The Green Inferno Review - A Five Star Bloody Good Time

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Thursday, 24 September 2015 22:08

Written by Janet Walker

The Green Inferno, from Magnolia Pictures, presents a horror film with a plausible intellectual story line taking the viewer on a heightened sensory journey from the concrete canyons of Manhattan to the untouched Peruvian jungles complete with unprecedented fear and shocking depictions.

Directed and written by Eli Roth, The Green Inferno stars Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Aaron Burns, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Magda Apanowicz, Ignacia Allamand, Daryl Sabara, Nicolas Martinez, Sky Ferreira, Eusebio Arenas, Richard Burgi, Matias Lopez with Ramon Llao as The Bald Headhunter and Antonieta Pari as The Elder.

The Green Inferno begins in the concrete jungles of New York City’s Upper West Side and Columbia University. We meet our sincere hearted freshman Justine, played by Lorenza Izzo, waking on a Sunday morning to the chants of a slacktivist organization, a handful of altruistic hopefuls, waking up the dorms hoping to find another loud voice.

Also waking up is Kaycee, played by Sky Ferreira, the dorm-mate parents always warn you about and you grow to love anyway.  The two become intrigued by the charismatic cause leader, Alejandro, played by Ariel Levy, and his girlfriend, Kara, played by Ignacia Allamand.

The group chanting for equality for university janitors brings swift, and unnatural action from the university setting the philanthropic students on a different path. Stopping the deforestation of the Peruvian Rainforest Jungles, which is where the film opens panning the lush rainforests where the two cultures, two starkly different worlds, clash.

Our students are all making serious investments into a future where education and profession is valued. The introduction of the cause/cult group, employees the classic signs of grooming. Justine is drawn to the leader, and invited by a fellow student, Jonah, played by Aaron Burns to attend the meetings.

Alejandro uses emotional manipulation to keep her guessing and the only place she can get the answers is the group. He pulls her in, and pushes her out, pulls her back, alienating her publically, then apologizing personally, keeping her strung along and she on the emotional yo-yo ride goes along.

With all the appearances of a vetted and endorsed college organization Justine, whose father is a high profile, well-heeled corporate lawyer and who believes she can judge the authenticity of motives, joins.  

An impromptu trip to Peru to participate in stopping the encroachment of the bulldozers as they march toward the village of the indigenous people who have never been exposed to western culture or responded to attempts to be westernized is suddenly organized.

As the trip begins all is going smoothly, the flight down is commercial. Once they land they meet their guide, and are briefed on what to expect and what is expected as they move toward the logging camp.

As they arrive, via water taxi, they are stripped of their clothes, personal items, backpacks and passports, and given neon yellow logger coveralls. Making the way to the site, they move quickly to chain themselves to the bulldozers.

Kara, who has had just about enough of the push pull between Justine and Alejandro hands out the padlocks at the dig site. Working for the maximum exposure she hands her a broken lock.

The idea behind the trip was to live stream to the world the realities of what was either watered down or not covered at all in the media and suddenly the kids are setting off explosions and holding their iPhones screaming “Camera” and “Live Streaming.”

The malfunctioning lock made Justine’s safety impossible and the hired gun grabs her. After a tense standoff, the military is told to let the kids go. They are escorted back to their plane and Justine, now understanding she was set up, realized her effort and sincerity was used. It may have been a publicity stunt but it worked as the explosion and standoff were trending around the world and Number One on CNN.

All seems to be working out, the organization will be stronger than ever, Justine a little wiser, and still made a difference. All, no matter the outcome, were thankful to be heading back to solid ground and away from the depth of this jungle.

That just wasn’t going to happen. What follows is one of the top three, most graphic, realistic, on screen depictions of a plane crash I’ve ever seen.

Out of control, the twin prop is spinning, belly up, so quickly as fire pops the engine, the plane hits ground the tail sheers off, the kids are tossed like rag dolls, bodies are flying out the back, tree branches become projectiles driving through the windshield decapitating the pilot. Finally the plane comes to rest.

Crawling out of the wreckage dazed, bloodied, bruised Kara, who survived the crash sees something sure who ever it is will rescue them she calls to the shadows.

Suddenly the indigenous people the students came to rescue show up.

What follows is graphic, stunning, shocking, disturbing horror. Ritualism, staggering, appalling practices common to the tribes of the deep Peruvian jungles. The tribe, sequestered even in 2015 from modernization and the world, believe the students, and all outside their tribe, are the enemy.

A plausible horror film, The Green Inferno doesn’t bend or twist the imagination to allow for acceptance of the occult, mysticism, manifestations or simply the unknown. The scenes and depictions are very real.

The Green Inferno is one of the top ten horror films I’ve ever seen. My tolerance to horror is low and I screened this film twice. It is sharply written, believable. A modern humanitarian story that goes very bad is completely possible.

Eli Roth and producer Jason Blum, of Blumhouse, have created an intelligent, well made, precise, horror film. It is graphically genuine, there is not a single impossible scenario. Amazing, I think, sums it up.

The Green Inferno, a five star bloody good time!  

The Green Inferno opens Friday, September 25, 2015. Check your local listings.