The story follows Justine, a naive college freshman in New York City who joins a group of student activists led by the charismatic and manipulative Alejandro. The group travels to the remote Amazon rainforest to stage a protest against a petrochemical company that is bulldozing the jungle and displacing indigenous tribes. Their mission is a temporary success, but disaster strikes on the return journey when their plane suffers a mechanical failure and crashes deep into the wilderness. The survivors are quickly captured by the very tribe they were trying to protect—a group of cannibals who see the outsiders not as saviors, but as prey.
Eli Roth's 2013 film The Green Inferno is often analyzed as a satire of modern, performative "slacktivism" and an homage to 1970s/80s Italian cannibal cinema, specifically Cannibal Holocaust
In an era of "elevated horror" (think Hereditary or The Witch ), The Green Inferno stands as a defiant throwback. It is not subtle. It is not psychologically complex in the modern sense. It is a visceral, gut-churning experience designed to test the limits of the audience’s stomach.
The plot of The Green Inferno is a darkly satirical take on modern, performative activism. The story follows Justine (Lorenza Izzo), a naive and impressionable New York City college freshman. She is drawn into the charismatic orbit of Alejandro (Ariel Levy), the leader of a student activist group that is planning a high-stakes mission to the Amazon rainforest. Their goal is to halt a corporate gas drilling operation that is destroying the habitat of an indigenous tribe. The group's plan is to document their protest and use the footage to raise awareness online. Miraculously, their scheme succeeds, and the bulldozers are stopped. The Green Inferno -2013-
Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap wrote, "Unfortunately, Roth's abundant gore fails to either offend or exhilarate." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly described the film as "a desperate-to-shock pastiche of guts and gore." Other critics accused the film of being "racially reprehensible" for its depiction of indigenous peoples as savage cannibals.
In a fascinating and bizarre turn of events, Roth recruited real members of a local Peruvian tribe to play the cannibals. To explain the concept of cinema to them, he showed them Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980), the very film that inspired The Green Inferno . The villagers, having no frame of reference for fiction, thought the gruesome film was a comedy and gladly participated. The tribe's gratitude for being included was so profound that they offered a two-year-old child to the production designer as a "thank you," an offer that was politely, and understandably, declined. These behind-the-scenes stories underscore the surreal and extreme lengths Roth went to in order to craft his homage.
Beyond its graphic violence, The Green Inferno sparked significant controversy for its depiction of the indigenous tribe. Critics accused the film of perpetuating harmful and racist colonialist stereotypes, portraying non-Western peoples as primitive, brutal savages. The argument is that by framing the activist students as the protagonists and the tribe as the monstrous antagonists, the film dehumanizes the indigenous community and reinforces a dangerous "us vs. them" narrative. The story follows Justine, a naive college freshman
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
A group of idealistic college students, led by charismatic filmmaker Justine, travel to the Amazon to document rainforest deforestation and support indigenous resistance. Their plane is hijacked by a militant group and, after a crash, they are captured by an isolated indigenous tribe. What begins as an eco-activist mission turns into a desperate struggle for survival as the visitors realize the tribe’s customs are brutal, ritualistic, and implacable. Roth intentionally frames the story like a cautionary fable about naivety, impulsive activism, and the thin line between observing suffering and exploiting it.
The Green Inferno (2013): Horror or Social Satire? Directed by , The Green Inferno is a brutal homage to the Italian cannibal films of the late '70s and early '80s, specifically referencing Cannibal Holocaust . Though it premiered at film festivals in 2013, it faced significant distribution delays, finally reaching a wider audience in late 2015. The Plot: "Slacktivism" Meets Survival The survivors are quickly captured by the very
While it may not be Roth's most beloved film, The Green Inferno has garnered a cult following that appreciates its unapologetic brutality, its stunningly dangerous production, and its viciously funny social satire. It remains a fascinating, flawed, and essential artifact of modern horror, a film that aimed to resurrect a forgotten subgenre and, in doing so, sparked a necessary conversation about violence, representation, and the limits of cinematic taste.
Moreover, the film has aged surprisingly well in the context of "cancel culture." Roth’s satire of clueless activists who actually cause more harm than good feels more prescient now than in 2013. The film asks an uncomfortable question: What if the "noble savage" is a myth, and the real savage is the arrogant Westerner who thinks he knows better?