Not to be confused with Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno, this 1988 Italian film from writer/director Antonio Climati, also titled Natura contro, seemingly takes cues from Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust. It was even released as Cannibal Holocaust 2 in the UK on VHS, but features zero onscreen cannibalism and was never intended to be a sequel. The schlocky adventure plot divulges cultural insights into the Columbian setting and rainforest tribes but is mired by colossal flaws in key areas. An abating narrative, abysmal performances, histrionic dialogue, and scanty suspense render it predominantly slapdash and calamitous, despite the consequent comedy as a result of its defects.
Green Inferno’s taut set-up presents brash protagonists. A pilot (Merlo), anthropologist (Pio Maria Federici) and journalist (Deseligny) steal a plane then fly to a jungle (near Uaupes) in search of Professor Korenz (Roberto Ricci), who went missing while hunting for treasure belonging to a mysterious tribe called The Imas, who were shirking Spanish Conquistadors. Clumpy dubbing contributes to the overall disarray along with an unsuitably bouncy Casio pop score by Maurizio Dami, which is almost as discordant as Riz Ortolani’s rousing main theme to Cannibal Holocaust. Ortolani’s music clashed massively with the punishing violence, but is now one of the film’s most revered assets.
Considering Cannibal Holocaust‘s controversy, mostly due to it featuring real animal killing, the fact this so-called sequel contains zero cannibalism, makes it outrageous in a completely different way. An oddly harmonious documentary air evokes an unusual authenticity; a heightened reality which strengthens the screenplay, for which six writers are credited, but makes the film’s blundered facets seem more preposterous. Research strengthened context is no substitute for a well mapped narrative, but it keeps Green Inferno from tipping into totally abysmal terrain.
Journalist Jemma interviews a local doctor who specialises in shrinking severed heads and talks her through the process. Anthropologist Pete resuscitates a wounded monkey in exchange for fuel and there’s a daunting assortment of spiders, snakes, manatees, and piranhas slung into the protagonists’ paths like crawly deterrents. The groundwork, detail, and general sagacity ironically makes Green Inferno work better as a documentary than Cannibal Holocaust‘s fictional one at the centre of its narrative. Like its found footage aspect, Green Inferno is a straight-up yet paradoxically wonky work of fiction that also happens to be the worst cannibalism film ever made (by marketing default), simply because it doesn’t feature any.
Scenes featuring bug eating, frog racing, anaconda water wrestling and an anthropologist yanking an electric eel out of a distressed villager’s anus, make the film more than the cockeyed sum of its parts. There’s another great moment where bandits hold an angry snake face over a captive’s penis and demand information. But while all of the above may make it almost warrant a watch, Green Inferno’s defects massively outweigh its lopsided pros. If it’s gnarly cannibalism and repugnance you’re after, watch Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno instead.
Disc extras include: a half hour documentary called Scenes from Buried Alive: The Rise and Fall of Italian Cannibal Movies in which film-makers Umberto Lenzi, Ruggero Deodato, and Sergio Martino discuss the stories around their key work. While this is mainly spliced talking head interviews and film footage, their stories make this an interesting feature for fans of their work. Also included is a trailer and the option to watch the film with original Italian credits.
GREEN INFERNO (1988) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ANTONIO CLIMATI / SCREENPLAY: FRANCESCO PROSPERI, ANTONIO CLIMATI, FEDERICO MOCCIA, LORENZO CASTELLANO / STARRING: MARCO MERLO, FABRIZIO MERLO, MAY DESELIGNY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
