Fantastic!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"Cannibal Apocalypse" is a tedious, pointless waste of time that offers no apocalypse and barely any cannibalism.In fact it is barely even a horror movie: there's only one scene late in the movie that registers as a possible source of tension and the violence is actually really minimal.The movie is something about a group of Vietnam vets getting a disease that makes them cannibals. The character played by John Saxon is a vet who may be going psycho himself. There is an interminable sequence early in the movie where one of these crazy veterans - named Charles Bukowski(?) - is holed up in a store he tried to rob shooting at police. So the disease makes you eat people, but also try to rob stores?The movie has this oddly distancing feeling to it. Saxon being the hero who may also be about to join the bad guys should be a source of dramatic tension, but is not explored. The movie is more like long, tedious shots of a city with the odd violent moment thrown in.

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.

Vietnam vet Norman Hopper (John Saxon) has suddenly begun to relive the nightmare of war in his dreams. He receives a phone call from an old army friend, Charlie Buckowski, that he rescued in Nam, Buckowski and another man Tom Thompson had been found in a Viet Cong prison with a craving for human flesh and both had since been in a mental hospital for psychological analysis. Hopper turns down the offer of meeting his old mate as he is struggling with demons of his own, he believes his wife may be an adulteress, he is also attracted to the very young girl next door and more importantly he is stressed at his increasing craving for raw meat and blood. Buckowski goes on a shooting rampage and kills a few people and is locked up again, but then escapes along with Thompson and he urges Hopper to help them escape the city. Saxon a fluent Italian speaker and a veteran of many Italian films, jumped at the chance of working with the great Margheriti and was immediately impressed by the directors rapport with actors and his talent behind the camera, Saxon was also attracted by the seemingly novel idea that war might be spread by a virus, he was shocked though when during filming he suddenly realised that the virus was a cannibalistic one and he refused to be in any of the scenes containing such acts. For those who like the adventure aspect of a jungle set Cannibal film, this might disappoint slightly, except for a few flashbacks this is entirely set in Atlanta and plays more like a Nam Vet action film with some gore on the side. Still though, the characters are interesting and time is given to their development, Saxon impresses as the troubled Hopper, which is hardly surprising, but he may have been helped somewhat by his depression at the time, due primarily to financial problems he had after the break-up of his marriage. His fellow actors including John Morghen recount that he was rather aloof and distant and not much fun during filming. Margheriti was renowned for his period set Gothic costume dramas and Cannibal Apocalypse was a big change of style for him, gone are all his trademark stylings and in come the more appropriate washed out colours and a steely grey look of the city. The gore is for the most part pretty tame by genre standards but its still effective. The faux disco score was tacky as hell and at times seemed inappropriate to the visuals, but this is still a fun film, and is recommend to fans of the genre

I am a great fan of director Antonio Margheriti, whose impressive repertoire includes brilliant Horror as well as great Spaghetti Westerns. His doubtlessly greatest film is the Gothic masterpiece "Danza Macabra" aka. "Castle of Blood" of 1964, starring the great Barbara Steele, followed by the brilliant revenge Western "E Dio disse A Caino" ("And God said to Cain", 1970) with Klaus Kinski, and "La Vergine Di Norimberga" ("Castle of Terror", 1963"). Even though not one of his masterpieces, "Apocalypse Domani" aka. "Cannibal Apocalypse" of 1980 is an original and highly entertaining film. This is quite different to other Italian Cannibal movies that are set in the jungle, as it takes place in the city almost entirely (only the first five minutes take place in the Vietnamese jungle). This film was banned in several countries after its release, but it is not nearly as gruesome as one might expect. It is full of nauseating gore, no doubt, but compared to other contemporary Cannibal-films such as "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980), "Cannibal Ferox (1981) ore "Eaten Alive" (1980), "Cannibal Apocalypse" is actually quite tame."Cannibal Apocalypse" is about a mysterious virus that gives people an irresitible hunger for human flesh. American soldiers have been infected with the virus in Vietnam, and have brought it back home with them... The greatest aspect of "Cannibal Apocalypse" is arguably the brilliant casting of John Saxon and Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Saxon is, as always, great in his typical stoic manner. The best performance, however, comes from Radice who is once again excellent in his role here. Giovanni Lombardo Radice enjoys a deserved cult-status among fans of Italian Horror/Gore films and his role here perfectly illustrates why - his character (of the name Charles Bukowski!) is one of the first infected with the cannibal virus, and Radice excellently portrays the Vietnam veteran's blood-lust and insanity. The film often resembles a Zombie-flick more than the Cannibal-flicks of the time. The people infected, however, are not brain-dead flesh-eaters, but intelligent, thinking people - only with the unconquerable hunger for human flesh... One of the greatest elements of Italian Cannibal flicks were their scores, and even not quite typical, Alexander Blonkensteiner's score is great. "Cannibal Apocalypse" may not be one of the greatest Italian Cannibal films, but it is definitely highly original. Lovers of Italian Horror/Gore cinema can not afford to miss this!