Cannibal Apocalypse (1980)
Directed by Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony M Dawson)
Starring John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice
96 mins; R18+; VHS

Tagline: In the jungle or in the city… still they must eat.
Country of Origin: Italy/USA

After Ruggero Deodato’s groundbreaking Cannibal Holocaust defined the Italian exploitation genre by throwing cannibals into the mix, the country boomed with similar, albeit inferior, films with the likes of Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive and even Cannibal Holocaust 2 among them. Cannibal Apocalypse is yet another of these Holocaust derivatives and it is as pedestrian as most.

Starring exploit acting king John Saxon and Giovanni Lombardo Radice of House on the Edge of the Park fame in a similarly-disjointed supporting role, Cannibal Apocalypse begins with a Vietnam War sequence where Norman Hopper (Saxon), commanding a platoon of troops, goes behind enemy lines to rescue two POWs. When he finally breaks through, he discovers his two Marines (including Charlie, played by Radice) who, after being captured by the Viet Cong, have resorted to cannibalism and voraciously eat any flesh they come across, which includes taking a chunk out of Norman’s arm. We fast-forward a year or so, where Norman still suffers nightmares from his time in Vietnam. All the memories are brought back when Charlie calls Norman after being recently released from a mental institution, wanting to meet up with him. Norman declines. It is only when Charlie begins a fury of murder and mayhem that Norman gives him attention and discovers that the cannibalism that took place in Vietnam mutated into a rabid virus, passed on to whoever is bitten.

The plot of Cannibal Apocalypse sets the tone for the whole film – stupid, stupid and stupid. Cannibalism mutating into a virus? Yeah, right. But you don’t watch an exploitation film for fine plot points and exceptional acting, so picking Apocalypse apart in this respect will be like flogging a dead horse. There are some decent scenes of gore here, but they don’t live up to the nastiness of Cannibal Holocaust or the sleaziness of Cannibal Ferox – its presented fairly blandly, save for a good crowd-pleaser in the form of a gunshot blast to the gut. Some sleaze is thrown into the mix in the form of an extra-marital affair between Norman and his neighbour, a baby-faced Lolita who can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen, although it’s all done fairly tastefully for a film of this genre. Cannibal Apocalypse is overall a pretty exciting adventure that probably would have benefited from being just a little more exploitative – compared to its prodigies, the film is reasonably tame stuff and the censorship issues it had back in the day would be not a problem now. The only release of Apocalypse in Australia is on the Palace Explosive VHS pictured above, which is exceedingly hard to find and cut in one place (the angle grinder scene, which makes up about twenty seconds). One of the only DVD releases available worldwide of Apocalypse can be imported from the US and is a must for fans of the film as it contains the best audio/visual transfer and most comprehensive set of extras. For those who are into Italo-exploitation, Cannibal Apocalypse is highly watchable and well worth forking out thirty odd dollars for the US import; for the more conventional filmgoer though, it only makes for an okay night in. Apocalypse is as light and as fun as cannibal flicks come but for a really, er, juicy evenings viewing, you can’t go past Deodato’s Holocaust.


Night of the Zombies (1980)
Directed by Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn)
Starring Margit Eveline Newton & Roger O’Neil
96 mins; R18+; VHS

Tagline: If only they would die… pray it will never happen.
Country of Origin: Italy/Spain

Bruno Mattei is probably one the most gleefully trashy Italo-exploitation directors around and, along with auteurs like Joe D’Amato, rides on the back of more successful films and ends up creating cult masterpieces of his own. In 1984, Mattei filmed his sequel to the Emannuelle series, reconceptualising the soft-core franchise into an action-packed WIP film evocatively titled Violence in a Women’s Prison. But in 1980, Mattei created his masterpiece in light of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead – Night of the Zombies (aka Hell of the Living Dead, aka Zombie Creeping Flesh)

The plot here is actually more substantial than most – a seemingly accidental radioactive spill in a Papua New Guinean factory results in the natives being infected with a virus that turns them all into the cannibalistic undead. An anthropologist, researching findings in New Guinea with her team of documentarians, stumbles upon the army of zombies and they are rescued by a platoon of SWAT officers armed to the teeth. Somewhat predictably, the group track down the source of the chemical accident to uncover the real mystery behind the virus.

For those who like their films to be super-intelligent, be warned – Night of the Zombies is one of the most inept films you will ever see, but in a good way. Jungle footage is spliced with random animals parading through the jungle, most of which have nothing to do with the scene – a kangaroo hops through the desert one minute (remember, we are in the jungles of New Guinea), monkeys fly from treetop-to-treetop and elephants (!) stampede through sparse grasslands. This says little more than the fact that a script continuity editor for Italo-exploitation movies is probably the easiest job in the universe. As for the zombies, they shamble through every scene and look nothing like those in Dawn of the Dead or Fulci’s superior Zombie Flesh Eaters. However, the gore that has to be seen to be believed – some of the effects are mind-blowing and don’t come anywhere near Tom Savini’s meticulous make-up in Dawn – an eye pops out, guts are sifted through and bullets make fantastic splatters of blood. There are two versions of Night of the Zombies available in Australia – one is the rare Palace Explosive collector’s item, which, as far as I know, is fully uncut. The other is in a two-fer pack with Mattei’s Rats: Nights of Terror and is under the title of Hell of the Living Dead. This edition is a lift from the US Anchor Bay disc and, as far as audio-visuals and extras go, is certainly the one to get. An excellent, highly underrated little gem that makes great popcorn viewing.

Zombie Holocaust (1980)
Directed by Marino Girolami
Starring Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Peter O’Neil
90 mins; R18+; DVD/VHS

Country of Origin: Italy
Tagline: Not for the faint hearted!

I don’t know what it is about Italian trashy exploitation zombie movies that reels me in every time. Maybe it’s the fact that it is only in these films you can see a zombie get his head mashed up with the rotor of an outboard motor or every time there is sunny weather or the movie is set on a beach, the leading lady gets her kit off. Whatever the reason, classics like Zombie Flesh Eaters, Night of the Zombies and Marino Girolami’s Zombie Holocaust will hold special places in my heart.

The plot is nothing to speak of – mysterious happenings in a big-city hospital (eating hearts, dismembered cadavers – that sort of stuff) prompt a group of doctors and journalists to take a trip to an Indonesian island after they trace the mutilations to a zombie cult. When they arrive, they are met by the sinister Dr Butcher, who spends his time experimenting on the cannibalistic natives in order to create an army of the undead. We’ve seen it all before, but it’s a good excuse to go on a bit of a rampage. The mandatory throat-rippings, stabbings and gut-muchings are all there, but they are done with an element of originality that sets Holocaust from the pack. Then there’s the added bonus of two awesome exploitation genres rolled into the one film – the zombie and cannibal subgenres, both making a very grisly appearance in equal measure. Maurizio Trani, the man responsible for the special effects here, clearly worked on a fluctuating budget: the scalping and aforementioned outboard motor scenes have some great SFX craftsmanship to them, and gives off a hint of realism. However, then there’s the scene of the suicide off a ten storey building, where the dummy comes apart before landing…

Obviously this is all an acquired taste. If you like zombie movies, cannibal flicks or just plain ol’ gore, then Zombie Holocaust will do the trick. With its (mostly) great special effects and a performance by Ian McCulloch that makes Charles Bronson’s woodenness look like superior method acting, Holocaust is certainly a member of the zombie hall of fame. Doesn’t make sense? Who cares! This is purely for entertainment, Z-grade, pulp trash that works perfectly at a beer-and-pizza party. Disgusting and inept; the acting, direction and script are piss-weak, yet it is simply unmissable.

Contamination (1980)
Directed by Luigi Cozzi (as Lewis Coates)
Starring Ian McCulloch & Louise Monroe
95 mins; MA15+; DVD/VHS

Tagline: You can feel them in your blood!
Country of Origin: Italy/West Germany

When Alien was released in 1979, it reconceptualised the horror/sci-fi genre and generated a number of ripoffs, remakes and sequels – some good, some bad, but all concerned with a big alien queen, lots of blood and throbbing eggs. Contamination was one of the first of Alien’s, er, spawn and before James Cameron came along and directed Aliens in 1984, was considered a true sequel to the seminal science fiction film.

Directing under the Anglicised version of his name Lewis Coates, Luigi Cozzi helms an Italo-exploitation film that is quite unlike many others in the sense that there is actually some substance in plot. A ship comes to port in New York, its crew lies in pieces on the deck and it is holding a sinister cargo – green eggs the size of footballs that are packaged under the guise of a coffee shipment. When they burst (and this is where some stretch of the imagination is required), they cause the nearest people to have their chests explode. Sure, it doesn’t make much sense, but it gives an excuse to show some outrageous gore effects – chunks of flesh blow left-right-and-centre and every chest burst (which makes those of Alien look out of your average episode of Sesame Street) is done in delirious slow motion. It is up to a government research agent and the only living person to have seen these eggs (and their mother) to uncover the conspiracy behind their arrival in the big city.

Embroiled up in the moral panic of the eighties video nasty era, Contamination stayed in banned and censored limbo for a number of years – Star Base Video in Australia released it presumably uncut with an R18+ rating shortly after its release, but it has not been available before 2004. However, exploitation fan’s best friend Blue Underground released a brilliant DVD of Contamination, complete with a number of worthy special features and presented with impeccable audio-visual quality. The Blue Underground edition is released by Stomp in Australia and seems to be a US import, so the pervasive ratings advice sticker can be peeled off. As for the film itself, it’s good, but not as much fun as you’d expect from an uber-gory Alien rip-off: the acting is appalling and whatever merits the storyline has are destroyed. McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Holocaust) has the most life of the cast, otherwise they shamble through like zombies. The special effects are very good, and scoring duties are done by Goblin, who use a typical thumping-techno soundtrack that pisses you off after a while. Worth watching even if it is a bit of a disappointment.


The Toxic Avenger (1985)
Directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman (as Samuel Weil)
Starring Andree Maranda & Mitchell Cohen
82 mins; R18+; DVD/VHS

Tagline: Melvin was a 90lb. weakling until nuclear waste transformed him into... the Toxic Avenger
Country of Origin: USA

It’s a funny thing, a Troma movie – sometimes it’s a hit of epic proportions, a film that you can watch over and over again and never get sick of; but then there are the bombs – movies so bad that the second they’re out of the DVD player they go straight in the bin. The Toxic Avenger sits in between, probably due to the fact that it is one of the most overrated films in history than anything else.

Welcome to the town of Tromaville, population 15 000, which boasts that it is the biggest nuclear waste dumping ground in America. It is here that Melvin, a socially inept, 50 kilogram nerd works as a cleaner at the Tromaville Health Club, where he is tormented and ridiculed by the patrons. When he is set up by a girl he likes (who is, needless to say, somewhat out of his league) and subjected to further mockery, he loses it, falling into a strategically placed vat of toxic waste. The waste, of course, turns him into the toxic avenger – a legendary – not to mention virile – superhuman creature that cleans up the streets of Tromaville.

Ever since its release in 1982, The Toxic Avenger has been the cash-cow coda of Troma Studios, spawning three sequels, Toxie appearances in various other unrelated Troma ventures and pride of place on the studio’s logo. It has been said to be one of the biggest cult films ever made and the name ‘Toxic Avenger’ has been a part of pop culture for years. So, it was bound to be a disappointment – for a film that’s been pumped so high by its producers and fans, this is pretty average fare – certainly not effective as a horror movie and not funny enough to be a comedy. There are a few action scenes thrown into the mix, and some of the violence is a bit off – the kid being run over by the hit-and-run fanatic twice and the grandma being beaten to near-death with her own walking cane. But it’s not enough, especially seeing as the film has a nice ‘warning: contains extreme violence’ precursor. Troma haven’t done too well by a film that essentially put them on the map: the 21st anniversary golden edition has a few nice surprises, but they are pretty much all copy-and-pastes off other Troma discs. The audio-visual is naturally poor, but with some of the clean-ups seen with older, cheaper films, Troma could have done much better. Be warned, though, the film is pure cult: poor acting, inept direction, gory violence, sex and ultra-ultra-low budget, which makes its audience appeal very limited. The Toxic Avenger is not a bad film and worth watching as long as you don’t believe the hype. For an excellent and very original Troma movie that retains Toxie's cult sensibilities, check out Terror Firmer because The Toxic Avenger has been done before and done since, and much better at that.