La horripilante bestia humana

I enjoyed watching Night Of The Blody Apes,I found it to be quite a funny sort of horror film. This was a cheap Mexican horror film. Female masked wrestler Lucy beats an opponent a wrestling lady with a red costume like Catwoman. she hurls her opponent from the ring. A mad scientist (Dr. Krellman) attempts to cure his son's leukaemia by doing the first 'ape-to-human' heart transplant. He decides to put a gorilla's heart into the lad There is footage of a graphic open heart surgery inserted in the ape operation scenes. this causes the boy to turn into a big ape. He becomes deformed and mutated, as he grows facial hair and immediately goes on a bloody rampage, tearing clothes off women and faces off men. I found this to be quite a funny horror to watch at time

I simply can't believe that "Night Of The Bloody Apes" was included in the notorious "Video Nasties" list. If you ever see it, you'll probably agree. This film is too stupid to be offensive. Oh, there is a lot of gore, to be sure, but most of the bloody sequences are so badly edited and inserted into the picture that either you don't even get a clear idea of what's going on (the heart transplant sequence, allegedly including real shots) or you simply laugh at the lame effects (the eye gouging). Terrible but fun picture, if you're in the right mood. (**)

P.S. There is also some brief but entertaining female wrestling footage.

I must disagree with other critics here. This is a marvelous Mexican exploitation movie. One problem with the translated title, however, is that there is only one ape in the movie, not two, and he dies early on after having his heart transplanted to a human. Thereafter, a man-ape assumes the role of movie-monster, so he's not fully a gorilla. Apes?? Anyway, much of the movie was made to titilate Mexican male viewers in the era of the movie's release, 1972. The ape-man has a penchant for chasing voluptuous Mexican ladies and tearing their blouse and bra off. For some reason he also likes to rip the heads off of human males. Surely this is the consequence of his animal heart! The movie also features the obligatory masked wrestling women, the heroine in this instance having almost no connection with the ape-man or his evil scientist creator, but the dialogue makes for extremely bad/funny sequences. There is much red paint splattered about and some obviously phony gore scenes. A great and good laugh for the twisted soul such as myself.

Because I am obviously a masochist, I have subjected myself to almost the entire cinematic oeuvre of Mexican exploitation director Rene Cardona. This one might just edge out "Doctor of Doom" to receive the dubious distinction of being his best work. It's VERY gory with decapitations, eyeball-ectomies, and several scenes of real-life open-heart surgery. Like any great Mexican exploitation flick it contains both scenes of gratuitous nudity (muchas senoritas desnudas)and gratuitous wrestling (female wrestling that is--alas, no Santo). It has a mad doctor and a hilarious, mestizo version of Igor. The bizarro plot involves the mad scientist transplanting the heart of a gorilla into his dying son. The result, as any scientist might have predicted, is that the son transforms into a half-man/half-gorilla who rapes a lot of Mexican babes (somehow without removing his pants) and kills a number of people with his bare hands. This, of course, requires yet another heart transplant at which point the movie starts to get a little ridiculous. . .

Some may find this film a tad offensive, but it's funny as hell if you're in the right mood. The funniest part of all might be the English dubbing in the US version. The actor dubbing the doctor, for instance, insists on pronouncing the Spanish name of the son, Julio, with an English "J", calling him Jewel-i-o. (It never occurs to him to just anglicize the whole name and call him Julian or something). And why was the US version called "Night of the Bloody Apes" when there's really only one "ape" in the movie? All in all, this film is a valid candidate for the "So-Bad-It's-Good" Hall of Fame. A true anti-masterpiece.

What can I say about this movie? If you are seeing it, you've already heard about it. If you've heard about it, you know what to expect. It is a gory, sleazy and silly movie...

And, I mean that in a good way. The actors don't seem to know that they are in a low budget movie. Some even seem unaware of the fact that they cannot act and TRY anyway. It is beautiful in its way.

The makeup and special effects are pretty bad. The ape-man looks as if someone slapped a mud pack on a professional wrestler. Later, cheesy looking fangs are added, possibly to show that his heart had been replaced again...possibly to show that the makeup man had a very short train of thought.

The biggest waste in this movie is the lady wrestler who is contemplating retirement after putting an opponent into a coma. She is on the periphery of the plot...a plot where, for example, in the Santos movies, wrestling could've played a large part. I was unhappy not to see her in action against the ape-man...

The actors are generally sincere. The doctor does an excellent job. The zaftig nudity of a lady wrestler is also a welcome change from the anorexia we are forced to consume in today's sleaze.

But this movie is BLOODY. Many scenes are simply stock footage taken from heart operations. But there are gougings, scalping's, detoothings and squishings. None of these injuries look particularly authentic; but, the thought of them might be offensive to some. Definitely, this is an adult movie...

For sheer fun, I gave this movie a seven. If you like sleaze and cheese, see it...