Tweet
Released by: 88 Films
Released on: July 4h, 2018.
Director: Mario Gariazzo (as Roy Garrett)
Cast: Elvire Audray, Will Gonzales, Dick Campbell, Andrea Coppola, Dick Marhsall, Alma Vernon
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Amazonia - Movie Review:
God bless Italian horror cinema for giving us a genre so sleazy that it can offend even the most jaded exploitation fan - the cannibal film. Sure, cannibalism had existed in film before Ruggero Deodato and Umberto Lenzi kick started things with The Man From Deep River and Jungle Holocaust but the Italians really knew how to do it properly, animal rights be damned.
This later and lesser known entry in the Italian cannibal film genre, Amazonia (also known as White Slave and, occasionally, as Cannibal Holocaust 2), comes from director Mario Gariazzo, best known for The Bloody Hands Of The Law starring Klaus Kinski and The Eerie Midnight Horror Show. Interestingly enough, it happens to have been written by the one and only Franco Prosperi of Mondo Cane infamy, so Mario was in good company with this film, supposedly based on the true story of a female named Catherine Miles (hence the subtitle of The Catharine Miles Story). The story is all fabricated, of course, but it made for good marketing copy.
At any rate, the movie begins when the titular Catharine Miles (the lovely Elvire Audray) decides she wants to leave London and head back to the family rubber plantation in the Amazon to visit her folks for a bit and celebrate her eighteenth birthday - after all, since moving to the big city she hasn't seen mom and dad for a while and it'd be nice to find out how they're holding up. So, she flies into the thick of the jungle where they live to see how it's all going.
Once she arrives, they travel around the area by boat to see what's going down and while poking their heads around the scenic river fauna, one of the crew members is struck by an arrow. Soon enough, the vicious natives of the area have taken everyone down, decapitated her parents, and kidnapped poor Catharine! They take her back into the jungle where they live and soon tensions arise among the tribesmen, all of whom want a piece of her. One decapitation later and that matter is solved once and for all…
Luckily for Catherine, a search party has started checking out the area by plane and they come across the dead bodies of her parents and friends. They ascertain that she's missing and decide to start looking around for her. Will the search party be able to find Catharine before the crazed tribe of headhunters inducts her into their fold and make her one of their own? Not if kindly cannibal guy Umukai (Will Gonzales) has anything to say about it!
Plenty of gorgeous jungle scenery, bad dialogue, cheap gore effects and stock footage animal on animal carnage inserts place this one firmly in the realm of exploitation cinema - “bio pic or not.†It doesn't matter at all that there was no real Catharine Miles and that she doesn't seem to have ever existed. Why? Because none of that takes away from what is, at its core, an enjoyable and sleazy jungle romp. Fine, it might be about as a rock and frequently throw logic to the wind. And fine, Audray isn't going to win any award for her performance here, but again, it hardly matters. Rather than get by on her acting ability she instead wisely chooses to run around naked for a good portion of the film, so in addition to the other elements we've also got the gratuitous nudity factor working in this film's favor as well.
Is it a good movie? That depends on how you look at it, but it is enjoyable. Even if it does regrettably feature the animal violence that the genre is known for, the cinematography from Silvano Ippoliti is exceptional and the score from Franco Campanino is also quite strong. If you're into trashy jungle adventure gore films, you'll probably find Amazonia as a decent slice of dumbed down exploitainment. It might not hit the way the best of them do, but it's definitely entertaining.
Amazonia - Blu-ray Review:
Amazonia arrives on Blu-ray from 88 Films in a new transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and sourced from a 2k scan of the original 35mm negative. Despite some minor print damage here and there in the form of small white specks, this is a pretty impressive picture. The 50GB disc gives the movie lots of space (the feature takes up over 27GBs of space) and as such, there are no compression issues. Likewise, the image is free of noise reduction or edge enhancement problems, there's plenty of natural looking film grain on display. Skin tones look warm and natural and color reproduction is quite strong too - the green flora of the jungle setting looks quite lush here, while the orange/red of a nighttime fire looks appropriately bright without washing out the surrounding darkness. We get nice black levels and there's plenty of detail and texture to ogle throughout, not just in closeups but in medium and long-distance shots too. This definitely advances over past DVD versions in pretty much every way that you'd expect and hope it would.
DTS-HD 2.0 Mono tracks are provided in English and Italian language options with subtitles available in English only that translate the Italian dialogue. Both tracks sound fine, if a bit on the flat side - not surprising, given the origins of the film. Still, dialogue is plenty clear and easy to follow and there's a bit of depth when the score kicks in throughout the movie. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion, no real issues here at all actually.
The biggest and best of the extras on the disc is The Last Supper - The Final Days Of The Cannibal Film, a fifty-one-minute documentary that covers, as you'd guess from the title, the genre's twilight years. Made up primarily of interviews with actor Michael Sopkiw, directors Ed Sanchez (of the Blair Witch Project) and Ruggero Deodato - the man behind Cannibal Holocaust - academics Mikel Koven and Calum Waddell (who also directed the piece) and writer John Martin this piece examines the history and cultural worth of late period Italian cannibal films such as Amazonia and Massacre In Dinosaur Valley and it serves as a nice follow up and companion piece to Eaten Alive: The Rise And Fall Of The Italian Cannibal Film (that was included on the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray of Cannibal Ferox). There's a good mix of anecdotal stories from the productions to give the material some context as well as critical insight that elaborates on when they work, when they don't and what makes them interesting either way.
Also, sure to be of interest to fans is An Italian In Amazonia, a fourteen-minute interview with cameraman Federico Del Zoppo. He talks about the difficulties of shooting on location in the Amazon, working with Mario Gariazzo and his thoughts on the feature. It's an interesting piece that documents what it was like working on the picture.
The disc also includes the film's original theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection.
As to the packaging, 88 Films includes an insert booklet of liner notes containing a piece by Calum Waddell that discuss Elvire Audray's appeal and tragic demise within the context of tracking down and getting stories on record from the people that were involved in fairly esoteric (by mainstream standards, at least) productions such as this. Additionally, a reversible cover sleeve is included and, when purchased direct from 88 Films, a limited edition (and surprisingly nudity-laden!) slipcover limited to only 500 pieces.
Amazonia - The Final Word:
Amazonia The Catharine Miles Story may not be the graphic gut-muncher that a few of its predecessors were but it still packs a pretty strong punch and stands as one of the better later-era Italian cannibal pictures thanks to solid direction and an intriguing leading lady! The Blu-ray release from 88 Film's is a strong one, presenting the film in great shape and with quality extras making this an easy recommendation and an impressive upgrade over previous DVD editions.
Click on the images below for full sized Amazonia Blu-ray review screen captures!
