Films That Witness Madness

review

CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE

CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE is a weird little film that works despite all it's problems. Oddly paced and sloppily constructed, the narrative seems about to unravel at any moment. Consider the flow of events. We start in Vietnam with John Saxon rescuing two of his men from a Vietnamese village. From there we move quickly to a cops and robber style shootout at a flea market. Then it's a quick dose of melodrama, followed by an escape from an asylum, a full-on brawl between our "heroes" and a group of bikers, then a final descent into a sewer - a la THE THIRD MAN, albeit with exploding chests, flame throwers, and bloodthirsty cannibals. Then we conclude with an utterly depressing denouement. There's enough material here for at least three movies but CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE just lumps all these events together and crosses it's fingers. It's ever-shifting narrative is, really, it's savior. You simply never have the chance to be bored.

CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE is a strange title for this movie. It's utterly misleading. As is often the case with genre pictures, the title makes a promise it doesn't deliver on. While many people balk at the film's premise - a virus that causes an uncontrollable urge to devour human flesh - it's really no different than any zombie film premise. All you have to do is replace the walking dead with Vietnam vets and you have the same sort of picture. CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE is more of an action film than a horror film. A good deal of the action is devoted to chase scenes, fist fights and shoot-outs. The few scenes of cannibalism we are treated to are little more than insert shots of people biting necks. This is a film that will utterly disappoint the gore crowd - it never does live up to the whole "apocalypse" thing - but will more than satisfy the action crowd. I for one was a little shocked that the DVD I saw was actually labeled "unrated cut". There's nothing here that wouldn't pass by the MPAA board untouched today.

Much of the film's success rests squarely on the shoulders of John Saxon. In a performance that far exceeds the material, Saxon alone turns CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE into a good film. Mid-divorce and in debt at the time, Saxon funnels his inner turmoil into a performance that is remarkably sad and utterly believable. There's a strange pathos in his performance and it is carried out with such dignity and conviction that all of the downright bizarre nonsense of the film is somehow alleviated. Never a poor-man's anybody, Saxon shows that, even when surrounded by lackluster material, he was always more than capable of shining. His counterpart, a far more crazed veteran with an even worse case of the munchies, is played by the always great Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Their pairing is casting gold. While Saxon's turn is mostly somber and downright serious, Radice's performance is a staggering lesson in barely caged fury. One of the more talented character actors working in Italian genre film, Radice was the perfect choice for the role.

Behind it all is the amazingly talented Antonio Margheriti, a director of some of the most enjoyable genre films to come out of Italy. Among his varied filmography are gems like CASTLE OF BLOOD, THE LONG HAIR OF DEATH, THE VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG, THE LAST HUNTER, and a pair of gialli, NAKED YOU DIE and SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE. A director unfairly robbed of the opportunity to work on bigger films with bigger budgets, Margheriti has a visually distinct style and knows a thing or two about how to direct action sequences. Though not enthused with the screenplay he was directing, Margheriti nevertheless created a good looking film that doesn't take itself too seriously - though the message of CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, that violence breeds violence, is a serious one indeed - and doesn't wallow in the deeper depths of exploitation. For a film created solely to cash in on the cannibal craze that was sweeping through the Italian genre industry, CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE remains fun throughout, a wacked-out diversion from the sadistic excesses of the genre that gave it it's name.

Recommended.

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