The documentary presents actor Carl Gabriel Yorke's reminiscences of filming the infamous horror film "Cannibal Holocaust" in the Colombian jungle back in late 1979
where he played the lousy documentarian Alan Yates. Two decades later from the film - where some viewers thought he and cast members were dead since the level of realism created by director
Ruggero Deodato with the then-new concept of "found footage film" - Yorke rises from obscurity sharing his experience of shooting the movie, his first official credit but he
moved on with some other credits as well such as "Jack the Bear" where he played Danny DeVito's boss or a small role in Ron Howard's "Apollo 13".
Pretty much everything you read on this website or elsewhere are confirmed by the actor himself, an enthusiatisc storyteller who manages to have some laugh at almost
all times despite some gruesome moments (weird that he says he was absent from the turtle killing scene because if I'm not mistaken he is there but he mentions that the
scene was shot with the actor he replaced, some weeks before). So, there's no need to debunk some myths or say some legendary stories because he pretty much confirms a great
deal of such bizarre stories, from the jungle location in the frontier of Colombia and Brazil; some stories about Deodato and his imposing manners; and the shooting of his
specific scenes - some are presented but the more graphic are somewhat cut.
I'm glad that director/interviewer Sage Stallone (yes, Sly's son!) included some small newspaper articles about the movie and even Yorke's passport with his date
of travel, just so small info from the period and the film (pity they didn't found anything about the Italian trial where Deodato was accused of making a snuff film and
had killed his actors. And here's something odd: it's mentioned in many places that the actors appeared on court to prove they were alive and even the impaling sequence
was recreated with the bicycle trick. Yorke reveals about the trick but never mentions about the trial).
I had a great time listening to Yorke sharing his memories about one of my favorite horror films of all time, he has a great sense of humor - just one cringey
slip of the tongue while describing one particular sequence from the movie was problematic but no worries. I just wished to see his personal opinion about the movie
as released, or if he had seen it in the years since its release. All he could claim was that it was his very first film credit after his doing stage plays but even so,
it'd take another film roles for him to launch a career since he could not present the movie on his resume (for obvious reasons). Yorke got me really terrified when he talked about seeing a human leg floating down the river...and then a sigh of relief (both on us and himself when he discovered what was all about). Great doc made by Sage Stallone. 8/10.
