If you go down to the jungle today you’re in for a chilling surprise or so the terrifyingly intense trailer for the Daniel Radcliffe led Jungle would certainly suggest.
For a young actor to shake off the shackles of a role that made him a global superstar is not easy, but Radcliffe’s career goes from strength to strength as he continues to carve out a life away from Harry Potter. Opting for the more intelligent, independent films on which to concentrate his efforts, Radcliffe has only dabbled with a couple of commercial outings. This time he has gone for a project based on a real-life story of a backpacker who has to survive the dangers of the Amazon Jungle.
Based on the novel by Yossi Ghinsberg (Radcliffe plays Ginsberg in the film) an Israeli backpacker whose trek from the Bolivian city of La Paz into the uncharted Amazon takes a dangerous turn – when Ginsberg and his two hiking counterparts are first abandoned by their guide and then separated from one another, leaving them with little means to survive the ordeal.
Their journey turns into a terrifying psychological ordeal and fights for survival as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wilderness.
Directed by The Belko Experiment and Wolf Creek helmer Greg McLean, the trailer lure’s you into a false sense of calm and fun adventure until the eerie and atmospheric music pipes up and you wait in anticipation for the nightmare to begin. Fear begins to set in as Radcliffe is left alone to the realisation of how terrifying nature can be when you haven’t got the skills to survive.
Jungle is a far cry from playing a wind exuding corpse in Swiss Army Men, a role in which conveys that Radcliffe really got his hands dirty for this one.
