Here’s something to put you off your breakfast – the first trailer for Eli Roth’s forthcoming cannibal horror THE GREEN INFERNO.
It follows a group of American student activists whose altruism is put to the test when their plane crashes in the Amazon and they’re captured by a local tribe…with a taste for human flesh!
The movie is both directed and co-written (with Guillermo Amoedo) by Roth and it’s inspired by those delectable Italian 1970s and 80s Italian exploitation films such as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, CANNIBAL TERROR, CANNIBAL FEROX and EATEN ALIVE!
With its graphic scenes of violence, animal cruelty (sometimes real – absolutely not okay) and general grubby nastiness, the genre was always controversial. Ruggero Deodato, director of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST was even arrested as authorities thought he’d filmed snuff (he hadn’t, by the way).
So it should be a perfect match for Roth. He’s already shown his affiliation to grindhouse theatre and exploitation films through his directorial, writing and acting credentials (HOSTEL, HOSTEL: PART II, CABIN FEVER, DEATH PROOF, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS…the list goes on).
The trailer looks good – it relies heavily on sound and editing with lots of close-up cuts to disorientate and tempt audiences. We hear tribal singing that’s slowly merged with the noise of flies buzzing and someone crying. Lots of close-ups of American students’ bodies tied up ready for the pot; a filmic carving up if you will. See for yourself below.
Let’s hope Roth straddles the line between coherent narrative in its own right and pastiche – a balance Quentin Tarantino didn’t get quite right in DEATH PROOF.
THE GREEN INFERNO is directed by Eli Roth and stars Lorenza Izzo, Ariel Levy, Aaron Burns and Sky Ferreira. It hits cinemas from September 2014.
Claire Joanne Huxham comes from the south-west, where the cider flows free and the air smells of manure. She teaches A-level English by day and fights crime by night. When not doing either of these things she can usually be found polishing her Star Trek DVD boxsets. And when she can actually be bothered she writes fiction and poetry that pops up on the web and in print. Her favourite film in the whole world, ever, is BLADE RUNNER.
