Ninja Apocalypse (2014)

Posted in Reviews by - June 21, 2020
Ninja Apocalypse (2014)

Low-budget DTV slice ’em up from visual effects whiz Lloyd Lee Barnett, shot in only 12 days. Barnett does a neat job injecting blood splashes, fireballs, glowing swords, and electric charges over a lot of the action sequences. These fantasy elements sit alongside summersaulting ninja, martial arts sequences, vampires, zombies and an attack of deadly sirens in corsets. Pretty much every cult genre trope is thrown into the mix, packaged and delivered in less than 80 minutes. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the human race now appear to be living in a world somewhat similar to feudal Japan, with warring, nomadic, supernatural ninja clans vying for power (yes, it’s nonsense, but just go with it). Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa understandably plays the head of the ninja clans, who hosts a peace summit from his underground bunker only for him to be assassinated mid-speech with a shuriken star to the face. All eyes point to Cage (Christian Oliver) as the culprit – mysterious leader of the Lost Clan with dashing daytime TV looks – who summarily finds himself and his fellow ninja trapped underground in a survivalist cat-and-mouse situation. It’s the type of film Roger Corman would have made in the early 90s. NoneĀ of the set-pieces particularly hang together very well, but there’s certainly enough going on to happily pass the time.

This post was written by
Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

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