THE GREEN INFERNO

US, 2013, 100 minutes, Colour.
Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Daryl Sabara, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Magda Apanowicz, Sky Ferreira, Nicolas Martinez, Aaron Burns.
Directed by Eli Roth.

Since The Green Inferno is an Eli Roth film, audiences will expect aspects of horror, remembering such films as Cabin Fever and his two Hostel films as well as the more recent Knock, Knock. Expectations are fulfilled.

The film opens as an American campus protest story, students are on a hunger strike, placards and demonstrations, concern about bulldozing in the Amazon jungle. Justine (Lorenza Izzo, who married the director after making this film), whose father is a United Nations consultant, is invited to a meeting, is fascinated with the rather charismatic leader and, despite her roommate’s comments, goes to Peru.

The protesters travel along the rivers, confront the bulldozers and their militia, their only weapon being cameras and their activities being broadcast internationally. However, on the way home, their plane crashes and the survivors have an excruciating experience with local tribes who consider them the enemy.

This is where the horror and gore enter. The locals are painted red, their chiefs look extremely terrifying and sinister. Members of the group are killed, drained of blood, eaten. They try to resist but most are killed. Justine is painted, about to suffer genital mutilation (and, early in the film, she and her friend have attended a lecture which graphically talks about genital mutilation). However, she escapes, is rescued – and, in subsequent interviews, denies that there has been any cannibalism or torture. She is protecting the natives.

1. The two parts of the film? Student protest and demonstration in the jungle? Capture and torture in the jungle?

2. The work of the director, interest in horror films, torture and gore, perspectives on social concern, on graphic horror?

3. The American campus, the lawns and demonstrations, the streets and shops, meeting places, campus dormitories? The contrast with Peru, the river, the building site, the bulldozing, the plane crash, the jungle, the village, the escape? The musical score?

4. Justine and her friend, sharing the room, freshmen, callow attitudes, the Jewish joke? Looking at the protesters? Ridiculing the hunger strikes? The earnest young man, the poster, urging Justine to act? Her decision to go to the meeting? Her father, the United Nations, the meal, the discussions?

5. Justine, Alejandro, his earnestness, her question and his dismissal? The return, apology, interest in the cause, interest in him? His character, his relationship with the women?

6. The decision to go, the plane, the men and women in the group, their personalities, interactions, motivations? The threats, threats to life, the possibility of leaving? Their all agreeing to go?

7. The travel to the jungle, the scenery, the river? The building site, the locals watching, the bulldozers, the destruction, the drivers, the militia, the confrontation? Justine being threatened with the gun? With their cameras, the satellite, broadcasting news instantly around the world? Successful protest?

8. The return, the plane crashing? Those killed? The survivors making their way through the jungle? The encounter with the locals, painted red, the leaders, black, sinister faces? Killing? The imprisoning of the group? Jonah, the blood, devouring him? The attempts to escape, the arrows and deaths?

9. Aleandro, the revelation of his stance, exploitative, for the rival company? Justine and her disgust? His wanting to survive, sexual release and the comments of the others?

10. Justine taken, painted, the threat to genital mutilation? Her medallion, the whistle, giving it a little boy and his later help?

11. The attempted escapes, the deaths? Justine and her friend, the river, the rescue, his imprisonment, exposure to the ants? Justine freeing him?

12. Justine, the pursuit, her escape, the stand-off with the bulldozer drivers, with the militia, her surrender?

13. Justine to safety, with her friend in the room, with her father, the testimony, her denial of any barbarous behaviour by the locals? Saving them?

14. The final touch of irony, Aleandro’s girlfriend and the image of him in the cage – and questioning Justine?