The Green Inferno (2013)

Since I have a healthy respect for Cannibal Holocaust, as well as writer/director Eli Roth (Hostel was one of the first movies I saw in the theater after consciously deciding that I was going to be a horror fan), I remember wanting to see The Green Inferno (what a great title!) when it came out (was it really that long ago?). But I never got around to it. Until now. Apparently, there was a whole string of cannibal movies in the '70s and '80s that this movie pays homage to, not just the infamous Cannibal Holocaust of which I am familiar.

By way of summary, the daughter of a UN official learns about female genital mutilation in college and impulsively joins a group of activists led by a charismatic psychopath (his character is plainly written to be a dick, but he actually makes some good points in criticism of ivory tower idealism), who challenges her to prove her committment in a stunt to delay deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, which threatens the survival of an isolated jungle tribe. Except, when their plane crashes in the jungle, they find out that the tribe consists of vicious cannibals and carnage ensues.

Be forewarned: although this is a violent and gory movie, it doesn't take itself too seriously, and is not above using toilet humor. Allegedly, the entire film grew out of the idea of stoned cannibals getting the munchies (in a scene that raises cannibalism to a level more typical of a zombie buffet). Critics may accuse Roth of exploiting the real native tribe he cast in this movie, but reports are that they had a blast doing it (the assumption that jungle tribes have no imagination or sense of humor kind of goes hand in hand with the harmful stereotype - satirized in these movies - that they are brutal savages), and he makes a good point about the real dangers to these tribes being colonial capitalists and not fantasy narratives. Anyway, it lends the movie a real sense of immersion.

As a final note, I know it's weird to think about this in the context of a gruesome horror movie, but seeing how skimpily dressed the natives are (albeit in full body paint), and particularly the lead Lorenza Izzo's ritualistic getup in the climax (the fact that she would spend a number of years married to Eli Roth after this movie is interesting), just makes me wish there were more movies that unselfconsciously showcase the beauty of the unclothed (or nearly unclothed) human body NOT in a pornographic context (not that there's anything wrong with porn, but naked beauty can be appreciated on its own merits, without being weighed down by all the baggage that comes with explicit sexuality).

As Above, So Below (2014)

I was reading through some horror recommendations on Reddit, and people were saying good things about this movie, which I noticed was available on Netflix, but only for a few more days (at the time of searching), and that was all the motivation I needed to give it a screening. It's a found footage movie, that plays out like a cross between Tomb Raider and Full Metal Alchemist, but framed as a horror story. Imagine Lara Croft searching for the Philosopher's Stone in the catacombs under Paris, which turns out to be the gateway to Hell. Yeah. It's pretty effective. It goes a little deeper into its own lore than most movies of its kind (according to IMDb's trivia section, heavy parallels can be drawn to the Nine Circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno, but as someone who's actually read Dante's Inferno, it's mostly subtext that the casual viewer doesn't need to know), although it loses a little bit of traction with its vague rules governing the workings of magic. The whole experience is enhanced by actually being filmed on location in the catacombs under Paris, although the movie leans conspicuously on using supernatural nonlinearity (as disorienting as this can be), as well as straightforward backtracking at one point, as an excuse to recycle familiar rooms and passages. It's pretty ambitious for a found footage movie, and it mostly works. Not enough to raise it from the depths of the subgenre, perhaps, but definitely worth a watch.