We flash forward to years later. Hopper is trying to put his life back together, and Buchowski has just been released from a mental institution. He calls Hopper to see if he wants to go for a beer, but Hopper is more interested in getting to know the teenage girl next door better than seeing his old war buddies.
Buchowski is highly insulted by being stood up, and decides to take in a war movie at the local cinema. Not a good viewing choice. He totally wigs out, savagely biting the girl in front of him. He then flees into a sporting goods store, shooting a biker and a security guard. As the police mass outside, Hopper turns up and talks his zany old buddy into giving himself up.
By this point several people have been bitten by Buchowski, and Hopper has bitten the girl next door. Apparently the veterans are carrying some kind of Vietnam rabies, and it's spreading(though to be fair, Hopper probably only bit his neighbour because he's a horny old bastard). Soon, a rag-tag bunch of cannibals are running loose in the city, and they've packed their playlunch.
While the first 45 minutes or so of Cannibal Apocalypse are highly entertaining with the Vietnam sequence and the sports store siege, the last half never really lives up to the promise of the first. Sure, it has memorable gore effects (most notably one of the best shotgun blasts ever), but it lagged a lot. The title was also pretty misleading. I was hoping for a hell of a lot more cannibals, and 8 cannibals sure as hell doesn't constitute a cannibal apocalypse.
Still, 45 strong minutes is a lot better than 90 pathetic minutes of your average modern teen horror. The opening scene with its grimyness, low camera angles, flamethrowers, exploding dogs, etc. was very impressive. A good way to spend a rainy afternoon. |