Sunday, November 6

Cannibal Apocalypse (Apocalypse domani) (1980) - 1987 Mount Light / Pack-in-Video VHS

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Always thought this Antonio Margheriti cannibalistic horror/actioner seemed underrated and just a little ahead of its time. Director/writer Margheriti and writer Dardano Sacchetti craft a premise that tries to capitalize on the trending popularity of the cannibal and zombie subgenres by basically melding both into a flesh-eating infection cocktail. This combination is then dropped into a gritter urban setting that often times really feels like an Italian horror flick invading an American setting (being shot in suburban and downtown Atlanta). As always John Saxon holds his head high, it's great to see Giovanni Lombardo Radice given such a "meaty" role (going apeshit with a shotgun in an in-door flea market), and you can't help but respect how the story tries hard to wrap on an almost Shakespearean note for an Italo cheapie.

Mount Light's Japanese VHS isn't too rare being one of the more popular import tapes before the coming of digital disc and was the best option before Studio Canal remastered the film for several global DVD releases. The barely widescreen picture quality is solid despite flecks of prominent damage and some scenes "burning" with an overwhelming blue tint. The film is fully uncut outside of brief optical fogging in the "vagina bite" scene.

1 comment:

Jayson Kennedy said...

Also maybe I'm insane, but it looks like Reb Brown *might* be uncredited as one of the biker dudes (the one with blonde hair and aviators) that Radice pisses off early in the film in the flea market scene.

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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