A year ago the trailers and stills were creeping online in the usual way in preparation for a September 5 release date. But then suddenly The Green Inferno, Eli Roth's first film as director since 2007's Hostel II was pulled from the schedules over internal problems at financiers Worldview Entertainment. It's been in limbo ever since, but is now finally set to emerge thanks to a new deal with Jason Blum's distribution label BH-Tilt.
A bit of notoriety never hurt any horror film in the long run, but sadly The Green Inferno's woes were nothing to do with its grisly content. The prosaic reasons were apparently due to Worldview's new CEO Molly Conners baulking at the publicity-spend commitments made by her outgoing predecessor Christopher Woodrow. The situation left US horror fans crossing their fingers that Green Inferno wouldn't turn into another distribution farrago like All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, which sat in American limbo for seven years after the rest of the world saw it in 2006.
Enter Blum. "When we launched BH-Tilt we said our goal was to be part of the continuing evolution of distribution," he explained, "whether it is through changing marketing strategies, changing revenue sources or changing windows. We are excited to capitalise on new developments in distribution and marketing to bring Eli’s movie to horror lovers across the country.”
“The Green Inferno is a wild, fun ride that took us deeper into the Amazon than anyone has ever taken a film crew,” says Roth. “BH-Tilt is a forward-thinking label that is helping to redefine how genre movies can be released. I want to express my deep gratitude to the fans for their incredible support of this movie and to everyone at Blumhouse and Universal for making sure fans can experience the film in theaters across the country.”
Roth's tribute to the gonzo Italian likes of Ruggero Deodato and Umberto Lenzi sees a group of student activists head deep into the Peruvian jungle and face the threat of being eaten alive at the hands of a hungry indigent tribe. It was made for an estimated $6m, so wouldn't even have to do much business to go into profit. Given Roth's high profile and the fact that advance word on the film is strong, the decision to drop it was always an odd one.
The Green Inferno will now make its debut on a thousand US screens on September 25. We've not had a release date for the film in the UK at all so far, although it played in Edinburgh last June and at FrightFest in London last August. That means we'll certainly see Roth's subsequent film, the Keanu Reeves-starring Knock Knock, first. That one's out here on June 26.