Cannibal Apocalypse
A Vietnam veteran discovers that cannibalistic urges may have followed him back from the war, unleashing a violent chain of events in an American city. The film mixes social panic, siege action and grotesque body-horror ideas in a way that made it stand out during the nasty era.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Apocalypse domani; Cannibal Apocalypse; Cannibals in the Streets |
| Year | 1980 |
| Director | Antonio Margheriti |
| Country | Italy / Spain |
| Runtime | Approx. 96 min |
| Main cast | John Saxon, Elizabeth Turner, Giovanni Lombardo Radice |
UK status
A notorious prosecuted Video Nasty, combining infection horror, Vietnam trauma and Italian exploitation energy.
Now a cult favourite among Eurohorror and Eurocult fans, especially because of John Saxon's lead performance.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- The film stars John Saxon, whose genre career spanned gialli, thrillers and horror.
- Antonio Margheriti was one of the most versatile directors in Italian genre cinema.
- The film uses 'cannibalism as contagion' rather than a jungle-adventure framework.
- Its urban setting helps separate it from other cannibal-era titles.
- Collectors often remember it as one of the stronger John Saxon cult-horror vehicles.
- It links the cannibal cycle with post-Vietnam anxiety.
- The title remains a major talking point in discussions of former nasties.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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