Summary
Body horror and beautiful landscapes are presented in equal measure in the true story of survival in the titular jungle.
It sometimes seems that Greg McLean has spent a decade building a franchise around his debut feature Wolf Creek. Follow-ups Rogue, The Darkness, and The Belko Experiment would imply a certain trajectory for the filmmaker, but with JUNGLE he shifts into a new thematic terrain, albeit one filled with a different kind of horror.
Based on the real-life story of Israeli backpacker Yossi Ghinsberg (played here by Daniel Radcliffe) who, along with Swiss teacher Marcus Stamm (Joel Jackson) and American photographer Kevin Gale (Alex Russell), follows Austrian expat Karl Ruprechter (Thomas Kretschmann) into the uncharted Amazon on the promise of new experiences. It rapidly becomes a harrowing tale of human endurance and an unforgiving landscape.
The back of the tin will mark this clearly as a survival thriller, and this is ostensibly the main thrust of the narrative. Yet if McLean’s previous works have fit into existing horror genres of serial killers, the supernatural and monster flicks, then JUNGLE could also be loosely called ‘body horror.’ There is, of course, the mysterious stranger that screenwriter Justin Monjo (adapting Ghinsberg’s book interprets as a pseudo-villain, but the ultimate opposition becomes nature itself. Starvation, rotting feet, and one very graphic sequence of a squiggling critter being removed from a head wound are all designed to show a body being pushed beyond its intended purposes.
In fact, the last time we saw Radcliffe try to find his way out of the wilderness he was a corpse, and McLean’s promise of something equally different is delivery in some hallucinatory sequences. Even so, the story itself falls back on a number of familiar beats from the genre, from flashbacks to parental figures offering hope to last-minute rescue fake-outs. There’s even a quicksand sequence. The tale might be based on a true story, but the telling shapes it into something that could be found in any survival film.
Punctuated by some stunning aerial cinematography from Stefan Duscio (TV’s Barracuda), and a phenomenal and all-encompassing soundscape, JUNGLE is unquestionably a strong technical achievement from the filmmaker. Similarly, Radcliffe continues to showcase his versatility and watchability as a leading man in his post-Potter career.
The real Ginsberg has gone on to become a tech entrepreneur and humanitarian, returning to the very place that almost killed him. As such, we have a tale that’s missing the raw revenge-filled emotion of The Revenant or the poignancy of Into the Wild. Which leaves us with a final question: if this is a horror film, then what are we as viewers to take from the Final Boy’s survival?
2017 | Australia, Columbia | DIR: Greg McLean | WRITER: Justin Monjo | CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Thomas Kretschmann, Joel Jackson, Alex Russell | RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Umbrella Entertainment | RELEASE DATE: 11 August 2017 (MIFF)
