Cannibal Apocalypse
Cannibal Apocalypse is a 1980 film from Italy, Spain and the USA, directed by Antonio Margheriti, running 92 minutes. reelscum files it under cannibal boom, video nasty and zombie.
- Year
- 1980 · 1980s films
- Runtime
- 92 min
- Director
- Antonio Margheriti
- Updated
- 30 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (44/100)
- Also known as
- Cannibal Apocalypse · Cannibals in the City · Cannibal Massacre · Cannibals in the Streets · Invasion of the Flesh Hunters · The Slaughterers
- Banned in
- UK
Defined in the glossary: Cannibal boom, Video nasty, Zombie
A prosecuted DPP video nasty, also released as Invasion of the Flesh Hunters.
Vietnam veterans as cannibals. Sillier and kinder than the jungle cycle.
Vietnam veterans come home carrying an infection that turns them into flesh-eaters, and the film treats the cannibalism as a literal disease spreading through a paranoid America. Antonio Margheriti directs John Saxon as a vet trying to hold himself together as the hunger takes hold.
It is more restrained and more coherent than the jungle cannibal films, closer to a zombie-outbreak picture with a genuine subtext about trauma coming home. The flamethrower-in-the-sewer finale delivers.
An unusually thoughtful entry in a genre not known for it.
Trailer
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Where to watch
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The cycle in depth
- The Italian cannibal cycle, 1977 to 1985
Eight years, a dozen films, one arrest, and a court appearance to prove the cast were still alive.
- Banned, cut and confiscated
A Fulci print flown out of the country, an Australian rating that just means no, and a German court that filed The Evil Dead under criminal violence. Three states, three machines for making a film disappear.
Filed alongside
Zombie Holocaust
Cannibals and zombies at once, reusing the Zombi 2 sets and cast.
Eaten Alive!
Lenzi recycling other films' footage into a Jonestown story. Grim work.
Anthropophagus
Almost entirely people walking around an island. Then two minutes of infamy.
Mountain of the Cannibal God
The cannibal cycle in a dinner jacket, ex-Bond girl and real animal deaths included.
City of the Living Dead
The drill scene. Otherwise thin, but the atmosphere is thick.
Cannibal Ferox
Lenzi chasing Deodato with none of the argument. Real animal deaths, no defence.
The Beyond
Makes no sense whatsoever and is Fulci's best film. Dream logic, fully committed.
Zombi 2
A zombie fights a shark. Fulci's splinter shot is still the worst thing here.
Cannibal Holocaust
A serious film about media atrocity that committed real atrocity.
Burial Ground
Incoherent even by the standards of the cycle. The Peter subplot is unforgivable.
Man from Deep River
The one that started it, by remaking A Man Called Horse in Thailand.
Nightmare City
Zombies that run and use guns, decades early. Incompetent in enjoyable ways.