Let's get one thing cleared up straight away,
Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story (
aka White Slave aka Schiave bianche - Violenza in Amazzonia aka Cannibal Holocaust II) is not a well-made or well-acted film.
As an homage to the work of his fellow Italian filmmakers Rugero Deodato and Umberto Lenzi - genre movie makers of the '70s and '80s - Mario Gariazzo (
as Roy Garrett) concocted the faux "true story" of an 18-year-old Westerner taken prisoner by an an indigenous tribe of headhunters when her parents are butchered on a family boat trip in the Amazon.
Delivered through the framing device of Catherine's trial for murder - once she's back in 'civilization' - the story is narrated by the titular Catherine Miles (Elvire Audray) in flashback.
In a classic example of Stockholm Syndrome, during her lengthy imprisonment in the jungle, Catherine finds herself falling for the headhunter, Umukai (Will Gonzales), that she blames for her parents' death, but then uses that to ultimately exact revenge on those responsible.
Although 'inspired' by cannibal exploitation movies, there's a disappointing lack of actual cinematic cannibalism in
Amazonia; the only mention of it comes from a brief interaction with a neighbouring tribe that we are told practices the eating of human flesh.
Instead, while playing up the 'romance' angle (
dig the funky music), the film tries hard to be almost educational, with Catherine often 'educating' the court proceedings with
National Geographic-style nuggets of information about the lifestyle of the indigenous population.
There are a handful of moments of cheesy violence, splattered with unconvincing bright red blood and cheap practical effects, and while thankfully devoid of the grim real life slaughter of animals by humans (
as happened in the original sickening Cannibal Holocaust) there are a couple of gratuitously random 'nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw' shots of a leopard attacking its prey.
There are also a couple of uncomfortable scenes of threatened sexual violence.
Make no mistake, this is grindhouse sleaze (
although largely tame compared to cinema's modern excesses) of the lowest kind, peppering a forgettable script with fake blood and plenty of real nudity, selling itself as a 'cannibal horror film' yet devoid of cannibalism.
However, what almost redeems
Amazonia is the plot twist that comes in about two-thirds of the way through the 90-minute movie and answers a major question observant audience members should have been asking.
In a better film, that could have done this revelation justice, the final act of Catherine's narrative would have had more impact.
It's almost as if there actually was a good idea in there, but it got buried under the limitations of 1980's Italian low-budget filmmaking and Gariazzo's desire to make an exploitation flick in the style of his idols.
