Night of the Bloody Apes (1969) Jerand Film Distributors/Horror RT: 83 minutes Rated R (violence, gore, rape and nudity) Director: Rene Cardona Screenplay: Rene Cardona and Rene Cardona Jr. Music: Antonio Diaz Conde Cinematography: Raul Martinez Solares Release date: February 6, 1969 (Mexico)/April 1972 (US) Cast: Jose Elias Moreno, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno, Agustin Martinez Solares, Gerardo Zepeda, Javier Rizo, Noella Noel, Gina Morett, Manuel Donde, Xochitl del Rosario, Anna Thompson. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Isn’t funny how the bad films of yesteryear are more fun than many of today’s so-called “good movies”? While I didn’t hate the recent Supergirl movie, it wasn’t as much fun as it should have been. It was a dark, clunky, dystopian piece in which nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves. I’m not saying it should have been goofy; it just shouldn’t have taken itself so seriously. That’s exactly why I liked the recent Masters of the Universe flick so much (just not as much as the campy 1987 version).
I was scrolling through Tubi on Friday night when I came across Night of the Bloody Apes. I heard mention of it a few times over the years, but never actually saw it. I decided to take a chance on it. I mean, what did I have to lose except 83 minutes of my life? I’m glad I did. It’s a hoot.
Night of the Bloody Apes has quite a history. It’s directed by Rene Cardona, a filmmaker who’s to Mexican exploitation movies what Roger Corman is to American ones. It’s a remake of his 1962 film Doctor of Doom (Spanish title, Las Luchadores contra el medico asesino [The Wrestling Women vs. the Killer Doctor]). Co written by his son Rene Jr., it combines elements of two popular subgenres, horror and Lucha libre. Released in its native Mexico in 1969, it crossed the border in 1972 with added scenes of nudity and graphic violence including actual footage of a heart transplant. That was the decision of the American distributors who decided it needed to be punched up in order to appeal to the blood-lusting grindhouse crowd.
One of the coolest things about Night of the Bloody Apes is its utter ineptitude. It’s a bad movie on practically every level. Most people would see this as a liability and a good reason to avoid it. I’m not most people. I see it as an asset and a great reason to watch it. It’s art of a different kind. Remember what they say about one’s man trash? It most definitely applies to Night of the Bloody Apes.
It starts off with a subplot that seems like it’s going to be important only for it to become secondary when the horror stuff steps in and takes over. Lady wrestler Lucy (Lazareno), clad in a red devil costume and mask (replete with horns), suffers something of a professional setback after severely injuring an opponent by throwing her out of the ring. Her boyfriend, police lieutenant Arturo Martinez (Silvestre), tries to reassure her, telling her it’s an inherent risk in her chosen profession. It doesn’t help much. The opponent ends up in a coma with an irreparable brain injury. As a result, Lucy loses her edge.
Let’s set that aside for the moment. Let’s get to the horror. Initially, it doesn’t appear to be connected to the wrestling story. The doctor who operates on the injured wrestler, one Dr. Krallman (Moreno), is one of those mad types with a deformed assistant (Moctezuma) who calls him “Master”. The doc’s son Julio (Solares) is dying of leukemia. His colleagues at General Hospital (yes, it’s really called that!) can’t do anything else for him. He has only a short time left. HA! Not if his father has anything to say about it. He has a radical idea that’s so crazy it just might work.
Krallman and his assistant Goyo sneak into the zoo and kidnap a gorilla. The plan is to remove the animal’s heart and put it in Julio. It’s a procedure to be performed in the doc’s basement laboratory. The result is not what the doctor expects, but it’s exactly what the audience expects. It turns Julio into a murderous beast. He escapes from the lab and kills a woman before Dad and Goyo recapture him. They sedate Julio while trying to figure out what to do next.
Now we get to the point where the two plots finally converge. Although I’m sure most of you have already figured it out, I’ll go ahead and put it to writing anyway. The doctor comes up with the brilliant idea of a second transplant, this time using a human heart from a living donor. The heart in question belongs to, no surprise, the lady wrestler lying in a coma with little chance of recovery. Krallman and Goyo abduct her from the hospital and take her to the lab only to find that Julio, back in monster form, has escaped again. He claims a few more victims before he’s re-recaptured and brought home for the second surgical procedure.
By this point, Lt. Martinez and his colleagues are really concerned. They have a series of brutal murders and a set of confusing clues. They have fingerprints, but can’t determine whether they came from a man or beast. The science guy the police bring in is no help. It finally comes down to Martinez declaring, “I have come to this conclusion. That whatever committed these atrocities is a beast, yes. But a horrible half-beast/half-human.” The police chief, unfazed, responds with the film’s best line, a real howler: “It’s more probable that of late more and more you’re watching in your television many of those pictures of terror.”
Perhaps I ought to explain something I failed to mention before. Night of the Bloody Apes, originally spoken in Spanish, is dubbed in English. It would appear that the guy they hired to translate the dialogue did so literally. This explains lines like “All of the doctors have definitely agreed with me that you infection has been detained.” and “You know what riders do when they get thrown from a horse? They remount in the act.” Then there’s the older mujer who screams, “AIIIIYYYY!!! A dead man! A dead man! A dead man!” upon encountering a bloody victim on the sidewalk.
ANYWAY, Julio has the second transplant, but it doesn’t take. He soon resumes his monstrous form and escapes again after killing Goyo by ripping off his head. He then knocks his father out and gently puts him to bed before leaving home for the final time. He heads to the hospital where he kills a doctor, terrorizes a nurse and snatches a sick little girl before heading to the roof for the final showdown with the police.
So I guess you’re wondering what happened to Lucy. When Jerand Films added all the blood and nudity, they removed scenes featuring Lucy thus minimizing her involvement with what goes down. We see her a few times in passing, sometimes nude, until Martinez invites her to join him as he patrols the streets looking for a killer they haven’t identified yet. What kind of bozo cop brings his girlfriend on a manhunt? It’s not exactly a hot date. Of course, Lucy ends up getting chased by Julio on his way to General Hospital where he presumably doesn’t bump into Luke and Laura.
I don’t what it cost to make Night of the Bloody Apes, but it couldn’t have been much. It has some of the worst monster makeup I’ve ever seen. We’re talking sub-Ed Wood here. The Julio transformation scenes are a combination of dissolve effects and an actor swap. You don’t have to look too closely to see that frail Human Julio and muscular Monster Julio are two different actors. Also, he’s clearly wearing a mask. As for the gorilla, you can tell that it’s a guy in a cheap costume. He’s as convincing as the primate in that Our Gang short (you know the one). Cardona and son spared every expense in this area.
The gore effects aren’t much better. First of all, you can tell these scenes were shoehorned in. They don’t quite match the color palette of the rest of the movie. Either way, the gore is fake as horse. In one scene, Monster Julio gouges a guy’s eye out. You can tell it’s a sheep’s eye placed in a rubber head being pushed out by an unseen hand. The tearing of another victim’s throat is completely unconvincing. When he rips a patrol cop’s scalp off, you can see the tube used to pump the blood from the wound.
The acting in Night of the Bloody Apes is simply pitiful and only made worse by the affectless dubbed English. Now because of the latter thing, I’m willing to cut the actors just a little bit of slack, but I find it difficult to believe this aspect of the film is any better in Spanish. But it’s all academic because nobody really cares about that in a movie like this. That being said, does anybody else think the little girl from the hospital looks like the little girl from Rene’s holiday classic Santa Claus (1959)? You know, the one where jolly St. Nick defeats a demon from hell?
As you can see, I had a blast with Night of the Bloody Apes. This is the kind of flick I love to watch on a dull Friday or Saturday night or any other day of the week for that matter. I just love watching bad movies. I also love discovering new ones (that is, ones I’ve never seen before) that I can tell my like-minded, movie-loving friends about. It’s a terrible movie in every imaginable way as well as some unimaginable ones, but that’s what I love about it. I’ll take Night of the Bloody Apes over any DC Comics movie every day.
