Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)

(AKA: Invasion Of The Flesh Hunters - Cannibals In The Streets)

My rating - 6.5/10

(click on images below for larger versions)

Two Vietnam vets are rescued from the clutches of the Viet Cong and brought back to America. They learned to survive on human flesh and now they're craving more as they roam the streets.

I've always had a fascination with this Italian shocker. Despite it's title and a handful of scenes involving cannibalism, I've always seen this as more of a strange rip off of David Cronenbergs Rabid with people who are bitten developing a need to attack others like a virus running through their system.

The acting for the most part is good with John Saxon and Giovanni Lombardo Radice being the standouts. The gore is pretty good with some nasty bittings, eyes gouged out and a show stopping scene of a stomach being blown out by a shotgun and the camera zooms in through the large hole. The action scenes are handled quite well and there's even a bit of quite eye opening sleaze involving Saxon's character and a young babysitter.

If you go into this expecting another Cannibal Holocaust then you're going to be very disappointed, instead look at it as an action/horror and it's not a bad effort. It managed to get prosecuted here in the UK and ended up becoming one of the infamous final 39 video nasties.

SCREEN SHOTS

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