit of modern technology, directing, and pacing; the poorer ones get too caught up in the old style and make a film that follows the style of those old films for better and for worse. The Green Inferno falls squarely in the latter category. The characters aren't very likable, and it takes half the movie for them to get to the stuff that we actually came here to see. They should have gotten to the cannibal village within the first 15 minutes of the movie, but instead it takes them close to an hour and we get lots of character and story development. In a better movie this might not be a problem, but the issue is the story isn't that interesting and the characters aren't likable. Once the cannibal stuff starts up things get better, and we get what we actually came here for. The kills are gruesome and practically done, the sets and costumes are interesting to look at, and there's a decent level of tension. A lot of the attempts at humor are painfully awkward, but there were a couple moments that while juvenile did still make me chuckle.

The Green Inferno is a film that tries to be better than it has any right to be. It tries to make us care about the characters and tell make a statement about important issues (namely deforestation and female genital mutilation), but it's just not good enough to be an effective voice for these issues. In the hands of a better director, maybe you could combine the exploitation with the issues, but Eli Roth is only really good at the exploitation moments. When it sticks with its exploitation film roots it can be fun. When it tries to be more it falls flat.