Callum Waddell and Naomi Holwill’s 2021 documentary film about Ruggero Deodato’s controversial masterpiece has been given a standalone release from Germany’s 8 Films.  Waddell, a Scotsman born in Fife has become a world-renowned movie critic and documentarian, his 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Street and Eaten Alive: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film have become much-loved horror/ exploitation documentaries. " />

Callum Waddell and Naomi Holwill’s 2021 documentary film about Ruggero Deodato’s controversial masterpiece has been given a standalone release from Germany’s 8 Films.  Waddell, a Scotsman born in Fife has become a world-renowned movie critic and documentarian, his 42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Street and Eaten Alive: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film have become much-loved horror/ exploitation documentaries.

In Searching for Cannibal Holocaust, Waddell interviews a number of the cast and crew of Deodato’s notorious found footage classic in an attempt to uncover the story behind one of the world’s most infamous and controversial movies. After seeing him interview two Americans who worked on the movie, actor Carl Gabriel Yorke, who played Alan Yates and Gregory Snegoff, who recorded the English dub of Enrico Papa, Waddell heads to the Amazon and the port city of Leticia in order to dig up some of the local stories about Deodato’s movie. He interviews two of the local actors, Ronaldo Blanca and his mother, who worked on the movie. It turns out they are the last living members of the native cast and as such provide a fascinating insight into the making of the film. They live in a rural area with no wifi and as such have never even seen the movie they appeared in.  Ronaldo and his mother provide the answer to one of the most talked about questions relating to the movie, that of the animal slaughter. Ronaldo tells Waddell that the giant turtle that was killed was later served to the local villagers. The most interesting part of his time with Ronaldo Blanca, is when he is taken down the Amazon River to visit some of the film’s most iconic locations. This is the most interesting section of the documentary, Waddell’s time spent with Ronaldo and his mother provides interesting new information about the production of the movie. The film also features some interesting new interview material with director Deodato, however, as the documentary progresses Waddell seems to get dragged further into the politics of the region and particularly those of the cocaine trade that existed in Columbia.

The Blu-ray from 8 Films features a host of bonus features including The Last Supper, a documentary on the final days of the Italian Cannibal film, another called That’s Not the Amazon, about the European cannibal movie cycle, as well as the recollections of Carl Gabriel Yorke, Gregory Snegoff and Massimo Foschi. The title documentary can be viewed with both German and English audio and there is the usual trailer.

Overall, this is an interesting documentary that really comes to life when talking to the last surviving local cast members and revisiting the locations made famous in the original movie.  Callum Waddell seems to veer off course a little in the final 10 or 15 minutes of the documentary, however, there is still much here to enjoy.