"Cannibal Apocalypse" it's a cult film for directors like Quentin Tarantino, who several times have talked about Antonio's work and specially this film in various interviews, saying:"My friends and I love and appreciates Antonio Margheriti's movies, masteripieces like "Castle of Blood", "The Long Hair of Death" and "Cannibal Apocalypse" one of his best films ever. (this interview appear on the Italian magazine "Ciak" special edition for the Cannes Festival - May 2004). Antonio was very surprised for the interest and success regarding this film, which didn't was one of his favourites. For his opinion was too much violent and Splatter. In fact, Antonio never like to shown a lot of blood, open wounds, flesh mashed or other "splatter" scenes, all things of which this film was full from the first frame to the last one. Antonio always liked to meka use of the special effects to create a scary atmosphere, but without showing much.

Futhermore, apart of Tony King and Giovanni Lombardo Radice (accredited in the titles as John Morghen), Antonio was not even happy about the rest of the cast, who was already been chosen by the producers before his commitment. "Cannibal Apocalypse" was entirely shot in Atlanta, Georgia, the city of "Gone with the wind", but, our was a film slightly different, and I do not think that we left a good impressions between the neighborhood of the two house we've used for shooting. 

The sequence of the sewer was completely build on stage in Rome, on the "De Paolis" studios. It was a very beautiful location, constructed inside on of the tank of Stage three. Amazing was the scene when Tony King died burned alive (a curiosity: the US soldier with the flamethrower who kills him it's me), and also very effective is the special effect on Bukowsky (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) when it's been shot from a cop with two shot gun's blast, while he's turned, and the cop can be seen between the hole made by the shot in Bukowsky's chest. (An effect which will be used years after by Robert Zemeckis in his dark comedy "Death Becomes Her", where the marvelous actress Meryl Streep it can be seen through the hole in the chest of Goldie Hawn to who she just shot with a rifle. A scene which surely was insipred to the director on tho the screenwriters by this film of Antonio Margheriti). The effect in "Cannibal Apocalypse" did not came as Antonio tough, but only at seventy percent, and in fact Antonio wasn't satisfied (but when he was really?), anyway the scene result very effective on screen.

Title

Cannibal Apocalypse

Aka

Apocalypse Domani (Ita) Savage Apocalypse - The Slaughterers (UK) Cannibals in the streets - Invasion of the Flesh Hunters (USA)  Virus (Spa)

Director

Antonio Margheriti (Anthony M. Dawson)

Story by

Dardano Sacchetti

Maurizio Amati

Screenwriter

Dardano Sacchetti

Photography by

Fernando Arribas

Costume Designer

Lucy Morrison

Editor

Giorgio Serralonga

Music by

Alessandro Blocksteiner

Cast

John Saxon

Role

Norman

Tony King

Thompson

Giovanni Lombardo Radice

Bukowsky

Elizabeth Turner

Jane

Cinzia De Carolis

Mary

Venantino Venantini

Police Officer

Story

During the Vietnam War, two American soldiers, Bukowski and Thompson, captured by the enemy, are imprisoned from weeks in a pit on the ground. During a rescue attack from a division commanded by Captain Hopper (John Saxon), a Vietcong woman comes burnt alive by a flamethrower and falls in the pit. The two prisoners, become mad by weeks of starves, jump on her and start to eaten her flesh still alive. When Hopper discovers them and stretches an hand to help them out, they even bites him. 

Hopper wakes up from the nightmare, few years are passed since that episode which continues to come back in his dreams. The man, now a civilian, lives in the peaceful Atlanta, in a nice and isolated house, together with his wife, Jane, a beautiful blonde journalist. 

Bukowski (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) it will be the first to reveal the symptoms of the virus (this is one of the titles of the Spanish release) attacking and killing some bikers, destroying also a department store. During the arrest, he also bite the hand of one of the police officer, propagating the infection. 

This event awake also in Thompson and Hopper, which are both infected, their anthropophagus fury. In the hospital where are Bukowski and Thompson, a woman doctor remain infected and help them to escape. 

Curiosity 

by: Edoardo Margheriti

This has been the first film I've made as Assistant Director of Antonio, and I have some very nice memory about it. We entirely shoot this picture in Atlanta, Georgia finding some excellent locations, in complex was an easy film and I don't remember distinctive problems. Many instead are the amusing memoirs, like the notable difference in height between the actress Elizabeth Turner and John Saxon (she was tall over six feet, he was not) thing which forced her to work almost always, or at least whenever she was near the leading actor, without shoes. Or sometimes we build up a sort of little walkway, made by wooden platform tall couple of inches where the other actors were walking by. 

There is a scene where some youngsters are chasing Bukowski, and a guy throw a ball which brakes the glass of a store. To do the effects without danger for the actor, the production change the glass of the showcase with a tempered crystal, that would explode in thousand fragments very easily. All of us, during the preparation of the set, were very cautious and try not even to touch the "fragile" crystal. Then we start shooting...We had to repeat the scene for about a dozen times, the crystal seemed to be unbreakable. At the end was resolved by Sergio Profili our key grip, (a very good friend of Antonio and mine) which, hiding under the frame and snug by a big black cloth, when he saw arrive the ball that should have broken through the glass, it struck with a powerful hit of hammer, and the scene succeeded at the first try. Sergio was a man incredibly strong, the only person I've ever seen unscrew a rusty bolt by hands.

I Remember that I've also played a small part, the first police officer that comes infected by the virus and bite a woman police officer on her tits. Fortunately I was dying almost immediately. Antonio likes to put persons from the crew in his films, for secondary roles. Probably because we were every day on set, so if he had an idea of a new shot or scene, we can put on a costume and go.. I believe that I'm appeared in at least eight or nine of his film, and almost in all of them I've been killed, always in a very bloody way. Like in "The Last hunter" where I've been hit by a Vietcong trap filled of bamboo spikes. Sometimes I thought that maybe Antonio wanted to get rid of me. 

Reviews

By:  Ian Jane

Vietnam vet John Saxon is haunted by nightmares after rescuing, and getting bitten by, two friends (John Morghen and Tony King) from a prison pit in the ground during a jungle raid.  It seems while rotting as prisoners in Nam they developed a hunger for human flesh.  So it’s off to the asylum with them, while John Saxon tries as hard as he can to suppress some unusual culinary urges and return to a normal life for himself and his wife.  But things are not going so well for Saxon when one of his unbalanced buddies (Morghen, as Charlie Bukowski!?!!) (John Morghen is a pseudo for Giovanni Lombardo Radice, a very good Italian actor n.d.r.) is released and seeks him out.  Soon violence ensues at the shopping mall (hmmm…) in a bloody police stand-off, people are biting each other and spreading a hunger for live human flesh, and eventually a ragtag group of cannibals led by an unwillingly succumbing Saxon takes to the sewers for a tension filled finale which will decide the fate of Atlanta, and eventually the world.  Or something to that effect.  Did I mention there’s a ton of over-the-top gore from "Zombie" efx maestro Giannetto De Rossi in here, too?

Hey, I’m new to this film; I’ve heard about it for years under a score of different titles ("Invasion of the Flesh Hunters", "Cannibals in the Streets", etc.), but I’d never gotten around to seeing it until now.  Well, I’m glad to say it was worth the wait for the most part.  The premise of soldiers returning from Vietnam as shell-shocked cannibals is intriguing but almost too on-the-nose on an allegorical level, but the film’s biggest problem is making it all work in a logical manner for 96 minutes.  There’s just too much boneheaded hijinx sprinkled in-between scenes that are legitimately disturbing.  Also, it’s hard not to ignore the possible racism of the initial premise (Is cannibalism a jungle disease?  Is it something from a more primitive culture that has infected them?  Oh no, it’s not “the return of the repressed” theory rearing it’s ugly head again, is it?!), and harder still to not wonder what a real Vietnam veteran would make of all this.

The Johns’, Morghen and Saxon, and Tony King make a lot of things work with their performances that probably should not have, but their uniformly fine work is almost undone in a number of scenes by fellow thespians who struggle mightily to reach the heights of competency throughout.  I’ve never been a big John Saxon fan, but he really does a great job here, creating sympathy for a character who’s trying not to succumb to his unnatural urges.

Depending on my mood swings while watching the film, it felt like either an inept stab at incisive social relevancy, or a dum-dum sci-fi action flick with a whole lot on it’s wacky mind; sort of an Italian re-hash of ideas from Romero’s "The Crazies" and Cronenberg’s "Rabid".  And while less smart than either one of these classics, Margheriti is more technically successful than his predecessors in delivering the low-budget goods in a slick and entertaining manner.  The shopping mall stand-off and the sewer chase are especially well-done set pieces, and I found the asylum to be an appropriately spooky high-tech cross between the hospital in "The Beyond" and "Star Trek".

Read also the review of this film made by Mike Martinez on  (www.insane.nu)  [ READ IT ]