Film Review: "Into the Inferno" (2016).

"What we worship can destroy us." This is Into the Inferno. This documentary film directed by Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer. They shape Earth’s topography. For some who live in their shadow, volcanos also shape beliefs in gods and demons. Herzog explores active volcanos from around the world, Mount Sinabung, Laki, Baekdu Mountain and Erta Ale, and the people who live near them. Herzog follows Oppenheimer, also a volcanologist, who hopes to minimize the volcanoes’ destructive impact.

Sinabung's last known eruption occurred in 1600. In 1912, Solfataric activities (cracks where steam, gas, and lava are emitted) were last observed at the summit. In late August 2010, as well as September and November 2013, and January, February and October 2014, eruptions were documented. In May 2016, a pyroclastic flow killed seven people. Between 2013 and 2014, the alert for a major event was increased with no significant activity. In early June 2015, the alert was again increased, and on 26 June 2015, at least 10,000 people were evacuated, fearing a major eruption. The long eruption of Mount Sinabung is similar to that of Mount Unzen in Japan, which erupted for five years after lying dormant for 200 years. Laki is part of a volcanic system centered on the volcano Grímsvötn and including the volcano Thordarhyrna. It lies between the glaciers of Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull, in an area of fissures that run in a southwest to northeast direction. Between June 1783 and February 1784, the system erupted violently over an eight-month period from the Laki fissure and the adjoining volcano Grímsvötn, pouring out an estimated 42 billion tons or 14 km3 (3.4 cu mi) of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous hydrofluoric acid and sulfur dioxide compounds that contaminated the soil, leading to the death of over 50% of Iceland's livestock population, and the destruction of the vast majority of all crops. This led to a famine which then killed approximately 25% of the island's human population. The lava flows also destroyed 20 villages. The Laki eruption and its aftermath caused a drop in global temperatures, as 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide was spewed into the Northern Hemisphere. This caused crop failures in Europe and may have caused droughts in North Africa and India. 

In the last five-thousand years, Baekdu had one of the largest and most violent eruptions (alongside the Minoan eruption, the Hatepe eruption of Lake Taupo in around AD 180, the 1257 eruption of Mount Samalas near Mount Rinjani, and the 1815 eruption of Tambora). In late September 2005, there was a major eruption at Erta Ale, which killed two-hundred-and-fifty head of livestock and forced thousands of nearby residents to flee. In August 2007, there was further lava flow that forced the evacuation of hundreds and leaving two missing. In early November 2008, an eruption was reported by scientists at Addis Ababa University. In January 2017, another eruption was reported.

Into the Inferno offers a poignant study of the human psyche amid haunting landscapes. But where is the dark spark of Herzog magic?

Simon says Into the Inferno receives: