NIGHT
OF THE BLOODY APES (1968)Director: Rene Cardona
Beverly Wilshire Filmworks/Telefilms International
NIGHT
OF THE BLOODY APES (1968)Most Mexican horror films are tame allegories, aimed at the kiddies. NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES is one of four titles made by Rene Cardona in the late 60s with an extra dose of sex and gore to titillate the grown-ups. Although the others (including the likes of "The Vampire and the Sex" and "The Lepers and the Sex") are impossible to locate in their complete incarnations, this film was wildly distributed in its spicy variant (originally titled "Horror and Sex") and believe me, the blood flows like the cheese running on your plate of hot refried beans!
Again Cardona throws in wrestling, this time a female garbed in a red devil catsuit. One night she flings an opponent out of the ring, causing serious injury. Proving that wrestling is fake, with great concern, she visits her impaired rival (now comatose) in the hospital with her detective boyfriend. In the meantime, Dr. Krauman is a brilliant surgeon whose son Julio is dying of Leukemia. The clever doc decides that he's going to give the young man a heart transplant to safe his life.
Krauman and his crippled assistant (who even addresses the doc as "master") sneak into the local zoo and spot an orangutan. Through the miracle of special effects, the orangutan soon becomes an actor in a cheap gorilla suit, and the doctor tranquilizes and kidnaps the animal and brings him back to his lab. He then transfers the heart of the gorilla into his son's body, courtesy of some genuine, graphic heart surgery footage that caused the film to find a home on Great Britain's notorious "Video Nasty" list in the 80s.
Of course the experiment fails, and the angelic-looking Julio periodically transforms into an ugly ape-creature. Now played by a much beefier actor, Julio roams the Mexican streets with nothing on but his blue pajama bottoms, massive chest scar exposed, all while trying to keep the clay make-up on his face and the plastic teeth in his mouth. He stumbles upon a seductive senorita just getting out of the shower. He breaks in and carries her naked, fainted body to the bed. Frustrated since he can't figure out how to have sex with his pajama bottoms on, he rips the girl to shreds in a series of blood-soaked close-ups. The rest of the film has Dr. Krauman desperately trying to save his son, even kidnapping the comatose female wrestler to employ her heart. But all fails, and the beast just keeps killing.
Much of the gore and sex looks like it was inserted at a later time (different release dates are always given for the film), and the insertions are sloppy, complete with abrubt, uneven music cues. When a redhead is assaulted by the monster in a park, her blue dress is torn to shreds, and a scene where she runs off--showcasing an exposed breast flopping about--is shown twice. When the girl runs into a grocery for help, the dress is magically reassembled. And there's plenty of other scampering naked women about in the picture!
Other carnage includes an eye (resembling a deviled egg) gauging, decapitation, and a scalping--another ingenious effect that has the ape slowing pulling off the toupee of a bald guy's head to reveal a bloody pulp. Add terrible dubbing (a street cop is given a heavy Irish accent), plus absurd dialog (a doubting police chief says to the detective, "It's more probable that of late, more and more you're watching on your television ... many of those pictures of terror") and you have an irresistible, must-see piece of trash on your hands.
NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES has been available on VHS several times before, most notably from Gorgon/MPI. This budget DVD company's disc is apparently from the same transfer, and it even lifts the same goofy cover art. The colors look really nice, and the uncut source materials are in excellent shape, but there is an excessive amount of grain and haze in the transfer. The full frame image seems very well composed and the mono sound is also fine. The bottom line is that this disc is highly recommended for completists of drive-in/grindhouse sleaze. If you have trouble locating it, the Santo and Friends Web site is now selling copies for a low price. (George R. Reis)