WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Cannibal Apocalypse 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.480 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird How Cinema. This 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.120 is Rob Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Yeah. Today we 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.799 have another fun collision of B cinema genres. Here. What 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.880 happens when you take Italian cannibal exploitation films and you 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:32.160 cross them with a good old fashioned Nam exploitation film, 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.479 as in Vietnam, and then you go ahead and just 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.640 set the whole picture right here in Atlanta, Georgia. One 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:39.879 thing I will say about this concept is it does 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:45.000 not sound like it will be under seasoned. Yeah, yeah, 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.120 how tender eyes? Would you say? This film is? Oh 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.239 my god, it has used the spiky side of the 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:54.960 meat mallet. It has covered everything in in pineapple puree. Uh, 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.160 it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be fork tinder all right. 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:03.040 The film is Cannibal Apocalypse. The original title in Italian 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.920 Apocalypse Domani, which I believe is Italian for apocalypse tomorrow. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.319 Oh yes, yes, So it took me a while to 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:15.040 understand this title because I actually watched this movie. So, uh, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.240 this was your pick, you handed it off. I watched 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:19.800 it last night and then I immediately started watching it 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.959 a second time after I watched the first time with 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.280 the with the commentary track that's actually on the disc 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.440 that you rented um by a film critic and historian 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.080 named Tim Lucas who has written a lot on exploitation cinema, 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.560 particularly Italian movies and Jello and stuff like that. And 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:37.800 I know he wrote a book about Mario Bava that 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.160 is that is pretty popular. But anyway, I might mention 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:43.800 some more of Lucas's observations as we go on, because 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:46.240 his commentary track was pretty good. But like I said, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.800 I was watching this and I kept trying to understand 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:53.120 the title Cannibal Apocalypse. I would have expected with that 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.120 title that the movie would be a little more apocalyptic, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.560 but there's not really anything apocalyptic about it in either 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.240 sense of the word, so not the original literal sense 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.240 of apocalypse meaning a revelation or unveiling. There's nothing really 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.440 revelatory about the movie, nor in the common understanding today 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.440 having to do with the end of the world. It's 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.720 not really an end of the world movie. But then 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.519 I realized, oh, it's called that because of apocalypse now, 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.880 but the Vietnam movie, right, So what comes after Apocalypse Now, 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:27.280 Apocalypse Tomorrow, Apocalypse Demani. Uh. So, if you want to 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.720 cut right to the quick, what you actually do is 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.800 you take one word from the title of a recent 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.919 popular movie with similar themes, and then you take another 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.480 word that is a lurid, conceptual hook word like cannibalism. 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.239 So you end up with cannibal Apocalypse. It would be 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:44.960 kind of like if you made a movie today called 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:50.280 like the Necrophilia and the Furious or something, uh and 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.360 then other. There are tons of connections actually with other 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:58.000 Vietnam movies, but mainly with Apocalypse Now. For example, the 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.280 main character in this film, what's his name? Him? His 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.520 name is Norman Hopper. I think it's pretty clear where 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.080 this comes from. It is a combination of Norman Bates, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.600 the main character in Psycho, and Dennis Hopper, the actor 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.720 in Apocalypse Now. Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good point. 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.160 And it is this the sort of role that Dennis 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.120 Hopper could have conceivably played. You know, you could imagine 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.360 him playing this sort of character. I guess you could. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.360 That would be very different. I mean, Dennis Hopper, he's 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.120 notable in Apocalypse Now for being wild. You know, he 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.560 is on a permanent trip, and he is fully in 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.079 the thrall of the warrior poet of of Marlon Brando's 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.920 Kurts in the movie. In this movie, the main character, 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.960 Norman Hopper is very much on the edge, but because 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.040 it's cast as John Saxon, John Saxon has an undeniably 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.920 even tempered, steady kind of presence. I mean, he he's 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.200 an extremely grounded actor, and that's contrasted with some of 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.800 the the very like ratlike energy of characters in this movie, 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:58.280 such as the character named again, this is really the 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.480 character's name, Charles Bukowski, exactly the same as the name 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:03.960 of the author and poet. Oh but but but we're 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.240 we're burying one of the leads here. Uh so this movie, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.880 each kid just have two names for a movie that, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.440 you know, it was an Italian exploitation movie released in 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.360 nineteen eighty, you've got to have at least like six names, right, 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.480 Oh yeah, yeah, it's It's also been released as Cannibals 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:23.040 in the Streets, which weirdly enough, is the main title 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.880 for the film on its IMDb listing. Right now, I 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.279 feel like this was surely not always the case. I 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.000 think I because I've been aware of this film for 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:31.720 a very long time, but just had not set down 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.120 and watched it. I think it used to just it 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.000 used to just be listed as um, Cannibal Apocalypse, because 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.000 that is it's it's most famous name, I thought. But 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.320 then again, I think Michael Weldon in the Psychotronic Video 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.560 Guide also lists it as Cannibals in the Streets, so 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.160 I don't know. I think it also got an American 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.960 R rated release, so it was released with in a 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:57.719 in a somewhat edited form, especially in the Southern United States, 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.480 under the name Invasion of of Flesh Eaters. Is that right, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.960 I believe so, yeah, and it may have been released 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.039 it was released in UM to the German market with 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.600 it with several different titles as well, so it's It's 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.760 definitely one of these films that's often referred to as 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:15.080 a video nasty because it was. I think it was 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.240 banned in the UK for a period of time. Um. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.600 Though it is interesting how you assume that the pictures 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.280 are that are classified as such that they're all going 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.160 to have like the same level of of nastiness to them, uh, 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.160 and it's really not the case. Um. I think one 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.479 of the things about this film is that. Yes, it 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:37.760 has its grotesque moments and themes. For sure. It is 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.240 not a family movie by any stretch of the imagination. 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:45.320 But it's also not nearly as as bad as or 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:47.840 And when I say bad, I don't mean quality wise, 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:49.880 but just in terms of taste, it's not. It doesn't 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.240 nearly have the level of bad taste that it certainly 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.560 could have had. And it's gonna be fun to discuss 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.120 why that seems to be as we go through this episode. 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.560 I don't think it's the only reason, but one that 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.039 has been mentioned in several sources I came across is 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:08.279 just the influence of John Saxon being in the lead 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.200 and repeatedly saying about things he was asked to do 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:16.400 by the script no I'm not doing that. Yeah, seemed 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.520 to be a moderating influence on the content of the film. 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.120 That's what you when you when you cast John Saxon, 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:23.760 you know you're going to get a certain level of 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:27.240 energy from the performance and intensity. But yes you're gonna 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.559 get you're gonna get some some other grounding influences as well, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.640 which ultimately makes this a better film. I think, all right, well, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.440 let's talk just a second about these these different genres 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:40.839 that are colliding here. First of all, I mentioned Nam sploitation. Uh, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.719 these elements aligned with the various Vietnam action films of 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.479 the day, including both numerous US films and then international 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:54.120 films that were clearly springboarding off American pictures. For instance, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.680 some of the American films, particularly films that dealt with 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.120 Vietnam vets returning home and d with with post traumatic 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.320 stress to some degree or another. Your funder, Yeah, you 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.839 have like Deer Hunter seventy eight, also Coming Home in 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.440 seventy eight starring Bruce Dern, and even First Blood. Yeah, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.120 I guess the first Rambo movie would fit more into 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:17.800 that category. Though. It's funny with even within the progression 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:19.920 of the Rambo movies, you see the change in how 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.920 Vietnam subject matter is dealt with. Like earlier on, I 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.560 think you get more of these movies that are uh, 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:29.720 you know, dealing with some of the with some of 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.120 the horrors and the moral ambiguities of the war, and 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.480 then later on turning uh, the lingering residue of Vietnam 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.239 more into just kind of like pure exploitation action cinema 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.320 subject matter. So like Rambo by the time you get 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.040 to First Blood Part two, Rambo, the character of John 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.560 Rambo has gone from a you know, a a brutalized 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.680 man who just wants to be left alone and has 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.920 turned into a like a human slaughter house who you know, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.120 the point of the movie is to watch his greased 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.360 up muscles as he just guns down millions of enemies. 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.360 So like in the first one, you're asking the question 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.800 is is Rambo okay? I don't think he's okay? And 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.080 then the second one and on from there Rambo is 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.520 doing great. Look at him. Go ye, all right. So 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.200 we have those elements in the film and we'll talk 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.400 about some of that. But then, of course, also it's 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.520 in the title, this is a cannibal film. And cannibal 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.680 films at their their absolute worst, they tend to be 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.200 movies that follow a basic structure where modern day explorers 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:30.720 or journalists, or you know, whatever their case may be, 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.360 they're traveling to a remote part of the world and 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.719 they're encountering cannibalism and cannibalistic violence as practiced by an 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.640 isolated tribal group. I've long known there are a bunch 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:42.680 of movies like this, but I've never really watched any 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.280 of them. It's one of those that just seems conceptually 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.120 just like not enjoyable at all to me. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.000 they you know, they're often marketed for their just sheer 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.320 shock value. That was part of their appeal, and it 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.640 remains part of their appeal for people who who dig 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.839 them today. Uh. They can of course be area exploited. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.679 They can be very sleazy. They include such films as uh, 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.320 Sergio Martino, Slave of the Cannibal God from seventy eight, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.480 Umberto Lindsay's Sacrifice from seventy two, which I think was 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:15.440 the first major Italian cannibal movie, Umberto Lindsay's Eating Alive 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:17.880 in nineteen eighty, and so many more. But the most 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:23.360 notorious example is of course rogero uh Deodata's Cannibal Holocaust 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.480 from eighty notable for its extreme violence and gore as 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.160 well as animal cruelty. Yeah, I remember. Actually I think 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.520 maybe even like reading some sort of like film scholarship 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.960 about that movie when I was in college. It seems 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.920 like the kind of thing that is maybe more interesting 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:44.800 as like subject matter for film criticism and film historians 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:46.680 than it is actually something you would ever want to 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.840 sit down and watch. Yeah, I agree, and I'll get 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:51.960 into some some of the scholarship about it. Though. I'll 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.840 also point out that when I was when I had decided, like, yeah, 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.400 I want to check out Cannibal Apocalypse, I pulled up 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.559 what I thought was Cannibal Apocalypse online and it was 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.760 Cannibal Holocaust. So I ended up watching the first five 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.040 and a half minutes of it, which which are actually 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.000 pretty goofy and don't have any cannibalism in them. But 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.520 that is as far as I can recommend anyone watch 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.840 in this film. Once I realized, oh, this is not 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.839 the film, this is not John Saxon, I cut out 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.440 and uh and actually send an email to Video Drome, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:21.760 our local video store, to make sure they had a 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.800 copy of Cannibal Holocaust for us. You mean Cannibal Apocalypse. 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.040 Cannibal Apocalypse. I'm doing it again. It's so easy to 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:31.000 get them confused. So if you hear me reference Cannibal 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:34.440 Holocaust again outside of the context of that film, I 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.160 probably mean Cannibal Apocalypse. Well, I mean it's clearly. I 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.360 think it shows what these titles have in common, which 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:42.800 is they're just trying to like jam your radar with 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.640 the most shocking words they can possibly fit into a 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.280 title like ultimate Shocking title density. Yeah, I mean it's 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.160 all about the shock. So for a little more. I 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.360 was interested early because you can engage with these films 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.319 at the shock level and all. But then I'm also 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.160 thinking like, why why cannibalism? Why were these cannibals and 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.520 films so big at that in the time. So I 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.960 was reading Cannibalism in Literature and Film by Jennifer Brown, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.320 which is a really interesting book. You can you can 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.920 pick this up as an e book, um, for example. 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.640 But the author argues that much of what we see 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:20.040 in this in this genre, especially the colonial cannibalism film, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.640 as opposed to the domestic cannibalism film. So again, think, 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.040 are you encountering cannibals in Texas, as in the Texas 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:31.320 Chainsaw Masacre, or are the characters traveling to some you know, 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.360 former colonial holding, um, some you know nation that was 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:40.240 under a colonial rule and encountering cannibalism in those settings, right, Yeah, 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.840 I see the distinction. So Brown's argument is that these 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:49.000 colonial cannibalism films are probably resulting from post colonial anxieties 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.680 in the West and media coverage from this time period, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:54.880 you know, especially like the late seventies or the eighties 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:59.040 and so forth, um of political and social unrest in 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:03.400 parts of the world previously under colonial rule. Quote amidst 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.400 the litany of atrocities, arose the feeling that without the 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.520 civilizing arm of British colonial law, the world had descended 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.760 into chaos. And they also explained that there there there's 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.480 a familiar trope of the cannibal other in all of this, 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.920 of course, as well as a specific variation on colonial 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:24.839 cannibalism based on US foreign policy and its ramifications. So 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.360 imagining audiences already have a kind of embedded colonial mentality, 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.000 like this fear that people would have that without boots 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.040 on the ground in every part of the world and 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:38.520 soldiers managing every other country on the world, we can 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.440 only imagine what kind of grizzly horrors are taking place 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:43.040 in every other part of the world if we are 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.920 not constantly pointing a gun at people right, right, and 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.960 so Brown discusses this at length, and they also they 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.160 also get into cannibal holocaust itself and talks about sort 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.840 of the the things that are important about it from 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.760 a film history standpoint, but also you know why it 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.760 is so notorious. But but I should be clear that 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.880 Cannibal Apocalypse, the film were primarily discussing here today, doesn't 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.160 really draw on any of these cultural cannibalism tropes and 0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.840 seems to be largely exploring a concept a model of 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:17.480 PTSD as viral cannibalism. Yeah, despite the fact that it 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:22.199 does use all these tropes of Vietnam exploitation movies. Really, 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.040 I would say it is a domestic cannibalism movie. It's 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:29.720 a it's about you know, the cannibals are all Americans. Yeah. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:34.600 I ultimately really enjoyed this model of cannibalism that is 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.080 deployed in this film. It reminds me a lot of 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:42.040 the later film by um uh Antonia Birds Ravenous, which 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.719 is a wonderful I guess largely it's got It's a 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.880 domestic cannibalism film, kind of a frontier cannibalism film as well. Right, 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.200 it's about all these soldiers at an outpost in frontier 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.160 California who are switched onto the magical wonder of eating 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.720 human flesh. Yeah. Yeah, Ultimately even more of a vampiric 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:02.320 model of cannibalism in that film. Well, that one also 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.920 I guess it does loosely draw on some rough like 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.280 Windigo mythology, but but then it's I think it's one 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.160 of those movies where you kind of wonder, like wait 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.719 a minute, like within the world of the movie, like 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.280 is there real magic going on here? Or is this 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.360 just like an idea that has captured and motivated the 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.920 minds of the characters. And you could probably argue the 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.640 same thing about this movie. Yeah. Now, Cannibal Apocalypse, though, 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.320 is about more than just eating human flesh and US 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.640 foreign policy. This film is also exciting for us because 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.960 it is a Georgia movie. It is an Atlanta and 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.120 Decatur movie filmed here back when that was something that 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.080 was notable, you know, back when you weren't filming all 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.480 these big blockbusters in the state of Georgia. There actually 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.480 were a good number of Italian horror films shot in 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.800 the US South though, right around this time, like Luccio 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.560 full Chiese The Beyond, which he shot in New Orleans, 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.720 said in New Orleans, or like, uh, I think it 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.800 was also ful Chi who may um City of the 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.640 Living Dead or also known as Gates of Hell. Is 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.960 that Savannah? Yeah, that was in Savannah, which I actually 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.960 watched just earlier this year. Yeah, there's also the wonderful 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.520 film The Visitor, which is very much filmed in Atlanta 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.200 around the time, same time period that is the God 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.720 talking about Weird House. That is one of the most 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.560 bizarre movies I have ever seen in my life. I mean, 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.200 that one will make you leave your body. Yeah, we 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.640 may have to come back to that one. That's a 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.400 fun one. So so yeah, if you're a if you're 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:35.920 a local, if you have any connection to Atlanta, Georgia 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:40.240 or Decatur, Georgia, Uh, it's worth watching because there's a 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.080 lot of a lot of local locations that are used, 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:47.480 including the Decatur Marta station, which I was looking this up. 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.800 This film came out in nineteen eighty and the station 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.800 opened June nine, So it's like a fresh spanking new 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.920 Marta station there that which Marta is the train system 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.440 here in Atlanta. Uh. But but yeah, you get to 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.160 see it fresh and new and and uh, you know, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.320 unsoiled by by cannibalism. Oh. I just thought of another 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.240 one that I forgot to mention earlier, though this one 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.520 is actually not Italian. Some Marta stations appear in uh 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:18.080 in Escape from New York John Carpenter's movie One of 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.440 the Marta stations here in Town is extensively featured in 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.600 a sequence that was cut from the movie that involves 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.720 Kurt Russell robbing a bank at the beginning of the movie, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.480 or maybe sort of like digitally robbing a bank. I 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.360 think he like steals computer stuff. Um, but he like 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.680 gets on a Marta train and then like rides it 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.920 to a station and then him and his co conspirator 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.200 are ambushed right in the middle of a Marta station 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.560 by a bunch of police. That's how Snake gets caught. 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.760 Oh yeah, that's right. Um. And to be fair, there 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.600 are some other Georgia horror movies of note from back 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:51.720 in the day. I think Squirm from seventy six, I 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.840 think that was a Georgia movie. And oh, I'm trying 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.640 to remember the name of the one that's set at 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.240 the Beach, um Man, I was just down there recently 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.960 and I had I think I even sent you a 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.280 picture of one of the locations. Or was it The 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.840 Slayer from Type Island? Yes, from Tybee Island, The Slayer, 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.880 which is which actually quite good, um, maybe even too good. 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.359 It could have it could have been a bit crappier, 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:17.720 and that would have been probably been better for the 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.040 viewing experience. It's it's pretty seriously serious minded, but it's 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:22.520 so it's a fun view So if you ever, if 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.560 you ever find yourself out on Tybee Island enjoying, you know, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:37.600 beach vacation, bring a copy of The Slayer with you. Okay, 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.119 So what's the elevator pitch on Cannibal Apocalypse? Green Beret 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.679 Norman Hooper or is it Hopper? I guess because it's 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.440 like Dennis Hopper, Queen Beret Norman Hopper survived the Vietnam War, 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.359 but he brought something back with him, a stress activated 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.960 viral hunger for human flesh. Let's set that trailer audio 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:19.320 cannibalism that very ridd in the flu market taking pot 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:26.600 shots got side. Okay, that's an avoid about Please please 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.160 try to understand. Listen to me. While she was here, 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:35.199 I had this urge tood by her, good bye her, 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:48.760 you understand, like Posky, it's so good, it's so good. 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.040 I love the music in this film. I can't wait 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.480 to talk in more depth about the music. Music is 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.600 great and some of the musical choices, as is common 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.879 in Italian movies of this period are quite hilarious in 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.080 their in their deployment in the film, despite being pretty 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.560 great on their own. But first let's talk about Let's 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.520 talk about the director, the writer, and some of the 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:16.880 some of the cast. So the director here is Antonio Madretti, director, 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.040 co writer, lived through two thousand and two. Um, I 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.120 believe you're you're very familiar with one of his other works. Oh, yes, 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:27.119 he's so. He's the director of your The Hunter from 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:30.119 the Future from three so a few years after this 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.720 one was made. That is a Conan the Barbarian rip off, 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.520 a leather diaper barbarian movie starring Reb Brown, the guy 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.160 from Space Mutiny who screams. You remember him? Oh yes, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.520 he's an all time great muscle bro and in this 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:47.159 movie he's playing the Conan. But I like how this 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:53.680 movie mixes cheap barbarian rip off movie with dinosaurs and 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.280 science fiction. So it has aliens and robots and spaceships 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.560 and the villain at the end of the movie is 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.639 basically Darth Vader. Well, it makes sense for Margarity because 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.479 he worked in pretty much every genre. He did Vietnam 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.960 War movies, horror movies, sci fi movies, and more. Yeah, 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.680 I think he's widely considered sort of an ultimate top 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.840 tier schlock granddaddy. Uh. And in fact, he gets he 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.679 gets name dropped by a lot of other film nerds 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:26.000 and stuff. And if you are not familiar with these 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:30.200 Italian schlock movies, but you recognize his name an Tonio Marghariti, 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.720 that might be because you have heard him name checked 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.399 in movies by Quentin Tarantino. For example, in Inglorious Bastards, 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:42.200 Tarantino has a character who is assuming a false name 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.520 as and pretending to be an Italian Uh, camera operator. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:51.080 I think say that his name is Antonio Margariti. I 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.520 forgot about that. Um, yeah, yeah, he did it. All 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:56.879 he did did like you can pretty much name it, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.440 and he did it. Did he do underwater horror movie? Yes, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.240 he didn't want called aliens from the deep, so many 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.520 of those. Did he do a Hercules movie? Yes, he 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.200 did a couple of them. Oh yeah, I think he 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.800 actually did a number of them. So the Sword and 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.119 Sandal movies, as they're often called in the States, uh, 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.280 they're they're often referred to as peplum movies in the 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:20.639 in the Italian press, I think named after sort of 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.399 like the Greek garment that the Hercules type character or 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:27.360 the Ercole character would wear. Uh in these movies. Uh, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.600 these were really popular in Italian cinema from like the 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.680 mid fifties until the early sixties. I think they, like 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.800 they absolutely dominated the Italian movie scene at the time. 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:43.160 What Marvel movies are today. Peplum movies were to Italian 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.720 movies in the in the fifties through the early sixties. 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.840 And and he definitely made a few. Yeah, I mean 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.040 he also did literary adaptations. He did a Treasure Island adaptation. Okay, 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:55.399 he did a Christopher Lee horror movie titled Horror Castle 0:21:55.480 --> 0:21:58.240 in nineteen sixty three. He did a number of science 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.720 fiction movies that I think are can that I haven't 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:02.800 seen any of them, but I think they're considered less 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.320 over the top and grotesque than a lot of his 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.159 later works. Uh. And there it seemed to me like 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:13.720 they're sort of like competent, pretty solid, well grounded, well 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.120 executed sci fi movies from the fifties. Yeah, it would 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.479 be interesting to explore. I I read that he did 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.440 special effects as well, including working on two thousand and 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:27.360 one of Space Odyssey in the special effects department. But yeah, 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.680 he Also I should note that, even though his his 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.399 name carries more weight today, he generally worked under the 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:38.920 moniker Anthony M. Dawson. You know, you had to americanize 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:40.760 that name, right right. A lot of a lot of 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:44.159