L'esclave blonde

Decent story about an eighteen year old student visiting her parents in the Amazon. On a cruise down the river her boat is attacked and her parents are beheaded as she is taken captive by the natives. As she tells the details of her captivity to a court while on trial for murder she provides the tales of strange tribal customs and barbarism. Told mockumentary style (ala Cannibal Holocaust), Slave is a halfway decent attempt to give a little narrative force to the ample nudity and rather tame violence. The photography is nice and the acting is passable but the court scenes are rather laughable because the prosecutor says some seriously stupid things. A good way to pass the time if you are into cannibal flicks or a fan of exploitation.

I have just watched this for the first time, I started watching thinking oh no, another Cannibal Holocaust wannabe, with it's VERY similar music and opening titles.

Fortunatly the whole central section of the movie is totally different, apart from the obvious facts of being set in the Amazon.

It's actually quite a well written (for the genre) tale of a girl who is dragged into the Amazon and lives with a tried there.

There is a lot of nudity but for the more part it doesn't feel gratuitous but rather just what you would expect.

There is some blood and some sexual situations but mostly not 'too' exploitationary.

On the whole this is a film I think I'd like to watch again, although it's not without it's faults which include the dubbing and some VERY gratuitous animal stock footage.

There are some interesting twists and turns in the movie too which makes a change, and no HUGE leaps of logic plot-wise. It also makes a far better point about western man being the real cannibals, far better than Cannibal Holocaust.

6/10

Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story (1985)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Eighteen-year-old Catherine Miles (Elvire Audray) is on a trip in the Amazon with her parents when they are attacked by a tribe of jungle people. The parents are murdered and their heads cut off but Catherine is saved by a member of the tribe who appears to have a thing for her. Catherine is then taken back to their village where she witnesses all sorts of horrors.

There's no question that Italy was the home of the cannibal movie and many think that it reached its height with CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. This film here came towards the end of the genre and was also known as CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST 2 as well as several other titles. For some reason this movie doesn't get much attention from fans when they discuss the genre but I personally thought it was a fairly entertaining movie, although it certainly doesn't rank among the best.

What I enjoyed the most was Audray herself. The horrible English dubbing makes it hard to really judge her performance but I thought she was extremely cute in the part and I also thought she was rather believable in the role. This was especially true as the character becomes more like those holding her hostage. The supporting players are decent at best but there's certainly nothing horrible here.

The film also benefits from a very good score by Franco Campanino, which clearly wants to be like the one in CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. There's also the violence and gore, which is pretty fun, although there's no question that the effects aren't as good as what we saw in films from earlier in the decade. There are a couple decapitations, several other body parts cut off and plenty of blood throughout. Fans of gore will certainly get a kick out of some of the violence here and especially a couple head shots.

AMAZONIA: THE CATHERINE MILES STORY starts off with the lead character going to trial for murder and throughout the film we get some narration of her testifying in court. I personally thought this set-up was rather lame and it actually hurt the film a bit. With that said, I thought the movie was fairly entertaining for what it was and it was worth watching for fans of the genre.

Mario Gariazzo's "Amazonia:The Katherine Miles Story"(1986)is an Italian exploitation film set in the Amazon.Supposedly based on a true story it has plenty of gore,but no actual cannibalism.Elvire Audray plays an 18 years old girl abducted by native tribe and she is pretty terrible actress.Fortunately she is naked through most of the film,so fans of sleaze won't be disappointed.The gore is pretty good(there are numerous decapitation scenes,stabbings etc.)and the film has an obligatory animal cruelty scene.So if you're a fan of Italian exploitation cinema or cannibal sub-genre give this one a look-just don't expect another "Cannibal Holocaust"(1979).

not a bad example of the italian cannibal genre. has many of the standard exploitation requirements, naked girls and violence, though lacks in the actual human consumption department as this tribe consists of head hunters not cannibals. still plenty of gore and a nice musical score . The voice over narration can get annoyingly obvious( as in it states what is happening on screen, or the characters reaction to what they are seeing)but this is a minor flaw

overall, quite entertaining.