Eli Roth Talks THE GREEN INFERNO With Robert Mitchell

THE GREEN INFERNO had it's world premiere last night and Robert Mitchell had the opportunity to talk with Midnight Madness' Prodigal Son, Eli Roth.


THE GREEN INFERNO Screening Times:
Monday, Sept 9th, 1:30 PM SCOTIABANK 13

HERE BE CANNIBALS: A Brief History of Cannibalism in Cinema

As we here at Midnight Madness count down the days until the premiere of Eli Roth’s highly anticipated Green Inferno, we thought we’d take a walk down memory lane and take a look at cinema’s historical appetite for cannibal flicks.

Was it something I said?

Cannibal stories have been told since the age of colonialism, but the late 1970s saw a peak in popularity for cannibal films, ushered in by Mondo cinema and several Italian filmmakers who made enough of them to call it a subgenre. The most notorious of these was Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato in 1980. In a style that would come to be known later in horror circles as ‘found footage’, Cannibal Holocaust featured a group of anthropologists on a trip into the wild where they expect to observe and study the primitive ‘savages’. The irony of Cannibal Holocaust (and of several films of its ilk) is that the visiting whites often exhibit much more savage behavior than the natives do, which ticks them off and inspires an appropriately savage reaction.

Other noteworthy figures in the cannibal cinema subgenre include Jesus Franco (Mondo Cannibale - 1980), Joe D’Amato (Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals - 1977) and Italian b-movie kingpin Umberto Lenzi, who contributed Mangiati Vivi! (Eaten Alive!) in 1980 and Cannibal Ferox in 1981. These films drew censorship woes like flies to a dungheap, and the cannibal subgenre eventually fizzled into obscurity… until now.



You wanted yours rare, right?

Green Inferno director Eli Roth announced his plans to direct the film at Cannes in 2012, and has cited Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox as his major inspirations for the film. Does anyone else smell a resurgence cooking?

Green Inferno premieres Saturday, 11:59PM at the Ryerson.

THE GREEN INFERNO Screening Times:
Sat, Sept 7th, 11:59 PM RYERSON
Mon, Sept 9th, 1:30 PM SCOTIABANK 13

Eli Roth on the Italian Cannibal Films that Inspired THE GREEN INFERNO

Eli Roth brought Umberto Lenzi's 1981 film Cannibal Ferox to the TIFF Bell Lightbox in July 2012 and sat for a hearty Q&A moderated by Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes. Use the following links to hear that Q&A, which includes Roth's thoughts on several of the Italian cannibal classics that inspired Midnight Madness 2013 world premiere The Green Inferno: Q&A Part 1 and Q&A Part 2. Credit to YouTube user TheHorrorSection.

If you want to test your stomach before the world premiere of The Green Inferno, seek out Cannibal Ferox (if you're intrigued by the film's alternate title Make Them Die Slowly, you won't be disappointed) as well as the other films Roth discusses. Just one note of warning: These movies are sick. Seriously.

Mountain of the Cannibal God, a.k.a. Slave of the Cannibal God (dir. Sergio Martino, 1978) is plenty gross, but not quite as disturbing as later Italian cannibal offerings mainly because it has actors you'll recognize (Stacey Keach and Ursula Andress). May be a good place to start.

On the other hand, Cannibal Holocaust (dir. Ruggero Deodato, 1980) is the Mother of All Cannibal Films and one of the most disturbing films of any kind ever made. Deodato was famously required to have his actors appear in court in order to prove that he hadn't made a snuff film. Note: The film-within-the-film that the characters are making is called The Green Inferno.

THE GREEN INFERNO screening times:
Sat., Sept. 7th, 11:59PM, RYERSON
Mon., Sept. 9th, 1:30 PM, SCOTIABANK 13