RELEASE DATE: 1980
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider -11/27/08
Sloppy gunfights peruse along with things being unnecessarily burned down by the flamethrower guy. Things get a little odd when two American POWs end up grabbing a villager. They proceed to eat her like a fast food burger. The guys discover the two POWs and Hopper notes he knows them both. However, the guys have turned into cannibalistic maniacs. One of the actually proceeds to take a chunk of hopper�s arm. However, the film does the Patrick Duffy exit and we find out its all part of an elaborate dream Hopper is having.
Hopper is comforted by his wife Jane and sets out for a pill of some sort. He does happen to have a scar on his forearm presumably from the event in his nightmare. By the way, I�m holding back on Freddy Krueger jokes as much as I can right now when it comes to Saxon. Hopper skips the pills and heads to the fridge for a glass of milk. He notes some meat dripping blood in there and becomes enthralled with it. I�m guessing ecoli is a popular ingredient in their house.
Jane heads out for a drive later in the day and runs into a fellow named Phil who is some sort of psychiatrist. She tells him of Hopper�s nightmare and he jumps in the car so they can talk further about it. Phil was apparently romantically involved with Jane at one point and really offers not helpful advice. Cut to Hopper who is flying an RC plane with a young boy. Why we need to know that, I�m not sure.
This scene cuts to a fellow name Charlie Bukowski who is leaving a mental hospital for nervous disorders, or so a really awful superimposed image tells us anyhow. Why do we need to know that, well conveniently Jane pulls in with Phil who explains. Bukowski and a fellow named Tom Thompson are under Phil�s care. These two actually are the two cannibals in the Vietnamese pit from the begging. Phil leaves Jane when he is called in by a nurse. By the way, since he is an MD, that makes him Dr. Phil from now on in this review. How much pleasure will that give me to type constantly.
Back with Hopper who is joined by a rather horny young lady named Mary looking to borrow a hair dryer. Hopper leaves the kid (who is Mary�s brother) outside to crash the model RC. When he get inside, the young lady comes on to him which he refuses. Then out of nowhere he gets a phone call from Bukowski. Hopper changes his mind about Mary and starts to do some diddling. However, from the look on her face at the end of the scene it goes rather bad quickly. Mary eventually runs home to her mother looking quite perturbed.
We join up with Bukowski who somewhat saves two young lady joggers from a few hoodlums. He stumbles upon a theater poster for a movie called From Hell To Victory. Figuring it can�t be any worse than the movie he is currently in, he pops in the theater to view it. During the show, a young couple sit in front of him and get way past third base. Bukowski apparently doesn�t like this blatant show of exhibitionism and takes a hunk out of the young lady�s neck. He bolts from the theater with a rather angry mob after them.
Meanwhile, Jane is wrapping up a television show when she learns of a Vietnam vet on a rampage. Being a good wife she assumes it is her husband and calls him. Hopper answers to her relief and he says he knows who it may be. Hopper heads out but is greeted by Mary who claims no one has ever bit her like he did. Hmmm�kinky Hopper gets down to the crime scene and is allowed in by McCoy to negotiate. Also showing up on the scene is Dr. Phil who talks about his patient turning into a nut bar and Jane who acts concerned. Hopper fishes around inside for Bukowski for a bit until he confronts him face to face. Bukowski chastises Hopper for a bit about not caring about him but eventually gets led out by Hopper to the authorities. Bukowski gets hauled off in an ambulance after biting a chunk of an officer�s finger off.
Hopper drives home with Jane and decides to look in Mary�s window. He acts ashamed and turns away from her to collect some wood. What a player. Meanwhile at the funny farm, Bukowski gets dropped off and immediately he non-verbally conspires with his cannibal teammate Thompson to start a riot. Thompson takes a hunk of a nurse named Helen�s leg before the scuffle is over. Helen gets treated to and passes out for a bit. Back to Hopper who admits to his wife his odd chomping of Mary. He admits he feels he is going insane and Jane comforts him. Apparently biting a teenager is forgivable.
The film jumps once again back to the happy home where Bukowski and Thompson are sleeping in a drug induced state. Dr. Phil arrives and gives Jane a call about the situation. Apparently all these folks are suffering from a disease like rabies. He suggests to Jane that she bring Hopper in for a checkup. That and she should be away from him for awhile. I think he�s being a bit of a c*ck block personally. Jane is unaware that Hopper is listening on the other end. As she tries to sneak out of the house, she is met up by Hopper who isn�t acting like himself. He tells her he is heading off to the hospital on his own.
Over at the police station, McCoy hears the low down of the Bukowski situation from the bitten police officer. Apparently Bukowski had a bite to eat in the form of the guard he shot. McCoy insists they find Dr. Phil and talk over the situation. Cut to a bar where Dr. Phil and Jane are talking. Dr. Phil theorizes that cannibalism has somehow turned into a virus and is being transmitted by bite. Jane, echoing my sentiments, basically doesn�t understand how that�s possible.
Cut to Dr. Phil who is riding in an ambulance with McCoy. They are taking a victim of the infected officer to the hospital. When Dr. Phil leans in to take a look he almost gets bitten and gets scratched on the neck for his efforts. Back to Helen who actually helps Bukowski and Thompson escape from their restraints. An attendant notes this but is taken out by who else but Hopper. The group MacGyvers some explosives and head out for a cannibalistic night on the town or something.
The cannibals� first stop is a garage where they kill off the owner and ditch their vehicle. Bukowski proceeds to cut up the garage owner over an oddly placed 70s �wooka chicka� guitar line. The group depart but are met with hostility by the local street gang. Long story short, after a few eye gouges and throats bitten the cannibals end up on top. However, the cops arrive to break up the scuffle. After a brief firefight the cannibals escape into the sewer. Meanwhile, McCoy arrives with more cops and sets up an assault plan.
All this leads to a rather drawn out subterranean search and destroy mission. Not much of anything happens until Helen freaks out and gets gunned down when she runs out of the cannibals� hiding place. Then a dude with a flamethrower arrives because nothing works better in a watery environment than fire. Um yeah�the cannibals run for it again and eventually come upon a gate. Bukowski has some trouble getting through and has a hole blown in him, quite literally. Hopper is wounded in the firefight as well.
Cannibal Apocalypse is standard foreign horror for it�s time. You have the plethora of gore mixed with a bit of an insufficient plotline. In other words, the gore is more memorable than any story or message (was there one?) conveyed. Saxon, who I always felt was a legend in our counter film culture, really draws nothing from the script making his character more one dimensional than a finger painting. Using Vietnam as a background for the cannibals seemed a bit inappropriate as well. Almost, dare I say, tasteless if you ask me.
Still as already mentioned, Cannibal Apocalypse knows what it was out to deliver and that was shock value. Tongues get bit off, eyes get gouged, entrails get gnawed on and the film wastes no time getting to it. However, I�ve said it before and I�ll say it again, gore doesn�t always make a movie on it�s own. Take Evil Dead 2 for instance. You had the gore but you also had a great performance by Bruce Campbell making the whole thing entertaining. Sadly, all Cannibal Apocalypse only has the gore and after awhile the blood red turns into shades of gray in my memory.
Well we hope you enjoyed our main course of human entrails for the day. Now head on over to Tomb Of Anubis and Badmovies.org for a little more to eat.
