Apocalypse domani

A cannibal-movie that actually tries and succeeds to be different. This movie transcends the cannibal genre and becomes something else. You'll have to get past the silly & inept Vietnam opening-scene, but then this movie turns into an urban tale of virus-outbreak. A cannibal-virus, that is. There's some violence, there's some drama, there's some nudity, there's some very nice gore and there are four cannibal-fugitives on the run. Awesome mixture that works! Add to that a satisfying ending, and we've got a hit! A hit with John Saxon in it, no less. "Cannibal Apocalypse" indeed feels, at times, a bit like Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), but the one movie that kept coming to my mind was David Cronenberg's "Rabid" (1977). So if you're tired of all those "half naked cannibals eating human flesh and slaughtering animals in the jungle"-flicks, and if Umberto Lenzi's "Nightmare City" (1980) just made you laugh instead of anything else, then go watch Antonio Margheriti's "Cannibal Apocalypse" (aka "Invasion of the Flesh Hunters"). And make 100% sure you get a hold of the uncut version.

While on a mission to rescue two servicemen captured by the Viet Cong, "Captain Norman Hopper" (John Saxon) is bitten by one of these men when he attempts to pull him from the pit. Afterward both of the men are committed to a psychiatric hospital while Captain Hopper is allowed to return to civilian life. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there as one of the men named "Charlie Bukowski" (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) is temporarily released and not long afterward suddenly goes berserk which results in the deaths of at least two people. Then upon being returned to the psychiatric hospital he and the other serviceman by the name of "Tom Thompson" (Tony King) manage to escape along with a nurse named "Helen" (May Heatherly) who was bitten by one of them and shares the same craving for human flesh as they do. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly decent type of "zombie film" even though it didn't necessarily fit the technical parameters for that particular sub-genre. The acting was decent and the plot moved along quite well. In any case, for what it's worth I liked the movie and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

This is a movie that follows a lot of the conventions of a zombie movie, the main difference being that instead of being dead, these flesh-eaters are alive, just taken over by a virus that turns them into deranged cannibals. It's an interesting concept, and this film features a lot of interesting scenes that you just don't see portrayed too often, such as a bizarre molestation in a film theater, and a long, tense standoff with a crazed gunman in a resale store.

This movie shows the influence of Dawn of the Dead all over it, from the resale store biker rampage and standoff to the final scenes, in which a group of four with the exact same gender/ethnic makeup as in DotD hole up against outside invaders. The interesting twist this time is that THEY are the pursued flesh-eaters, rather than the other way around.

This movie, while having rich and deep cheese deposits, also actually has some quality to it. It sustains a creepy and tense tone tied around John Saxon's growing obsession with consuming human flesh, and his struggle and fear about giving into those impulses. Saxon carries off his 'upright soldier' persona so well that one both empathizes with his struggle, and fears what will happen once his intensity is channeled into being evil. The direction is actually very good, with many shots carefully composed to create and sustain a great deal of tension and menace. And then there's just the story, which covers the first days of a viral outbreak as it begins to spread and people begin to wake up to what is going on, which is also pretty fascinating.

There's also an additional layer of tension to the movie (compared to a traditional zombie movie) in that after someone's been bitten, you aren't sure WHEN they will start turning into a crazed flesh-eater. In a regular zombie movie, they're dead until they wake up again, here they're a normal person until suddenly they just snap, which is cool.

Though this is supposed to be an 'extreme gore classic,' it's pretty tame by today's standards. When your big gore payoff shot has been done to comic effect in Death Becomes Her, the edge is pretty much gone.

Okay, now onto the individually delightful cheese elements: Stock helicopter footage opens the picture. There should be some kind of film festival of movies that incorporate unrelated stock footage, the supreme champion obviously being Hell of the Living Dead.

A guy pets a dog with an obvious explosive around its neck. He explodes—and then the funky disco music begins! What's more, the music was actually pretty good! Please note: potential cannibals should not keep huge slabs of unwrapped bloody meat in their fridge. I mean, obviously everyone does, but if you suffer from cannibalistic tendencies… A young girl comes onto John Saxon (who wouldn't?) by wanting to borrow a hair dryer. Her hair is not wet. She then reveals herself as an unhinged psychotic while blowing him (um, with the dryer) while he's trying to have an important phone conversation (with another unhinged psychotic), which would earn a punch in the mouth from me (but I am not susceptible to nubile vixens). Motorcycle chase in warehouse/resale store! Hard-bitten detective asks about mad gunman: "Is he subversive? Queer? Black? Commie?" Uptight mother advises daughter to stop "acting like a hussy!" They set real rats on fire! That's not nice.

There are EXTENSIVE background materials on the DVD, one of which tells two interesting stories: 1) That John Saxon couldn't understand enough of the script (badly translated from Italian) to know that he was in an extreme gore flick, and 2) Radice tells an incredible story about refusing to kill a real pig, leading to his "accidentally" almost severing an assistant's hand with a meat cleaver. Oops. But the docs get boring pretty quickly.

Hey, there are lot of other reviews of bad and cheesy movies (plus a lot of good movies) on my website, Cinema de Merde, which you can find through the URL in my email address.

John Saxon has spoken out against this movie many times and seems ashamed for having been involved in it. The way he goes on about it you would think that he was tricked into making an exploitation movie via some kinda 'Caligula'-esque ruse. But all I can say is a)just look at Saxon's career. I love the guy but c'mon, 'Queen Of Blood', 'Enter The Dragon', 'Mitchell', 'The Bees' and 'Battle Beyond The Stars' aren't exactly Jean Luc Godard, know what I'm saying? And b) I think if you sign up for a movie that involves Vietnam vets infected with a "cannibal virus" you kinda KNOW what you're getting in for, don't you think?

'Cannibal Apocalypse' attempts to cash in on both the 70s Italian cannibal cycle started by Deodato, and the the success of 'The Deerhunter' and 'Apocalypse Now'. It is absolutely stupid in concept, above average in execution, and isn't totally successful because of its timidity in showing disturbing in your face gore. I like the way Saxon and most of the others play the ludicrous material with a straight face, but unfortunately there are too many dull sections and not enough cannibalism! The movie begins well enough in the all too brief Vietnam sequence, but never lives up to the promise shown in the first ten minutes. It's quickly downhill all the way after that, only rescued by one or two blackly humorous scenes. What you end up with is a half-baked Romero rip-off. I say go straight to 'Dawn Of The Dead' or 'The Crazies'.

With a title like CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, one might go into this movie expecting an all-out war between humanity and roving bands of flesh-eaters, seeking out human snacks. Well, that would have been great. Instead, we get a few hungry people chomping on a few necks.

John Saxon is serviceable as the Vietnam vet plagued by anthropophagic flashbacks about his former military comrades. Also, the idea of a viral, cannibalistic epidemic is a good one, hearkening back to Cronenberg's RABID. So, the story isn't bad, as long as you don't expect it to live up to it's overblown title...