The Green Inferno -2013- [2021] Review
The film centers on Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a college freshman in New York who joins a group of student activists led by the charismatic but manipulative Alejandro (Ariel Levy). The group travels to the Peruvian Amazon to stage a protest against a petrochemical company that is clearing rainforest and displacing local tribes.
The narrative follows Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a naive college freshman at a New York university who becomes infatuated with a charismatic student activist named Alejandro (Ariel Levy). Alejandro leads a campus group dedicated to social justice, and Justine is quickly sucked into their next major project: traveling to the Peruvian Amazon to stop a petrochemical company from destroying a native tribe's habitat.
Unlike its 1980s predecessors, which often featured real, unsimulated animal cruelty to shock audiences, Roth relied strictly on special effects. He teamed up with legendary makeup effects studio KNB EFX Group to create the film's intensely graphic gore. The result is a visually crisp, high-definition nightmare that trades the grainy, found-footage aesthetic of old exploitation films for vibrant, saturated, and deeply disturbing imagery. Themes and Social Commentary
However, if you are sensitive to depictions of sexual assault (there is a scene involving a potential circumcision/rape threat), animal cruelty (the film uses animatronics, unlike the real animal killings in Cannibal Holocaust ), or extreme gore against indigenous peoples, you should strictly avoid it.
If you want to explore further, let me know if you would like to analyze the used in the jungle, contrast this film with Cannibal Holocaust , or look into the box office performance of Eli Roth's films. Share public link The Green Inferno -2013-
The Green Inferno faced a troubled release schedule. Though completed in 2013 and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, financial difficulties at its original distributor delayed its theatrical release until September 2015. Upon release, the film divided audiences and critics:
Alejandro is not motivated by true altruism but by the allure of social media fame and the feeling of superiority. The group is largely uneducated about the actual dangers of the Amazon. The film highlights the irony of privileged Westerners causing more harm than good by inserting themselves into delicate ecosystems they do not understand. B. The "Savage" vs. "Civilized" Binary
Furthermore, the film's portrayal of the cannibal tribe's treatment of women serves as a commentary on the ways in which women are often marginalized and brutalized in patriarchal societies. The tribe's ritualistic sacrifice of women serves as a symbol of the ways in which women's bodies are often used and discarded in patriarchal cultures.
The practical effects, designed by regular Roth collaborators, are intentionally grueling. The film features explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitallization, and ritualistic preparation of human flesh. By utilizing practical effects over computer-generated imagery, Roth achieves a tactile, sickening realism that honors the unflinching aesthetic of old-school exploitation horror. Reception and Cultural Impact The film centers on Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a
A Modern Homage to Cannibal Exploitation Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno (2013) stands as a polarizing love letter to the Italian cannibal boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The film openly borrows its DNA from Ruggero Deodato’s infamous 1980 mockumentary Cannibal Holocaust , which even used The Green Inferno as its fictional documentary-within-a-movie title. Roth channels this specific era of exploitation cinema to deliver a modern, gore-drenched critique of slacktivism and cultural imperialism. The Plot: Naivety Meets Terrifying Reality
The Green Inferno (2013): Eli Roth’s Controversial Homage to Cannibal Cinema
The film features unflinching depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, and ocular mutilation, relying heavily on practical special effects by industry legends Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero.
The irony is immediate. After a successful (and recorded-for-social-media) protest, their plane crash-lands in the jungle. The very tribe they were trying to save captures them, leading to a gore-soaked nightmare where the "protectors" become the prey. Key Themes & Controversy Alejandro leads a campus group dedicated to social
The narrative follows Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a naive college freshman at Columbia University. Eager to make a difference and impress a charismatic student leader named Alejandro (Ariel Levy), she joins a campus student activist group. The group travels to Peru to launch a human shield protest against a petrochemical company destroying the rainforest and displacing native tribes.
The 2013 film acts as a direct descendant of the 1970s and 80s Italian cannibal films, which were characterized by their realistic gore and controversial depictions of indigenous populations.
The final act introduces a darkly comedic twist: Justine discovers that the tribe’s entire food supply is laced with the wrecked plane’s fuel. She sets a portion of the village ablaze. Roth deliberately makes the audience cheer for the destruction of a culture—a moral gray area that separates The Green Inferno from simpler slasher films.
Roth uses a bright, saturated visual palette for the jungle, contrasting verdant beauty with the stark brutality of later sequences. Practical effects and makeup—rather than CGI—dominate the grotesque scenes, lending an old-school, tactile horror that many genre fans praise. The sound design oscillates between ambient wildlife noise and sudden, jarring percussion during attacks, increasing the sense of panic. The score mixes tribal-like motifs with bombastic horror cues to keep viewers off-balance.
For gore enthusiasts, The Green Inferno is a triumph of practical special effects. Roth collaborated with legendary makeup effects artist Greg Nicotero (KNB EFX) to deliver some of the most squirm-inducing scenes of the decade.
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