Cannibal Apocalypse

Alternate titles : The Cannibals are in the Streets, Cannibals in the Street, Cannibals in the City, Cannibal Apocalipsis, Apocalypse Domani, Apocalipse Cannibal, Apocalipsis Caníbal, Cannibal Massacre, Hunter of the Apocalypse, Savage Apocalypse, The Slaughterers, Savage Slaughterers, Invasion of the Flesh Hunters, Virus.

Tagline : "POW's in Vietnam, Starved in captivity, Released with a taste for human flesh."

Somewhat different to the other cannibal movies produced by Italian film makers during the early 80's, this film was actually shot in the US city of Atlanta and concerns the antics of a few ex-army Vietnam veterans who've developed a taste for human flesh.

Horror veteran John Saxon stars as ex-US army officer Norman Hopper, who's been having a bit of trouble adjusting back to normal life after serving in the Vietnam war. Plagued with nightmares about a rescue mission, where some POW's, caged in a bamboo trap bit him on the arm. He suddenly finds himself developing a taste for raw meat himself, and keeps getting overwhelming urges to bite people. As he does when the neighbours 16 year old daughter pops round to borrow the hairdryer (oooo-eeeerrrr missus).

The real fun begins when his old ex-army friend Charlie Bukowski (played by video nasty regular John Morghen) is released from psychiatric care, only to go out and bite a great chunk out of some girls neck in a cinema. He subsequently gets chased into a nearby shopping complex by an angry mob, where he grabs a shotgun and then goes on the rampage against them.

Norman's doctor starts to run some tests on him and Charlie, and discovers that the cannibalistic urges they've been getting are the result of a rabies-like virus they contracted in Nam, and is spread by biting. But this discovery comes too late to prevent Norman from busting Charlie back out of the hospital, along with some of their other ex-combat partners, and heading off into the city on a flesh hunt!

A few hospital workers and a bike gang are amongst the first victims, along with some garage mechanics, one of which gets his arm cut up with a circular saw for them to munch on (lovely!). But by now the cops have found out what's happening and are quick to respond, chasing the cannibalistic clan into the sewers where a final shootout takes place with shotguns and flamethrowers (talk about being heavy handed).

Directed by Antonio Margheriti, this is actually quite a good action movie and is definitely not your standard Italian exploitation pic. The special effects by Gainetto Di Rossi are very good, especially the scene where John Morghen gets a football sized shotgun blast hole through his chest. Great stuff indeed!!!

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• John Saxon agreed to appear in the movie as he initially thought it was a film about the effects of combat shock on war veterans and didn't realise it was meant to be an exploitive cannibal pic until after he had already committed himself. He subsequently lost all further interest in the film, refused to appear in the scene where the others are snacking on a dead garage mechanic and to this day,has never bothered to see it and says the fact that it was banned in the UK was fine with him.
• The film's budget was $75,000.
• Special effects man Gianetto Di Rossi also worked on the Lucio Fulci zombie pics "House by the Cemetery", "City of the Living Dead", "The Beyond" and the infamous "Zombie Flesh-Eaters".
• Tony King, who plays Charlie's friend Tom, was a prolific actor in Blaxploitation films, having appeared in"Shaft", "Hell up in Harlem" and "Bucktown". He also appeared in numerous Italian films, including director Antonio Margheriti's "Tiger Joe" and "The Last Hunter".
• John Morghen (or Giovanni Lombardo Radice as he is also known) was a regular star in Italian exploitation films during the late 70's/early 80's and has probably starred in more "Video Nasties" than any other actor. He also featured in Lucio Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" and Umberto Lenzi's infamous "Cannibal Ferox". He has also worked with Dario Argento in "The Church" and "The Sect", although nowadays he has a more distinguished career acting in Italian theatre.
• The film Charlie (John Morghen) is watching in the cinema was the 1979 war film "From Hell to Victory" by Umberto Lenzi, which co-incidentally starred may Heatherly who plays the nurse in this.
• The film was available uncut on UK video back in the early 80, but unfortunately found it's way onto the government's "Video Nasties" list, and the distributors were successfully prosecuted for obscenity. The film was finally re-released in the UK in 2005, but the BBFC cut out a brief 1-2 second shot during the 'sewer shootout' in which some rats get splattered with burning napalm, as they felt this was in breach of the "Cruelty to Animals" act. The Horror Channel however have (inadvertantly) screened the full uncut version.
• The old UK pre-cert VHS had a slightly different intro-title sequence, which had the films title in white, rather than red, lettering. And the scene showing the twin-rotored Chinook helipcoptors flying into battle was instead replaced with a scene showing single rotored Hueys taking off.
• The old Australian VHS release from Palace cut out the scene showing the dead garage mechanic getting carved up with a circular saw. The old US VHS release, entitled "Invasion of the Flesh Hunters" cut out most of the gore. The film was released uncut to US DVD in 2002.

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