NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1968)/FEAST OF FLESH (1967)
Directors: Rene Cardona, Emilio Vieyra
Image Entertainment/Something Weird Video

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.

Extra gore and sex looks like it was inserted at a later time (different release dates are always given for the film) by American distributors, and the insertions are sloppy, complete with abrupt, 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. There also is a bootleg DVD from Beverly Wishire which is a grainy, snowy mess. Image's transfers is sharp, full of detail, and brings out the vivid 60s colors of this exploitation gem. The film is presented full frame and there are some minor blemishes on the source print, but just the same, the image looks excellent. The mono sound is also fine for a dubbed film of this vintage.

The other feature presented here is FEAST OF FLESH, which is actually a re-titling of Emilio Vieyra's THE DEADLY ORGAN. FEAST OF FLESH played on the lower half of a card with BLOODY APES at 70s drive-ins, and I really love this all to infrequent trend of recreating authentic double bills on DVD. As for the film itself, it's a real letdown. It's another bizarre Brazilian-made effort from the man who gave us the more outrageous (and more enjoyable) THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP. The film is about a mysterious character in a goon rubber mask, Beatles wig, and hairy rubber claws terrorizing young women on the beach. He lures the gals by playing a creepy tune on his organ, gives them drugs, fondles them and eventually murders them by sticking a syringe into their chests.

Shot in black and white, FEAST OF FLESH is very boring with too many main characters for its own good, and too much time centered on the police investigation. There is some fleeting nudity on display, but it's easy to see why the American distributor deemed it necessary to insert extra skin and absurdity into THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP, and this film could have benefited from the same. The transfer is very nice though. Letterboxed at 1.66:1, the black and white image is sharp and the source print is in good condition, despite a few light lines that appear once in a while. The mono sound is fine.

Extras include three minutes of outtakes from NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (where do they dig up this stuff?) which centers on the newly added gore scenes, as well as shots from the original Mexican cut without the nasty fluff added. The outtakes are silent and have clowny music playing in the background. There is also a theatrical trailer for the double bill (not exposing any scenes from FEAST OF FLESH), two TV spots for BLOODY APES (the goriest TV spots you'll ever see!) and two for FEAST OF FLESH when it originally played by itself as THE DEADLY ORGAN. Other trailers included on the disc are FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (Chaney in Mexico by way of Jerry Warren) the amazing THE FLESH EATERS, Veronica Lake in FLESH FEAST, INVASION OF THE FLESH HUNTERS (the American version of CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE), the double threat of BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE/I DISMEMBER MAMA, TENDER FLESH (the re-release of Laurence Harvey's WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH), WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY/CORRIDORS OF BLOOD and "Shiver Shudder Show" (a cartoon skull announcing a late-night Halloween film festival). You'll also find a "hidden" trailer for THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP, which was released on DVD several years ago.

Rounding out the package are some ape- and wrestling-related short subjects. "Gorilla and the Maiden" is a burlesque short that has a guy in a gorilla suit menacing and dancing with a stripper. Some vintage women's wrestling footage has Mexican champ Rita Martinez against Clara Mortensen. "Artists' Paradise" is a silent era Nickelodeon short that has a half a dozen skinny dippers greeted by a hairy onlooker. Also from the 40s: "Two apes battle for B-Movie supremacy in the Hairy Short Subject 'White Gorilla.'" Rounding out the package is a "Ghastly Gallery of Ghoulish Comic Cover Art" from the 60s and 70s with music by the Dead Elvi. (George R. Reis)

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