It is kind of retro. We here at the Horror Syndicate are fans of all kinds of horror movies. Of course horror has many sub-genres, more than any other genre, without a doubt. Cannibal films, were never on my radar at all. Back in late 2012, maybe early 2013 a friend of mine tagged me in the trailer for the Green Inferno and my first reaction…why? I am no fan of “cannibal” movies, then I began to think about it, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is technically a cannibal movie. It is about a cannibal family, maybe the idea of the Green Inferno, is too real for me…but, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is loosely based on an actual American cannibal, Ed Gein, Wisconsin the 50s. Ok, I will check out the Green Inferno, this would be my first trip into a savage look into cannibal tribes. Of course there are the big ones from the 1970s and early 1980s, biggest being Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and Eaten Alive(oddly enough shares the title of a Tobe Hooper movie), which are Italian horror films and two directed by Umberto Lenzi. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a cannibal boom in horror and Lenzi was responsible for a few, along with Joe D’Amato, Jesus Franco and of course Ruggero Deodato. I do have some catching up to do when it comes to watching the films from the cannibal boom.
New York college student Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a lawyer’s daughter, meets a student activist named Alejandro (Ariel Levy) when he goes on a hunger strike on behalf of underpaid janitors. Smitten, Justine agrees to help Alejandro undertake his next project: to save the Amazon. She soon learns to regret her decision when their plane crashes in the Peruvian jungle and she and the rest of their group are taken captive by a tribe of hungry cannibals.
The few things that struck me the second time through, Alejandro. This dude is fucking jackass, clown shoes. So, he is a hot activist that Justine is follows to South America, but he is attached. He berates her and she still comes back, I don’t understand this at all. But, it moves the story along and makes Justine look like a really weak person. She just needs to belong and be accepted by this activist turd, who, is a creep. They go and do their protest and when they leave the play crashes in the Amazon and a couple of people are tossed from the plane and another is killed when they hit the ground, they were the lucky ones.
The things I take away from the movie are things like the effects and make-up. The tribe itself was very realistic, although, some of them looked like painted white people. If that is the wrong choice of words, sorry. But the main tribal characters were haunting. The activists were kind of toss away characters, with a couple of exceptions. I, personally, would have told Alejandro to go fuck himself from the get-go. I did have my issues with the character of Justine, but Lorenza Izzo played her well and I ended up liking the character in the end. But, I found the ending, strange, she watched the tribe kill and eat the rest of the team. But, she did protect the Amazon and its tribe. But, if you think about it, the tribe is in no way in the wrong. They were protecting themselves and their land. Not to mention, they probably eat what they can.
It is not as hard to watch as I thought it may be. There is a lot of dread and some terror, but overall it was like many horror films. I liked the Green Inferno overall and really, it has become evident, I like the works of Eli Roth, most of them. Talking about Hostel, Hostel II and Cabin Fever of course. The beauty of the Green Inferno, is it not only pays homage to a sub-genre that is kind of lost in time. Sure Bruno Mattai made a couple of movies in 2004, but this was main stream. The Green Inferno also offers an intro into the sub-genre. It has brought a new audience to the works of D’Amato, Lenzi and Deadato.
I, myself plan to buy Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox to go along with my copy of Severn’s Eaten Alive.
IMDB.com has a rating of 5.3
It isn’t that bad, story was ok, so I have it at 6.2. I Would like to see a sequel.
