Video Nasty: Night Of The Bloody Apes (1969)

I growl the intro to Jimmy Castor Bunch's King Kong as I bang my chest, and peel myself a banana cause today's review comes straight out the zoo as I do my first time view of a movie that inspired underground legend RA The Rugged Man's first album Night Of The Bloody Apes!

Plot:
After the blood (red paint) splattered opening titles we start with some women's wrestling, now that's original. One of the wrestlers are hospitalized, and at a zoo near by a big monkey is shot with a tranquilizer gun, no escAPE for the ape who's kidnapped by a mad scientist to attempt curing his son of leukimia through a heart transplant from the ape.

That of course spiral's out of control as the son becomes half man, half ape, and goes bananas on a killing spree. The Fly, and the "I was cured alright" phrase from A Clockwork Orange comes to mind, yes. So, how can they stop the man who is now half man, half ape, when he escAPE's to wreak havoc?

What's Good:
This Mexican low budget flick looks bigger than the budget. It has a somewhat Hitchcockian feel when it comes to style, and the soundtrack. Acting's not bad either. The transplantation scenes, and bloody murders by man-ape are brutal, and shown in nauseating detail, no doubt rewarding the film with it's video nasty status though I've seen way nastier than this.

It actually reminds more of a Hammer movie in a lot of ways, but what must've earned it the video nasty status is the rape scenes, and bloody, gory violence, but you can't really blame a man-ape monster for doin' a little rAPE now, can you?

What's Bad:
At times slow paced, and boring. Sometimes the bad make up effects, and stupidity level of what's happening is way up there too, and there's no apeS, just one. Could've been less wrestling scenes really as they don't make that much sense to put into a horror movie, though the female wrestler devil costume is quite cool.

The Verdict:
I had fun viewing this. It wasn't nearly as cheap, and trashy as I anticipated, and fans of regular old school Horror movies like the Hammer stuff, Roger Corman flix of the 60's/70's, and Universal Monsters fans should find this a worth while watch, and might even have fun, and enjoy it, like I did in general.

However, flawed, and a slow burn at times, some sloppy editing, and bad effects but all in all this is great, gory entertainment for the Horror fiends, so it's understandable that Rugged Man chose this to inspire his debut album title cause it is a fun rope ride whether man, or bloody APE, no monkey biz. Demented fun for your eyeballs!

Rating:
4/6