Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)

One of horror's hardest working men, the ever dependable John Saxon, plays a Vietnam vet who returns from the war with a little more than some nasty flashbacks. During a raid in the jungles, Saxon's army group stumbles across two old army buddies trapped in one of those bamboo pit things. As he reaches his arm down to pull them out, he notices that they are hungrily munching away on a human corpse. Now I'm sure old John was thinking one of two things. Either these guys are pulling a "Donner Party" type thing, or they have been somehow infected with a rabid jungle virus that causes one to get the munchies for a little bit of Homo-Sapien flesh! Makes sense to me. Too slow to pull his arm out, he gets bitten by one of the cannibal dudes and is of course, infected with the cannibal virus himself. Everyone returns back to the states, Saxon to his wife, while the other two are placed in a nearby loony bin. Pretty soon Saxon's character starts to notice something wrong with him, as he finds himself hungrily eyeing some raw meat in the fridge and doing stuff like "nibbling" on the girl next door. To stop this terrible plot rundown I've created, let's just say that John comes to terms with his newfound cannibal ways, breaks out his fellow flesh eaters in the hospital, and commences on a bloody rampage through the city with the cops hot on their trail.

I like to think of this one as an "action-cannibal" flick. Some of the scenes such as the flea market massacre bit were pretty fun to watch, but then things bog down to the point where you start to nod off. In a sense the slow parts were extremely slow and the good stuff was not really plentiful enough. The acting ranged from real bad to decent, with Saxon of course leading the show. In terms of gore, we get some nasty tongue biting, bone saw mayhem, and the like. There is one truly classic sequence, in which the ever popular (at least in these films) John Morghen gets his whole chest blown out by a shotgun. Love how the camera panned up and down so we get to see through the hole in his chest...great stuff. Only thing that sucks is that you sort of have to wait till the end for the mayhem to start happening, so try to stay awake. One thing that you have to deal with while your waiting for someone to get ate is the terrible jazz/disco soundtrack. My god was that bad. And what the hell type of music was that slutty chick next door listening to? Hilariously bad. If you have to see this one, track down a bootleg with all the gore on it, the American print is severely butchered.