Eli Roth is the man. I already have two of his recent films high on my watch-list: His horror film about clowns and Knock, Knock, a movie where Keanu Reeves has a threesome with two hot chicks before they ruin his life. At Comic-Con last week he released a new trailer for another one of his upcoming movies, The Green Inferno. A nod to the controversial ’80s horror film Cannibal Holocaust, the movie is a cultural commentary on obnoxious social justice warriors, according to an L.A. Times interview with the director.
Bashing slacktivism is an idea I can get behind because. Let’s be honest — the keyboard crusaders and outrage economy that rules the current Internet is pretty fucking annoying. The do-gooders in The Green Inferno take a trip to save the rainforest, only to become a tasty meal for a tribe of hungry cannibals.
But hey… #canniballivesmatter! I’m sure people who eat other people will be offended by this movie. Cannibals have feelings too! Check out his interview with the L.A. Times below:
Roth: I wanted to write a movie that was about modern activism. I see that a lot of people want to care and want to help, but in general I feel like people don’t really want to inconvenience their own lives. And I saw a lot of people just reacting to things on social media. These social justice warriors. ‘This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.’ And they’re just tweeting and retweeting. They’re not actually doing anything. Or you see people get involved in a cause that they don’t really know a lot about and they go crazy about it. I wanted to make a movie about kids like that. I think there’s a lot great things, obviously, about activism people commit their lives to it. But I want to make a story about kids who don’t really know what they’re getting into. Get in way over their heads, it actually works. And then the irony is on their way home their plane crashes and the very people they saved think that they’re invaders, and just dart them and eat them. And make them the food supply of the village.
So “Green Inferno” is your reaction to the #SJWs of twitter?
Yeah. I actually wrote it, and when I finished the draft Kony 2012 happened. I was like this is it. Everyone is going, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ They’re drinking their mugs going ‘Don’t you care about child soldiers and kids being raped how can you not tweet this video?’ Everyone got so self righteous and publicly shaming. It was something that they hadn’t heard of 24 hours ago. I think it’s a double edged sword. I think there are ways to get involved and ways to be helpful. But the SJW culture has gotten so out of control. That you feel that everyone, are they doing it because they believe in it? Or do they just want to look like good people? Are people retweeting things because they think it’s important or because they want everyone to think that they’re a caring person? And I’m not making a judgment on these people either way. I’m just making a comment on it.
If Eli Roth manages to get people to THINK about how obnoxious they’re being about their manufactured rage and righteousness on social media with a horror movie, he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.