The latter half of Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno consists of cannibals dismembering their victims and eating them. While definitely bloody, the proceedings never feel disturbing or unnerving; it is just an exercise in gore, and a pointless one at that, for what is the purpose of witnessing a young man torn limb from limb as he writhes in agony?
There is a scene near the end of Craig Zahler’s horror western Bone Tomahawk that is similar to those found in The Green Inferno, but contrary to Roth’s film, this brief moment is not only terribly perturbing, but it serves to heighten the suspense of what’s to follow, as if the uncertainty the characters have been facing for the previous 90 minutes was not suspenseful enough.
“We’re in hell”, a character says at one point.
He is so right that had Roth not taken up the title he did for his movie, it would have worked just as well for this one.
