Cannibal Apocalypse

Released in 1980, Cannibal Apocalypse follows American soldiers who return home from Vietnam carrying something far worse than trauma. Two former prisoners of war, Charlie Bukowski and Tom Thompson, develop a compulsion to consume human flesh, and the condition spreads through a contagious virus carried in their saliva. Their former captain, Norman Hopper, is drawn back into their orbit when Charlie, recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital, reaches out to him. What begins as a personal crisis grows into a wider outbreak, driving the infected men through the city and into its sewers.

Antonio Margheriti directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Dardano Sacchetti. The film sits between his heist thriller Killer Fish and the earlier adventure Treasure Island in a career that stretched back to the science fiction of Assignment: Outer Space and the gothic horror of Castle of Blood. John Saxon plays Norman Hopper, with Giovanni Lombardo Radice as Charlie Bukowski, Tony King as Tom Thompson, Elizabeth Turner as Jane Hopper and Cinzia De Carolis as Mary. It was a co-production involving Spain, Italy, Canada and the United States, with a credited cast of thirty-three.

Audience response has been modest. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.5 from roughly 4,800 votes, and on TMDB it also scores 5.5, from around 111 votes. The agreement between the two suggests a film appreciated mainly by genre devotees rather than a broad viewership.