Name: Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) review
Item: Cannibal Apocalypse
Rating: 4
Author: Darren Evanson

Cannibal Apocalypse (1980), aka Invasion of the Flesh Hunters, is written and directed by Antonio Margheriti under his pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson. He reused props and uniforms from his previous film The Last Hunter (1980) for the opening Vietnam War sequence. It stars John Saxon, Giovanni Lombardo Radice and Tony King, fresh from his role in The Last Hunter.

When three Vietnam vets return to Georgia, they carry a virus that makes them crave human flesh. Two of them, Joe (King) and the aptly named Charles Bukowski (Radice), are patients at a secure hospital. Norman Hopper (Saxon) lives a middle-class life with his TV reporter wife, but he is plagued by nightmares and hungry for raw meat. There is a sleazy subplot involving a flirtatious teenage neighbour, Mary (Cinzia De Carolis), whom Hopper bites when she makes eyes at him. She takes it as a sign of affection, but he knows his real urge was more than heavy petting. Meanwhile Bukowski, on day leave from the hospital, goes on a rampage, and this triggers a turn of events that leaves him, Joe and Hopper on the run with a recently infected nurse.

The Police Captain in charge of managing this mayhem has the best lines, including “I tell you something else, he will be singing out of his asshole when I get through with him” and my favourite of his, “OK boys, it’s time to shit or get off the pot.”

Cannibal Apocalypse is a bloody, no-holds-barred rampage across the city and in the sewers. When deadly flamethrowers are used in pursuit of the fugitives, it mirrors the opening scenes in Vietnam. Margheriti does not quite deliver the apocalypse, but there is plenty to sink your teeth into, and the dark ending leaves an uncertain future. When the Police Captain declares “the nightmare’s over”, he does not know that teenage Mary and her young brother carry the cannibalism virus and all hell is yet to break loose.

Critics praised the film for its action and gore. One commented that it “contains enough blood and gore to make Eurocult fans happy, including some graphic flesh munching, a French-kissing scene that will scare the hell out of you, and a shotgun blast that has to be seen to be believed.”

The soundtrack by the wonderfully named Alexander Blonksteiner is a swathe of mainly sparse, hard-boiled jazz funk when the action hits, and more subtle tones in moments of reflection on the horrors that are unfolding.

Personally, I think it is the best of the three big cannibal films of that era, which include Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and Umberto Lenzi’s Cannibal Ferox (1981), for moving the action from the jungle to the streets of Georgia.

Pull up to the table and tuck in. It is a messy and bizarre ride that should please those with a taste for these things.