Cannibals in the Streets 4K 1980

The Deer Hunter', 'Homecoming', 'Rolling Thunder' - all these movies insisted on taking very seriously the inner world of those who returned from the Vietnam War. Christopher Walken's Russian Roulette with Bobby De Niro is a kind of code for this trend in cinema. The suffering of the soul multiplied by brutal realism, screen devastation symbolizing the devastation of the spiritual .... It is on this ground that Antoni Margheriti's 'Cannibal Apocalypse' emerged.

It is a stylishly dark movie with some very, very unexpected plot twists. First of all, it is important that the cannibals in the title, in fact, turn out to be the most real zombies. But the most important thing is another - the cannibalism virus was picked up by several heroes in Vietnam. Now they have to cope with it in the cozy conditions of one-story America. The hero Giovanni Lamberto Radice is not very good at it. He quickly slips into psychopathy. But all the attention in this picture to John Saxon. He's really cool here. A small plot branch and we get a foreshadowing of 'American Beauty', a teenage neighbor molesting a grown man, causing certain emotions. But Saxon was not of that breed. Unlike Kevin Spacey's character, Saxon could not afford to frustrate and worry about lost youth, lusting after a girl. Saxon put on self-control and tried to help his former subordinates, who unexpectedly began to terrorize the city with their cannibalistic-zombie antics. The unexpected final turn allowed the viewer to look at the zombie in a completely different way - not as a piece of reanimated flesh, but as a sick person in need of care and treatment, infected with the virus of violence and alienation. At the same time, a reasonable and reasoning person, capable of emotions and cunning, suppressing his weaknesses.

This makes Antonio Margheriti's movie one of the most extraordinary in the subgenre. All that remains is to add the wonderful music by Alexander Blonksteiner, who adorns the movie with his edgy electronic motifs. It's a strange thing - a simple genre movie about live flesh eaters turns out to be very strong stylistically, filled with powerful chase scenes and shootouts, as well as an existentialist, serious finale.