Invasion of the Flesh Hunters (1981)

Very disappointing...

Sorry, this movie sucks

Just what I expected

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"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.

In this Italian horror classic, the war in 'Nam drove some people so mad they turn into cannibals. Like rabies, cannibalism is contracted through a bite and spread to others. This is a great premise for a horror film I think, but sold somewhat short due to inconsistent storytelling and a low budget. Even so director Antonio Marghetiti made an interesting and entertaining horror flick. Mostly a horrific post war cannibal movie, there is a good deal of action here also. John Saxon is the lead and gives a very, grim, somber performance. Frequent Italian horror actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice is cool here also as crazed vet ''Charles Bukowski". Although very controversial for the time for gore and violence other cannibal movies like Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox are way more nasty then this. I would say this has much more in common with Dawn Of The Dead and Rabid, but with less money and less talent than George Romero and David Cronenberg. In summary Cannibal Apocalpse is a flawed ,but original war/horror flick. Cool movie in my opinion.

On a rescue mission in Vietnam, Norman Hopper (John Saxon) is bitten by two of his old drinking buddies Charlie (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) and Tom (Tony King) who are trapped in a pit and are feasting on the flesh of a charred Vietnamese woman when they are discovered. Back home, Norman is haunted by his memories, and has a strange urge to bite people. Charlie calls Norman after recently being released from hospital and wants to meet up, but before Norman can act, Charlie manages to kill some people and finds himself cornered and barricaded in a mall. Soon enough, more people are infected with this strange virus that seems to cause cannibalistic urges.Another cannibal/zombie cash-in that was riding the wave caused by Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) and George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), Cannibal Apocalypse attempts to blend the two horror sub- genre's but ends up being a bit of a mess. I never thought I would say this, but there is too little cannibalism, and certainly no apocalypse. There are brief moments of horror surrounded by long moments of police procedural and our flesh-hungry heroes running through sewers. The one saving grace is John Saxon, recognisable from many B-movie turd-fests, he provides a welcome familiar American face in this mainly Italian production from horror and western 'legend' Antonio Margheriti. Yet the film is entertaining enough to waste 90 minutes of your life on, and thankfully avoids being as unpleasant as other cannibal entries such as Cannibal Ferox (1981 - also starring Radice).www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

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