Review of The Green Inferno (2013) by Thequietgamer — 31 Aug 2016

Nasty and mean, The Green Inferno shoves a few moments in your face that are going to require a strong stomach. In the end though this throwback to 70's era exploitation flicks isn't as hard to watch as you might have heard. At least not in any way related to the gore.

No, the hardest part of the movie to watch is the plot. There aren't really any likable characters in this bunch. The story centers around main character Justine and a group of social activists she meets on her college campus. These characters are little more than a club of douchebags and idiots, most of whom think way too highly of themselves. Justine however isn't totally like them. Don't get me wrong, she's definitely an idiot. Just in a different way than the others. Justine actually doesn't care about any sort of cause. She's just there to get the attention of the group's leader "Alejandro," who turns out to be a total scumbag.

You are able to root for a few of these numbskulls, but there's no way to support their motivations. The plot toys around with a handful of themes, morals, and messages but is too scattershot with them to end up actually saying anything. Well, I shouldn't say that. It's clearly making fun of social activist warriors. With the exception of Lorenza Izzo as Justine, the cast is largely mediocre. Not everyone here can act all that well.

With the plot and characters falling so very short, the movie is left relying on whether or not it can deliver satisfying gore. In this department it does alright. It's actually not as bad as you might have heard. With the exception of the shocking and downright horrifying first kill by the cannibals, this isn't that gruesome of a movie. The rest of the violence you'll see here isn't any worse than your average zombie flick. Granted, this has the extra screwed up angle of it being actual people eating other people, but this is far from the stomach-churning, barf fest many have called it.

There are moments where you can tell that director and writer Eli Roth pulled his punches. He could have taken things into some seriously disturbing areas, but mercifully spared us viewers from what could have been serious torture porn.

Now at this point it may be sounding like I'm saying that this actually a pretty tame movie. Let me be perfectly clear and say that's NOT what I'm saying at all. This is still an incredibly sadistic and gruesome film. I'm just saying that you don't need an iron constitution to make it through the entire movie, but rather just for a few scenes. This is still a movie only for the most hardcore of gore loving horror enthusiasts because it is still a very brutal movie.

I've referenced and singled out the first kill the cannibals commit a couple of times already. That's because it's the movie at it's most shocking. Roth shows no restraint in this scene, allowing the blood and mutilation to occur in one horrifying and shocking display. One so graphic and disturbing that it's intentions feel vile. After that though, yeah, we get into the zombie movie level of gore I was talking about.

While gore is the main focus, there are other kinds of gross out horror on display. However, these moments are where Roth delivers some weird moments of immaturity that I assume are meant to add in humor to the mix, but just end up clashing gaudily and oddly with the rest of the madness onscreen. Diarrhea, masturbation, and barf the rest of the attempts made to get us to say "ew" and maybe have a laugh. These moments are super juvenile, but not un-amusing.

The Green Inferno gets off to a rather slow start, ramps up with an unbelievable display of violence, and then turns into a rather standard, but still brutal cannibal flick that never manages to capture that same level of shock and, well, horror it started off the madness with. Mix in the sucky characters and bland plot, and you're left with a not so satisfying horror movie that isn't actually scary, but definitely manages to horrify.

Eli Roth does successfully manage to pay homage to the cannibal exploitation flicks of the 70's. It's the just that the writing and pacing are so off that even when it's firing on all cylinders the movie still falls short. For hardcore horror and gore lovers there are still some thrills to be had here. It's a throwback that emulates it's influences well. The result is a type of horror film they just don't make anymore and is definitely not for mainstream audiences. The execution just isn't completely up to snuff so even The Green Inferno's intended audience is likely to be left a little disappointed.