A name like Eli Roth still manages to get people excited and The Green Inferno really is no different (but how many films can you argue are good by Roth?). Add into the mix the fact that it has been a number of years since this outrageous, old school, cannibal apocalypse style film was completed and the folklore around the film makes people excited to see what nightmare Roth has created. Sadly, this is a schlocky and seemingly tired collection of horror tropes collated together in the hope of shocking an audience and making them gasp.

Lorenza Izzy plays Justine, a college student who wants to prove that she can be a proper student activist by getting involved with a group, led by the mysterious and moody Alejandro (Ariel Levy), who travel to the Amazon to save a rainforest and save the homes of the local tribes. Justine’s father Charles (Richard Burgi) is an American diplomat who wants his daughter to remain safe and sound and would never let her go on this trip if he knew what she was really going for. Despite all trepidations from her best friend, Kaycee (Sky Ferreira), Justine goes ahead with the trip. But once the group do what they are there to do (after a bumpy and life threatening experience for Justine of course along the way), their plane crashes and they land in the middle of the forest with no connection to the rest of the world. They are soon captured by a local tribe who turn out to be cannibals. 

The rest of the film is very much a survival film as each of the core group is taken down one by one, leaving us the famous final girl standing trope. There are moments of dark humour, outrageous gore and tension about what is going to happen next. Slightly shoehorned in is a feminist slant looking at female circumcision but alas it adds very little to the film itself.

It ends with a potential promise of a little expected sequel as someone was actually left behind (ooooooo….) but will that end up appearing and how much do we need it? Whilst the film could have been an intriguing throwback to old style gore and horror, it felt very much The Green Inferno was trying to take itself far too seriously.