Insect

As I was watching "Blue Monkey," I realized that, although the budget was small, I was still having a good time! Low budget movies that can do that are the best ones.

It is about a small hospital that gets itself some big trouble. A patient who has contracted a serious case of gangrene is brought in and, unknown to the staff, the gangrene is thanks to a strange insect that used the patient to deposit eggs in. When they do find out about it, they catch it and call in an insect specialist, but, before he can arrive, the larva is accidentally mutated to an enormous size and changes into a giant insect that looks like a preying mantis. It runs loose in the hospital, killing people for it to use as hosts for its eggs, and only three brave people---a cop, a doctor, the insect specialist---are willing to stop it.

This movie is just fun to watch (especially Don Lake as the specialist, who steals ever scene he is in). A must for fans of movies like "The Thing." Zanatos's score: 8 out of 10. Check it out!

Don't mind the horrible movie poster; it doesn't do the movie justice at all!

Critics hated 'Blue Monkey'. I loved it. I loved it for the lack of humor that was sometimes so overbearing in 80s horror movies. (I get it; Americans, especially, like to laugh when they watch a movie. I like to laugh when I watch a comedy, and maybe horror comedies, but not horrors). I suppose critics hated it because it was too serious...

Well, ok, let's face it, the plot is overly familiar. It is about a parasite that grows larger and feeds on humans. Yeah, sure, we've seen this a zillion times before. 'Blue Monkey' however has a reasonably good script, good dialogue, good acting, characters I care about, and good visuals. The film is also fast-paced, and literally thrill-a-minute.

After being pricked by a plant, an elderly gentleman is taken to a hospital to be treated for an insect bite. A parasite comes out of his mouth, and off course all mayhem ensues from there on. The film builds momentum once the hospital is quarantined and no one is allowed to leave - while the insect grows bigger inside and also starts laying eggs, soon to hatch. The result is absolute chaos.

There were some funny moments, too, with some funny dialogue, and the two drunk ladies were absolutely hilarious! They were just fabulous! I also thoroughly enjoyed Steve Railsback once again as the protagonist. 'Bad Monkey' is an entertaining film with a thrilling climax. I absolutely loved it!

Would I watch it again? Yes, definitely.

There are no monkeys in this cheesy horror film, blue or otherwise; what we do get is a giant killer bug terrorising the occupants of a hospital under quarantine.

The film opens with handyman Fred pricking his hand on a rare Micronesian plant and collapsing soon after. Fred is rushed to the hospital where doctors are surprised to see a giant maggot emerge from the man's mouth. When the maggot is cut open, an insect emerges, which is trapped under a glass container for later examination.

Meanwhile, Detective Jim Bishop (Steve Railsback) is waiting for news about his partner Oscar, who has been shot. While Oscar is on the operating table, Dr. Rachel Carson (Gwyneth Walsh) gives Jim a tour of the hospital, including its high-tech laser research laboratory, which you can bet your bottom dollar comes into play during the film's finale.

Also guaranteed to be a major plot point: the network of old, deserted tunnels used as a playground by four of the hospital's youngest patients (health and safety be damned!).

Speaking of the film's four troublesome tykes, it is their actions that cause the insect to grow to immense proportions, the dumb kids discovering the bug trapped under glass and feeding it with NAC-5, an experimental growth promoter. Doh!

Given the schlocky nature of the film's plot, I had hoped that Blue Monkey would be a huge helping of gory B-movie fun, with plenty of creature effects; unfortunately, there is more goop than gore, and the killer insect doesn't get much screen time until the final act, when it finally gets to run amok (chewing off a guy's head in the movie's bloodiest moment -- if only there had been more of this kind of mayhem!).

Director William Fruet's direction is uninspired, borrowing heavily from James Cameron's Aliens, but without that film-maker's style and imagination (or his budget!). There's lots of crawling around dark passages and blue-lit tunnels, and shots of the characters running for their lives while being chased by the scuttling bug, but perhaps the most blatant crib comes when the bug's larvae emerge to feed on still-living human victims trapped in gelatinous cocoons.

As this sort of silliness goes, Blue Monkey is passable B-movie fun, but with more gore and more bug action it could have been great.

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

It's easy to see why the movie received poor reviews. The screenwriting overall is not very good, although the direction is for the most part not too bad. Some of the attempts at humor are more silly than actually funny.

Although there are a few capable people in the cast, some of the other actors and actresses in this one are not so good.

The title "Blue Monkey" made no sense, since the creatures are neither blue nor monkeys. It should perhaps have been titled "Insect" instead.

That being said, it is well-paced and keeps one's attention. When I watched it, there were no parts when I felt like fast-forwarding ahead. For all it's flaws, to be fair, it is a somewhat entertaining film.

BLUE MONKEY (1987, Fruet) is not a 50's throwback because the plot is far too nonsensical and it draws heavily from the scripts and storylines of films from the time. It is more before its time in tone as it feels very much like a horror film from the 1990's; the music has no personality, creates no atmosphere, drones on constantly, and sounds generic before it could have been; the lighting is awful; the plot is just disgustingly bad; it stinks of unnecessary cheese at times...

But the effects are actually good. It's a shame that the setting, characters, writing and soundtrack don't do those effects justice.