Cannibal Holocaust is repellant for a number of reasons, chief among which is being an early progenitor of the modern found-footage horror movie. So of course Eli Roth has used it as yet another excuse to give ugly Americans (in this case, bleeding-heart liberals) their comeuppance. The result is The Green Inferno, Roth’s attempt at reviving a genre that probably shouldn’t be revived, which was supposed to hit theaters on September 5.
The “supposed to” part comes courtesy of distributor Open Road Films, which has removed The Green Inferno from its release calendar with no word on when it will be back—if at all. Deadline reports that the delay is the result of a disagreement between Open Road and Worldview Entertainment, the film’s financier, over who’s going to pay for the advertising. So far no one’s stepped up to take over for Open Road; online rumors suggested Troma might take the film, but let’s get real, even a subpar Eli Roth movie is above Troma’s pay grade. With the fate of his film uncertain, Roth can at take comfort from the example of Cannibal Holocaust’s Ruggero Deodato—at least he’s not on trial for murder.