Well, it’s October, and with a wave of small horror films coming in over the next handful of weeks, ‘Blended Opinion’ has decided to consolidate some of its coverage for both horror films and for indie films with Oscar season in full swing. This double review will feature reviews of the Eli Roth flop The Green Inferno and straight-to-VOD release Cooties. (Yes, we know Cooties is also a comedy.)
Eli Roth is back, after several years off from film-making, and if you’ve paid attention the production of The Green Inferno, you’d know that it had big problems in getting a studio company to pick it up and eventually release it to the public. This film finished shooting back in 2011, but is finally getting a chance to be seen in an unmastered cut that lacks a lot of high production. Roth has another film coming out this month, Knock Knock, with Keanu Reeves.
In Roth’s signature political heavy-handedness, a group of social activists led by a bunch of no-name actors, one being Roth’s real-life wife Lorenza Izzo, eventually being captured and eaten by the very people they tried to protect with a peaceful protest, a small untouched tribe that lives in barbaric circumstances without technology. As they slowly get picked up and eaten through torturous means, and they manage to bring in bouts of female genital mutilation, The Green Inferno‘s sadistic nature outdoes any interesting concept the movie could’ve had. Genuine thrills are replaced with gross-out factor, and the low production value becomes distracting at times, making this feel like a really awful original movie you’d see on the Sci-Fi channel.
Cooties is the other film that gained traction recently, a horror-comedy that is now available for rent on on-demand after a September release. First-time directing team Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion take on this film set in the rural parts of Fort Chicken, Illinois. The town is on the map because of a massive chicken factory that makes nuggets and other treats for the whole town. When one of the nuggets is infected with a disease, and turns all the children into blood-thirsty zombies, the faculty at the school needs to fight them off and escape.
Elijah Wood is our main character, a sub-par novelist who has moved home with his mom to teach high-school, while the other faculty include a batch of comedians all set with a chance to showcase a few funny one-liners throughout the running-time such as Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, Morgan Lily, Jack McBrayer, and Nasim Pedrad. They attempt to balance out some bloody scenes with Rainn Wilson’s antics, which often does work, and this film will illicit a few laughs from you, but outside of the rare chuckle, there’s not much here. A broader point about the educational system is trying to be made here, but it eludes the film’s grasp, including a really bad joke about Adderall and other ADHD drugs. Cooties gets a few chuckles, and may be okay for a background film as a joke, but this isn’t anything to write home about.
The Green Inferno is only good for Eli Roth/big-gore-splatter film fans. Otherwise, it’s an exercise in patience.
Cooties is fun to see some good comedic actors, but lacks the excitement necessary to put this up with successful horror-comedies.
The Green Inferno: 
Cooties: 
Blended Opinion 
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