Eli Roth’s ‘Green Inferno’ devours the Internet’s ‘social justice warriors’

Horror director Eli Roth is done with your clicktivism attitudes. The “social justice warriors” of the Internet are now the latest crop of victims in Roth’s movie, “The Green Inferno.” A seemingly innocuous tale about a couple of kids who head into the jungle to do good, and end up good eats.

We spoke with Roth at San Diego Comic-Con and in our exclusive interview he revealed why he’s set his bloody lens on those who would rather tweet about activism than actually do something. Often referred to as #SJW on twitter, these people are (according to Roth) the worst. And should be served up on a platter in “The Green Inferno.”

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Transcribed from the above video, we asked why the director was moved to tell the story of a remote forest and a couple kids in the green nothingness:

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.

They do get eaten by cannibals…

They get eaten by cannibals yeah. Exactly.

We’ll have more from Roth as our week at Comic-Con progresses. Follow our reporting at the Los Angeles Times Comic-Con team in this Twitter list. And for more news, check out Hero Complex on Twitter@LATherocomplex.