Good article. My thoughts:
I may not always appreciate the actual type of horror given to us by Eli Roth, but it’s creative and new.. it’s also, as the WASHINGTON POST says, paving the way for horror films of the future..
There are two points of the POST article I’d like to give emphasis to..
First:
Another year later, “The Green Inferno” is finally hitting theaters through an arrangement with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, which has stamped its imprimatur on franchise hits including “Paranormal Activity,” “Insidious,” “The Purge” and “Sinister.” Released under Blum’s new BH Tilt label, the film opened in wide release without an expensive marketing campaign, relying instead on a viral push that taps into Roth’s considerable fan base while eking the most out of modest returns at the box office. (It earned $3.5 million in its opening weekend.) The online strategy seems entirely in keeping with a film that includes the Twitter handle of every cast and crew member in the closing credits. And it also minimizes expectations for the type of extreme horror movie that has fallen out of fashion but has long been Roth’s stock-in-trade.
That is pretty amazing if you consider it.. the Twitter names of all of the stars. That is brilliant and new, in this modern age, it also gives people a reason to stick around for the credit and get their smart phones out..
The other point is about the GREEN INFERNO itself:
How edgy and dangerous exactly? “The Green Inferno” is Roth’s attack on what he calls “slacktivists,” those socially conscious collegians who opine about the issues-of-the-day on social media but approach them with minimal commitment or depth. As punishment, Roth sends a group of them to the Amazon rainforest, where a mission intended to protect an indigenous tribe from developers ends with the same tribe killing most of them and serving at least one for dinner.
“People get involved in a cause in ‘The Green Inferno’ not because they care about saving the Amazon but because they want credit for saving the Amazon,” says Roth, who likens it to the hashtag activism of #Kony2012, #FreePussyRiot and #BringBackOurGirls. “They’re not happiest when they shut down the developers. They’re happiest when they’re trending on Twitter and when they make the front page of Reddit. That’s what I see is going on right now. Everyone’s tweeting the hashtag of the week because they want to look like they care.”
Now that is cutting edge. Pun intended. It is a mockery of our times, an edgy masterpiece of horror that inflicts the pain of social status, creates the burn of unfollowing.. and yes, becomes another example of how horror imitates reality.
I have said many times over, horror movies of any given era will showcase the culture of that time.. (as does pro wrestling) .. in this case, the GREEN INFERNO will be a lesson on the ‘activism’ of our age, the computer wielding folks who quite honestly don’t do anything except type on a screen or phone…thus not changing anything, but just are trying to get followers..