Green Hell (film)

The plot tells about a group of young people from the United States who became interested in the civil movement, in particular, they were outraged by the fact of cutting trees in the Amazon forests by companies extracting natural resources, which also threatened the lives of indigenous tribes. So activists decide to personally go to the Amazon forests to film the deforestation process and attract the public.

When activists get to the site of tree felling, they sabotage there, clinging to bulldozers and taking lumberjacks who cut trees on their phones. Private activists attack the activists and injure Justin, one of the activists. Carlos, who finances the trip, buys activists from the police to take them back, but the plane crashes in the forest and Carlos dies.

The “black man” and the rest of the wild Ahras tribe attack the remaining crew members, killing Kara. Savages take the rest to their village, imprisoning them in a cage guarded by the "black". The savages soon decapitate and eat John. Alejandro, with his horror, understands that their activities have benefited a competing company, which also intends to engage in deforestation.

The next day, Justin, Samantha and Amy are checked for virginity and decide to circumcise Justin, who turned out to be a virgin. Samantha manages to escape, but the tribe caught her and butchered her, then decided to feed the prisoners with meat. Amy, in desperation, cuts her throat with a shard and dies. Lars shoves a bag of marijuana into her stomach in the hope that when the savages begin to eat it, they will fall under the influence of the drug. The plan works, all representatives of the tribe fall asleep after a feast; Justin and Daniel run away, but Alejandro and Lars are left behind and do not have time to escape. Larsa eats the tribe.

Justin and Daniel return to the crash site and try to contact the outside world, but they are overtaken by representatives of the tribe and taken away; Justin is preparing for the circumcision ceremony. Daniela's limbs are broken and ants are set against him. The ceremony ends, as bulldozers that destroy trees approach the village, the savages are distracted, which gives Justin a chance to escape, the wounded Daniel asks Justin to kill him. Alejandro remains trapped in a cage. The girl manages to break away, but she witnesses the clash of mercenaries and Indians, who had no chance against firearms, the "black man" dies.

The girl safely gets to New York and deceives the rest that after the disaster she alone survived and told how she met a peace-loving tribe of Indians who became victims of an attack by mercenaries. In the scene between the credits of Lucia, sister Alejandro tells Justin that they found through the satellite image Alejandro, who became the new "black man" of the tribe.

On May 17, 2012, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 , Eli Roth announced that he was going to make a film about cannibals in conjunction with the studio Worldview Entertainment , which finances the project ^[1] . Roth and Guillermo Amoedo worked on the script ^[2] . Work on the film began in the fall of 2012 ^[3] . On October 25, Roth announced the full cast ^[4] . Filming itself began in October 2012 in New York, then continued in Peru and Chile since November 2012 ^[5] .

In an interview from February 2013, Roth said that he wanted his film to look like the work of Werner Herzog and Terrence Malik , the director also noticed that he was inspired by such iconic Italian films as “ Cannibal 's Hell ” and “ Cannibals ” ^[6] .

To give greater realism, savages, except for a few actors; elders and the "black" guard, played by representatives of the small and isolated Peruvian tribe Callanayacu (callanayacu). In reality, this tribe belongs to non-contact peoples , peacefully and is engaged in farming. Initially, Roth traveled along the Uallagha River to find a suitable location and then set up the scenery, but the director accidentally discovered the huts of the Indians and noticed that they ideally fit the description of the village prescribed in the script. At first, the Indians were suspicious of strangers, hiding in huts, but then they made contact. The director encouraged them to take part in the filming of their film and the tribe agreed that its members did not know what such films and films were. Therefore, in order to make it clear to the Indians how they should play in front of the camera, the director brought along a television with a generator to show the 1980 horror film “ Cannibal Hell ” ^[7] .

The director later remarked that he was trying to conceptually show what the film was, but representatives of the tribe considered the film "the funniest thing they had ever seen." The Indians perceived the filming process as strange fun. Roth noted that unpredictable weather conditions, which can range from a clear sky to heavy rains, constituted significant problems ^[7] . Before the shooting, a curious incident occurred with the production designer Marichi, when the tribal representatives offered her a gift of a two-year-old child, whom Marichi politely refused ^[8] .

July 30, 2013, it was announced that the film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013 ^[9] , and the tape will be released on film distribution on September 5, 2014 by Open Road Films ^[10] . However, the financial problems associated with the shooting of the film forced the release day ^{[11] [12]} to be moved to April 24, 2014, at the Stanley Film Festival ^[13] .

The release of the tape for movie rental took place on September 25, 2015 by Blumhouse Productions in the USA, although 2 days earlier, the screening of the tape began in the Philippines by Solar Pictures ^[14] . At the same time, two versions of the film were shown there; a significant number of violent scenes were removed from the 13+ version.

In the United States, the film was screened in 1,540 movie theaters and raised $ 3.5 million in its first rental week, ranking 9th. ^[15] By the end of the box office, 6 weeks after the release, the film generally raised $ 7.2 million in the United States and Canada; worldwide fees totaled $ 12.9 million ^[16] .

January 5, 2016, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray publications, the distribution company was engaged in Universal Home Entertainment . The publication includes a directorial version of the film and audio comments from the actors ^[17] .

Green Hell received mostly negative reviews, although some critics praised the film for respecting classic Italian cannibal tapes. On the Rotten Tomatoes website, the film's rating was 33% based on 85 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 10 ^[18] . On the Metacritic website, the average film score was 38 out of 100 based on 19 reviews with predominantly negative reviews ^[19] . CinemaScore users rated the movie average C- on a scale of A to F ^[20] .

The film received a delightful response from the famous writer Stephen King , the writer noted that the film recalled what he watched in his youth: “he is bloody, exciting, it is difficult to watch, but impossible to come off” ^{[21] [22]} . Todd Gilchrist of The Wrap left a negative review, noting that Roth’s work is so disastrous that it can neither hurt the viewer nor revive the picture ^[23] . Meredis Borders gave a more positive review, noting that the film does not give the viewer a break; he is cruel, violent and implacable in his cruelty, not giving the audience a second to relax. The film also has a public message that if activists who do not understand the topic accept the movements, they will only do more harm than good ^[24] .

The film aroused indignation among representatives of the Survival International charity, supporting Indian tribes and non-contact peoples , who accused the filmmakers of promoting the values ​​of colonialism and neocolonialism , racist stereotypes of Indians as brainless and bloodthirsty cannibals ^[25] . Roth answered the accusations, noting that his film does not claim to be realistic and had no reason to discredit the Indians, in addition, the director noted that those who believe that the film is harmful to the Indians would better look at oil and wood-producing companies, which are a real threat to wild tribes ^[25] .

AIDESEP, a Native Peruvian organization, has noticed that the film promotes the prejudices that have led Indians to be regarded as inferior for centuries. “In the forests of the Amazon, you will never meet indigenous cannibals. And films promoting such ideas without any responsibility only strengthen the chauvinist policies of South American states, roughly imposing a different way of life on the Indians under the pretext of being introduced to civilization. ” ^[26] .

Another Amazon Watch organization, also involved in protecting the forests of Amazonia and indigenous peoples, announced a breakdown of cooperation with Eli Roth, explaining that they did not want to “have anyone to do with a person promoting racist stereotypes about the indigenous peoples of South America.” According to activists, the film represents the Indians as brutal, wild savage cannibals, deprived of any humanity and not even capable of intelligible speech. Roth, in turn, also responded to criticism, noting that members of the organization “found his film excellent”, however, as it turned out later, these conclusions were made even before watching the film itself and against the backdrop of the director’s promises that he would touch on the theme of life threatening Indigenous Peoples' Warehouse amid Forest Destruction by Corporations ^[27]

Although Eli Roth did not want to admit that he was drawing negative stereotypes about the South Indians through the picture, this prompted him to join the tropical forest conservation campaign and charitable organizations to create a journalism fund that addresses the problems faced by indigenous peoples ^{[28 ]} .

On September 7, 2013, the upcoming filming of the sequel to Beyond the Green Inferno , directed by Nicholas Lopez, was announced ^[29] . However, as of May 2016, no information about the upcoming shootings and cast was not known, as well as whether the film will be shot at all ^[30] .