The Green Inferno (film)

The Green Inferno is a 2013 cannibal horror film directed by Eli Roth, with a screenplay by Roth and Guillermo Amoedo. It stars Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Sky Ferreira, Magda Apanowicz, Nicolás Martinez, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, Ramón Llao, and Richard Burgi. The film follows a young woman who joins an activist group that goes on an overseas trip, where they eventually run into a cannibalistic tribe.

The Green Inferno
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEli Roth
Screenplay by
Story byEli Roth
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAntonio Quercia
Edited byErnesto Díaz Espinoza
Music byManuel Riveiro
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • September 8, 2013 (2013-09-08) (TIFF)
  • September 25, 2015 (2015-09-25) (United States)
Running time
100 minutes[1]
Countries
  • Chile
  • United Kingdom
  • United States[2]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[3]
Box office$12.9 million[3]

The movie was inspired by and serves as an homage to Italian cannibal films of the late 1970s and early '80s "cannibal boom", particularly Cannibal Holocaust (1980), which features a film-within-a-film titled The Green Inferno.

The Green Inferno premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2013, and was theatrically released on September 25, 2015, by High Top Releasing and BH Tilt. The film earned $12.9 million on a budget of $5 million and received negative reviews from critics.

Plot

College freshman Justine becomes interested in a student social activism group led by Alejandro and his girlfriend Kara. The group plans a trip to the Amazon rainforest to stop a petrochemical company from forest clearing and displacing native tribes by filming them and streaming footage to raise awareness. Justine suggests she could bring attention to the issue through her father, a United Nations attorney.

The operation is funded by Carlos, a drug dealer who meets the group in Peru. They journey by boat to the construction site and begin their protest, chaining themselves to bulldozers while filming the land clearing. A private militia hired by the company arrives, and when Justine is nearly killed by an officer, the protest goes viral. The group is arrested, but Carlos bribes the police to release them. They depart by plane, but the plane's engine explodes, and it crashes in the jungle, killing several people, including Carlos.

As the survivors search for a GPS phone, Kara hears something nearby. However, when she goes to check, a native tribe emerges and kills her with an arrow before tranquilizing the others, taking them to their village, and imprisoning them. As a tribal elder and the headhunter leader kill Jonah and feed his remains to their tribe, Alejandro reveals the protest was staged to benefit a rival petrochemical company run by his father so he could focus on other activism projects, to the others' dismay. The tribe tests Justine, Amy, and Samantha for their virginity. Upon learning Justine is a virgin, they take her away for a genital mutilation ceremony while the other two women are returned. Alejandro tells the group to stay put and wait for the next petrochemical company's clearing crews, but they attempt to escape. During a downpour, they distract a watchman while Samantha escapes and hides in a canoe, and Justine is returned but does not remember anything from her ordeal.

The tribe feed the prisoners strange meat. Being a vegan, Amy reluctantly eats, only to discover a chunk of skin in her bowl bearing one of her girlfriend Samantha's tattoos. Realizing they were fed Samantha's remains, Amy breaks the bowl and uses a shard to commit suicide. Seeing an opportunity, Lars stuffs marijuana down Amy's throat, hoping to get the tribe high when they eat her. As his plan succeeds, Justine and Daniel escape, but Alejandro, terrified of being caught and killed, chooses to stay, tranquilizing Lars to keep him company. When Lars regains consciousness, the intoxicated tribe members eat him alive.

Justine and Daniel reach the crash site and find a phone but are recaptured and returned to the village. The tribe paints and dresses Justine in tribal attire while an elder ties Daniel to a stake, breaks his limbs, and leaves him to be eaten by ants. News of a forest clearing crew's arrival sends the tribe into a frenzy. The warriors leave to confront them, allowing Justine to escape with the help of a sympathetic child she befriended earlier. Daniel begs Justine to kill him, but the child does so after she refuses. Alejandro begs Justine for help, but she abandons him and flees, even encountering a black cat that spares her during the escape. Finding the militia in a battle against the tribe, in which the headhunter and most of the tribe’s warriors are killed, she convinces the militia's leader that she is an American and, despite the militia threatening to kill her, uses the phone to pretend to film the fight so the battle would end peacefully, and they fly her to safety.

In New York City, she lies to her father and other government workers in an interview, saying that she was the sole survivor of the plane crash, the natives were friendly, and that they helped her group before they were slaughtered by the petrochemical company's militia. Sometime later, Justine sees a group of activists wearing shirts emblazoned with Alejandro's face.

In a post-credits scene, Alejandro’s sister Lucia contacts Justine to inform her of a satellite photo which shows Alejandro still alive in the jungle, wearing black tribal paint.

Cast

Production

On May 17, 2012, at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Eli Roth announced that he was planning to direct a horror thriller, The Green Inferno, with Worldview Entertainment stating that they would finance and produce the film.[5] Roth wrote the script with Guillermo Amoedo.[6] Production began in Autumn 2012 in Peru and Chile.[7] In October 2012, it was announced that filming was set to begin in November in Peru.[8] On October 25, Roth announced the full cast for the film.[9] Principal photography began in October 2012 in New York City, and shooting in Peru and in some locations in Chile began on November 5, 2012.[8]

Roth said in an interview in February 2013 that he wanted the film to look like a Werner Herzog or Terrence Malick film. He has also said that he was inspired by Italian cannibal films such as Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox.[10]

Release

On July 30, 2013, it was announced that The Green Inferno would premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.[11] The film was intended to be released theatrically on September 5, 2014, by Open Road Films.[12] However, Worldview Entertainment caused Open Road to pull it from its original release.[13][14] The film had secret screenings on September 22, 2013 at Fantastic Fest and on April 25, 2014, at the Stanley Film Festival.[15][16]

The Green Inferno was eventually theatrically released in the United States on September 25, 2015, by Blumhouse Productions' multi-platform arm BH Tilt and High Top Releasing.[17] It was released in Filipino theaters on September 23, 2015 by Solar Pictures. Two versions of the film were presented there, depending on the cinema chain: an R-13 "sanitized" version with some gory details removed, resulting in five minutes of footage edited out, and the uncut R-18 version.

Reception

Box office

The film opened to 1,540 venues, earning $3.5 million in its opening weekend, ranking ninth place in the domestic box office.[18] At the end of this run, six weeks later on November 5, the film grossed $7.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.7 million overseas for a worldwide total of $12.9 million.[3]

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 38%, based on 101 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Green Inferno may not win writer-director Eli Roth many new converts, but fans of his flair for gory spectacle should find it a suitably gruesome diversion."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[20] CinemaScore audiences gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

The film received a glowing response from horror novelist Stephen King, who wrote that the film is "like a glorious throwback to the drive-in movies of my youth: bloody, gripping, hard to watch, but you can't look away."[22][23] Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap gave the film a negative review, stating "Unfortunately, Roth’s abundant gore fails to either offend or exhilarate."[24] Meredith Borders of Birth. Movies. Death., reporting from Fantasia Fest, gave the film a more positive notice: "The Green Inferno never lets up: it barrels ahead, exuberant and relentless in its brutality, never giving the audience a second to unclench. It's a feast for gorehounds, one with an unsubtle message about the way that uninformed activism harms more than it helps. And it's a total blast."[25]

Controversy

The film was criticized by Survival International, which campaigns for indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, as reinforcing colonialism and respectively neocolonialism, as well as their stigmas against indigenous peoples, portraying them as savage.[26] Roth dismissed this argument as unimportant for stopping exploitation: "The idea that a fictional movie about a fictional tribe could somehow hurt indigenous people when gas companies are tearing these villages apart on a daily basis is simply absurd. These companies don't need an excuse—they have one—the natural resources in the ground. They can window-dress things however they like, but nobody will destroy a village because they didn't like a character in a movie, they'll do it because they want to get rich by draining what's under the village. The fear that somehow a movie would give them ammunition to destroy a tribe all sounds like misdirected anger and frustration that the corporations are the ones controlling the fates of these uncontacted tribes."[26]

Home media

The Green Inferno was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2016, by Universal Home Entertainment. The release features a director's cut and an audio commentary by Roth, López, Izzo, Burns, Blanton, and Sabara.[27]

Potential sequel

On September 7, 2013, it was announced that a sequel would be produced, titled Beyond the Green Inferno and directed by Nicolás López.[28] As of May 2016, there have been no further updates, other than articles referring to the original 2013 announcement and a single unsubstantiated comment, with no production details, that a sequel is still under for consideration.[29]

References
  1. "THE GREEN INFERNO (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 13, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  2. "The Green Inferno (2015)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on January 7, 2019.
  3. "The Green Inferno (2015)". The Numbers. Retrieved April 18, 2016.
  4. "Full Cast Announced for Eli Roth's The Green Inferno". comingsoon.net. October 25, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  5. "Worldview Financing Thriller 'The Green Inferno' Directed by Eli Roth". firstshowing.net. May 17, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  6. "Eli Roth Aims to Make Horror Thriller 'The Green Inferno' His 'Scariest and Most Intense Film'". indiewire.com. May 17, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  7. "Eli Roth returns to directing with horror thriller 'The Green Inferno'". digitalspy.co.uk. May 17, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  8. "Eli Roth Borrows Werner Herzog's Tactics to Shoot Cannibal Movie 'The Green Inferno'". slashfilm.com. October 25, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  9. "Eli Roth's 'Green Inferno' full cast announced". digitalspy.co.uk. October 26, 2012. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  10. "Eli Roth on the Horrors of The Green Inferno". ign.com. March 1, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  11. "li Roth's 'Green Inferno' heading to Toronto Film Fest's Midnight Madness section". chicagotribune.com. July 30, 2013. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  12. "Open Road To Bow 'The Green Inferno' On September 5". Deadline Hollywood. December 19, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  13. Fleming, Mike Jr. (August 7, 2014). "Worldview Woes Take Eli Roth Amazon Cannibal Tale 'Green Inferno' Off Menu". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
  14. Fischer, Russ (August 8, 2014). "The Green Inferno Release Delayed Indefinitely". slashfilm.com. Retrieved August 15, 2014.
  15. "secret screening at Stanley Film Festival was Eli Roth's THE GREEN INFERNO". Fangoria. July 30, 2013. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
  16. "Eli Roth Surprises Fantastic Fest With The Green Inferno, Provides Update on Sequel". ComingSoon.net. September 23, 2013. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  17. Anthony D'Alessandro (June 1, 2015). "Eli Roth 'Green Inferno' Horror Film To Finally Open On Sept. 25". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  18. "Weekend Box Office Results for September 25-27, 2015". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. September 28, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  19. "The Green Inferno". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  20. "The Green Inferno reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
  21. Anthony D'Alessandro (September 25, 2015). "'Hotel Transylvania 2' Set To Deliver New September Opening Record & Adam Sandler's Second Best Debut". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  22. "Stephen King on Twitter: "THE GREEN INFERNO is like a glorious throwback to the drive-in movies of my youth: bloody, gripping, hard to watch, but you can't look away."". Stephen King. Twitter. September 17, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  23. "Stephen King Tweets About the Green Inferno Film, Causing Eli Roth to Flip Out!". Michelle Smith. Moviepilot. September 18, 2015. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
  24. "'The Green Inferno' Review: Eli Roth Upends the Cannibal Film". Todd Gilchrist. The Wrap. September 26, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  25. "Fantasia Fest Review: THE GREEN INFERNO Will Eat Your Face Clean Off". Meredith Borders. Birth. Movies. Death. August 3, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  26. "Eli Roth cannibal rainforest controversy". Business Insider. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  27. "News: Green Inferno (US - DVD R1 BD RA)". DVDActive. November 9, 2015. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  28. "Toronto: Eli Roth Sets Sequel 'Beyond the Green Inferno' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. September 7, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  29. Hamman, Cody (May 27, 2016). "Eli Roth is Still Developing a Sequel to The Green Inferno". JoBlo.com. Retrieved May 27, 2016.

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