Review of The Green Inferno (2013) by Cory T — 03 Oct 2015

An ode to the cannibalistic Umberto Lenzi flicks of the 70's, Roth botches his comeback after a nearly 7-year hiatus. A plane crash is a thriftily staged affair with tertiary special effects, actors tumbling on a jib and rubbery pilot decapitations.

The ensemble cast are mostly cookie-cutter fodder for a buffet with the lovelorn black best friend, the shrill stoner, the nonconformist lesbians and of course, the immaculate, virginal "final girl".

Worst of all, Roth slathers the film with a didactic message about collegiate activism for the "right reasons" and not profiteering from it. While the citrus-colored, teeth-gnashing tribesmen are terrifying, a human villain in the form of Alejandro is superfluous.

Squelching the tension are incompatible examples of scatological humor such as Kaycee's explosive diarrhea and flesh-eaters with the "munchies". The beginning is filmed with the pedestrian presentation of a CW show, but, upon their arrival in the village, Roth wavers to Paul Greengrass-style shaky cam and it's exhausting.

Roth could be too ambitious with his astringent budget because a superimposed jaguar lounging on a rock is a risible sight of Asylum-level F/X. Many people criticized 'No Escape' for white-man's-burden prerogative but the loathsome characters here are much more xenophobic.

Roth was more efficacious with culture-clash horror in the superior 'Hostel'. While I appreciate the wantonly sadistic streak of the film (the first victim is filleted with limbs removed systematically and eyes gouged out like grapes), it's a grotesque, sermonizing letdown.