Charlie Bukowski returns from Vietnam a changed man; he has witnessed the bloody treatment of his fellow soldiers and was a prisoner of war for some considerable time. Now back in the United States he is in serious trouble. The only person that Charlie can turn to is his old Captain Norman Hopper. In a desperate state he contacts Norman and asks him to meet with him at an indoor market in a busy area of town. Norman who was also a prisoner of war is a little reluctant to meet with Charlie; the memories of Vietnam are only now beginning to fade some years on. However sensing the terror in Charlie's voice he feels he owes it to his loyal soldier to at least meet with him.
Upon arrival at the shopping centre Norman discovers that carnage has hit the area. Charlie appears to have gone mad and there are some serious casualties. Unbeknown to Norman he holds the key to the problems Charlie is experiencing, and worse still he is about to start suffering the same problem.
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Cannibal Apocalypse is a terrible tease of a film, primarily because there is only one brief cannibal scene, not a horde of cannibals as you may expect from the title.. The "Cannibals" are suffering from a condition
closer to rabies than anything else. They don't eat there victims, although they do bite them with the intention of ending life.
Apocalypse was one of the first titles to be banned in 1984, for nearly 15 years the movie became a legend. With the arrival of DVD the film ended up slipping across the big pond to the UK. In fact it was one of the most imported horror titles in 2001. With this in mind the BBFC removed the film from the list figuring that if it's selling so well maybe the UK should benefit from the profits.
What nobody really took onboard was that despite the terrible legends that go along with the film, it's actually "Crap".
The storyline is clever to begin with, troops returning from Vietnam having been contaminated by a mysterious nerve agent. The effects taking place some time later, although there was a slight element of cannibalism caused by the agent while back in Vietnam, but this was due in the troops eyes mainly to the fact that they were starving and just happened to have a body to hand. The problem being was that the production team's story idea ended there, from the moment that Norman arrives at the market the story goes downhill. It's almost as if the team devised the story in the pub after a days shoot.
"Oh yes tomorrow we'll set Jack on fire!" - Director "Why set Jack On fire?" - Stuntman "Because he smells" - Director All agree in unison.
You know where I'm going!
Let's talk cast shall we? Firstly we have Giovanni Lombardo Radice who plays Charlie, Giovanni is an Italian legend. I had the good fortune to meet him once in London and he has the most bizarre teeth I have ever seen. Giovanni was the most sort after Italian actor of the early 1980's, never out of work and with the odd exception his movies are all titles you will have heard of although in a more notorious way. His first movie was Cannibal Apocalypse but he did go on to make a series of other illicit horror titles City Of The Living Dead, Cannibal Ferox, The House On The Edge Of The Park. In 2002 he became popular worldwide after his role in Gangs Of New York and has been busy ever since. Norman was played by John Saxon, John has made just fewer than 200 movies and has had major roles in a variety of TV shows, he is best remembered as the guy leading the hunt for The A-Team, and for his role as Nancy's father in A Nightmare On Elm Street. John now continues to be a regular in C.S.I. The rest of the cast consist of virtual unknowns, most of who never acted again after making this movie. The film is directed by Antonio Margheriti whose biggest movie had to be The Wild Geese.
Now let's leave the negative behind to talk of the positive, the DVD's Special Features:-
Redux is a special documentary bringing as many of the cast and crew members back as they could to discuss the film and the impact or lack of impact it had on their careers.
Apocolypse on the Streets takes you on a trip to all the locations used during the filming to see what changes had occurred after over 20 years.
An alternate opening scene gives the viewer an 8 minute insight into the true reason for all the problems, if they had kept this in the film it certainly would have been 8 minutes better off.
There are also a series of Essays showing how the movie had to be trimmed to be allowed into various countries and also explains about restoring the missing bits.
There is the usual photo galleries, biographies and film notes as well as a trailer fot the US Theatrical Release.
There are no alternate languages or subtitles.
You can buy Cannibal Apocalypse from Play.com for £4.99/
In summing up, if you are a horror enthusiast then this DVD makes a good addition to your collection, however if your chasing myths and legends prepare for a disappointment.
Pictures of Cannibal Apocalypse (aka Apocalypse Domani) (DVD)
Charlie gone mad
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A great review but a film that sounds, on the face of it, even though I admire Mr Bukowski's work , to be far too grim and scary for me. Cheers Sweary.
VampirePrincessLizzy 26.02.2006 10:23
Old films are great to watch. great review xxlizzyxx
Cannibal Apocalypse is one of the most heavily censored films of all time and has been ... more
previously banned in the UK due to its notoriety as one of the most gruesome and gut wrenching cannibal films of all time.On his return from the Vietnam War, Norman ...
![Cannibal Apocalypse [DVD] [1980]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78496013.jpg "Cannibal Apocalypse [DVD] [1980]")
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