What can I say about Cannibal Apocolypse. Well, it has John Saxon (Black Christmas, Tenebrae, Nightmare on Elm Street) in it and if you watch Horror and Grindhouse films, then you are likely a fan of his work. OK, check. That's cool.
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| John Saxon - Careful it may bite! |
It's directed by Antonio Marheriti who Co-Directed Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Wow, AW Frankenstein was good, so another check. Seems to be shaping up to be a good movie.
It's written by Dardano Sacchetti who wrote Demons, The Beyond, and Zombie…not really known for their excellent scripts, but all three good movies. OK, I'm interested. Tell me more. Tell me more.
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| Giovanni Lambardo Radice |
It also has Giovanni Lambardo Radice who will appear in 2 more Video Nasties to come down the pike, House on the Edge of the Park, Cannibal Ferox.
It cross pollinates 2 popular genres of the time, the Vietnam Vet Picture with the Cannibal sub-genre. Sounds like that could be really nasty. The Vet pictures of the war veterans returning home to a life of shit mixed with a gritty, dirty, sleazy cannibal movie. Dude! Love the concept.
One of the few Italian exploitation films to shoot in the good ol' US of A. It was shot in Atlanta.
It's got gore, disgusting images, decent characters, It's got some good scenes, It's got a great concept. So what went wrong. It ultimately ends up being a very uneven film with some good pieces, but never works as a whole film. The possibilities of the concept were wasted and ultimately it ends up being what it is, an exploitation film to capture your money. Think about it. The horrors of war and all the psychological damage that war veterans experience and bring home with them is transfigured through the concept of cannibalism. In the hands of someone like Cronenberg this could have been brilliant. Unfortunately I think the film even fails to be that entertaining. The pacing is off, the plot never really takes off like it should. I guess there are at least a couple of cool scenes and John Saxon is good. So its not a total waste of time, just not that good even by Exploitation standards.
The print was a little faded, but color still remained.
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