Americans really shouldn’t travel outside their comfort zones, according to Eli Roth. As the second trailer for The Green Inferno shows, a group of young student activists passionate about protecting the Rainforest and its indigenous tribes crash land in Peru. Ironically, their passion for nature and its inhabitants is not reciprocated; they encounter a savage tribe of cannibals that tortures them in the most nightmarish and horrific fashions.
As we mentioned before, The Green Inferno bares resemblance to the controversial cult classic Cannibal Holocaust. Even the claimer at the end of the trailer draws a similarity to the 1980 film: “The native tribe featured in this motion picture has never been filmed before.” In fact, Roth mentioned during a press event with Variety at the Toronto Film Festival that he screened Cannibal Holocaust to the casted tribe members (they allegedly had never seen a film) to help them better understand their fictional roles.
A member of the unofficially labeled “splat pack,” Roth is known more for his thinly plotted horror films that abound primarily in violence and gore (see Hostel, Hostel 2, and Cabin Fever); though it is difficult to expect anything different from The Green Inferno, Roth’s inspirations for making the film stem from some interesting insights about activism culture in modern America. In the same press event with Variety, Roth referred to the digital device-dependent and twitter-obsessed culture of activism as “slacktivism” in which “people [do] the absolute least amount of work – just hitting the reTweet button, [or] hitting ‘Like’ on Facebook” to express their support for worthy causes. Roth said that the film is about the “clash of cultures of the super, super smart high-tech kids stripped down to man at its barest, most primitive form.” We’ll see how Roth’s ideas manifest in his film when it comes out September 5.
The Green Inferno stars Loranza Izzo (Aftershock), Ariel Levy (Aftershock), Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids, World’s Greatest Dad), and Kirby Bliss Blanton (Project X). A sequel entitled Beyond the Green Inferno is also already in the works and will be directed by The Green Inferno producer and Aftershock director Nicholas Lopez.
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