Cannibal Apocalypse only half lives up to its title - plenty of cannibals, but no real apocalypse. The premise is fairly original, if terribly stupid - somehow, in the seething cauldron of the Viet Nam war, cannibalism becomes a contagious disease which three vets carry back home with them. I know, I know, cannibalism is a social behavior, not a pathogen, and the movie knows it, too, so some brief lip service is paid to a theory of psychic mutation which is never really explained and immediately forgotten. Unfortunately, since the infected aim to kill and eat their victims, opportunities to spread the disease are rare, and the outbreak burns itself out quicker than you can say "Ebola."
No, what saves this movie from being just an also-ran in the field of Italian zombie flicks is the presence of John Saxon, the face you've grown to love from about a zillion other cheesy 70's action flicks. Here, he's given a real plum of a role, as he gets to slowly change from a man horrified by his post-traumatic stress induced nightmares, to a full-on, unrepentant cannibal seeking to escape pursuit and find a place where he and his kind can live in peace and pursue their alternate lifestyle of wanton killing and consuming human flesh. Is that so wrong?
No, what saves this movie from being just an also-ran in the field of Italian zombie flicks is the presence of John Saxon, the face you've grown to love from about a zillion other cheesy 70's action flicks. Here, he's given a real plum of a role, as he gets to slowly change from a man horrified by his post-traumatic stress induced nightmares, to a full-on, unrepentant cannibal seeking to escape pursuit and find a place where he and his kind can live in peace and pursue their alternate lifestyle of wanton killing and consuming human flesh. Is that so wrong?