Green Inferno (2013) REVIEW

Green Inferno 

What on earth did I just watch?! I am blown away but not in a good sense. Green Inferno is a horror flick, directed, scripted by Eli Roth. This is the man who bought us Hostel and its sequels, along with the more recent Knock Knock. 

Despite the big name director, the film feels pretty cheap and has a pure TV movie feel to it. We follow young college student Justine, played by relatively unknown, Lorenza Izzo, who is desperate to become an activist when she gets the hots for campaigner Alejandro. The latest project is to head to Peru, to 'save the Amazon'. 

Like so many horror films, things don't run smoothly for this bunch of hopeful kids. Before the team know it, their protest goes awry, their plane crashes and that's before they even met a near by tribe with a hankering for human flesh..... I had been curious to see this for a while but was left disappointed. The script feels very lazy, with characters painfully stereotyped - the 'hot' girl, the 'friend zone' guy - they're all here. Dialogue does not feel natural especially in the first act. 

I have to say that here are some moments of real suspense, but they feel few and far between (Mainly due to the teen American characters doing damn right stupid acts for no clear reason). The tribe are depicted as ruthless, no questions asked cannibals, and to the credit of the actors (and insane makeup) they are genuinely terrifying. There is lashing of gore, dismembered limbs and popped eyeballs (this is Eli Roth remember) but even the blood and guts looks cheap, the camera often cuts away rather than being full on, did they not have enough money or time for this? 

Please don't even let me talk about one scene with CGI ANTS. I have to say I had a good chuckle at that scene. 

The film takes too long to kick off, if Roth had played less with slow exposition and more time in the jungle itself, I can't help feeling that this would have been better. 3.5/10