Netflix have stalled their plans to release an Australian documentary about Danish murderer Peter Madsen, after multiple people involved said it used footage of two people without their consent, and would re-traumatise and “endanger their health” if it airs.

Madsen, a well-known Danish inventor, was sentenced to life in jail for the murder and sexual assault of journalist Kim Wall, after he invited her onto his homemade submarine under the pretence of an interview in August 2017.

Australian director Emma Sullivan had been filming Madsen and his volunteer crew for months for an unrelated documentary, about the inventor’s attempt to build a homemade rocket, when the murder took place.

The resulting film Into the Deep contains extensive interviews with Madsen up until the day of the murder, as well as the people who worked with him. According to a Variety review, the movie offers “a rare opportunity to study a murderer before his first kill … both a portrait of evil and a story of the workers left ashore floundering to understand how they devoted their lives to a fiend”.

Into the Deep premiered at the Sundance film festival in January, and had been scheduled for release by the international streaming giant later this year.

However, two of the people filmed and the film’s cinematographer have withdrawn support for the film saying it would harm and be “a complete poison” to its subjects.

And on Wednesday, a source close to Netflix told the Guardian that they no longer had plans to release Into the Deep – but would not confirm whether it would eventually be released in an edited form.

One woman in the documentary, Anja Olsen, has said she never signed a release form to allow her footage to be used, and told the director and producers repeatedly she was suffering severe mental health effects due to the film’s impending wide release.

In portions of the film, as aired at Sundance, Madsen is shown threatening Olsen physically and writing that he would kill other volunteers in his workshop.

“I appear against my will as a participant in the documentary”, Olsen said on social media and in Danish media. “I repeatedly and unequivocally told the director Emma Sullivan that I did not want to participate, that it would endanger my health due to trauma I suffer following the murder case”. The second person filmed, who is objecting to the documentary, has chosen to remain anonymous.

A cinematographer on the film, Cam Matheson, told Guardian Australia he had also withdrawn his support for the film.

Matheson is calling on the director and producers to re-edit the film to remove the non-consenting people.

“I don’t understand why that wasn’t the decision made in the first place,” he said. “ I was nauseous for two days after the [Sundance] premiere ... I understand that true crime is extremely popular, but it has to kind of tear through us to get to you. It comes at a cost.”

Netflix, the director Emma Sullivan, and producers Ros Walker and Mette Heide, all declined to comment, but Sullivan previously told Danish magazine Ekko Film: “All the participants volunteered in the documentary and agreed to give interviews over a number of years ... I understand that some of them today feel very vulnerable, and I’m sorry that they feel that way. The healing process after a trauma like what we all went through is much longer than the two years that have passed. We are all still processing it in our own way, and it was hard for me to know how everyone wanted it when the film had its world premiere.”

She continued: “Most of the actors are still excited about the opportunity to tell their story in their own way, and I am very pleased that most are well pleased with my film.”

Matheson told Guardian Australia that there was “more than enough footage” of Madsen to create a version of the documentary without the two people who are now objecting to their involvement.

“I have shot seven feature films and worked in the industry for nine or 10 years,” he said. “I have never worked on a production that had this much useable footage. There is more than enough footage of Peter to make a 90-minute narrative ... that does not become a complete poison in the lives of at least two people, and will haunt them for the rest of their lives.”

Matheson said when he was initially brought onto the project, it was going to be “a series of short films about eccentric Scandinavian characters”. He and Sullivan interviewed Madsen about his plans to build a rocket to launch himself into sub-orbital space.

The team were filming Madsen and his staff in their workshop on 10 August 2017; according to Matheson, the court documents show Kim Wall arrived 15 minutes after they had left. That evening, Wall, a Swedish freelance journalist, boarded Madsen’s submarine in order to interview him. Soon after, Madsen was arrested for murder. Sullivan and her crew continued to film the reactions of Madsen’s volunteers during the investigation.

Matheson said he “didn’t have anything to do with the production” after December 2017. “I was quite heavily traumatised, I was diagnosed with an acute stress disorder in December and January,” he said. He supported the decision of the subjects to oppose the film.

“I see no problem with getting [the] two people, who are suffering from trauma … and consulting with them about what they are comfortable with,” he said.

“If they say ‘No, I don’t even want to see the raw footage’, that tells you everything you need to know about how traumatised they would be. And you cannot use that footage. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I have shot plenty of documentaries where we had entire subplots we cut out.”

While Netflix did not confirm whether an edited version of the film may be released by the streaming service, the company previously told Ekko: “Netflix takes the duty of care very seriously, which is why we hope to talk to Anja directly and listen to her concerns. A preliminary version was shown at Sundance, and work on the film is still under way.”