Blue Monkey

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.

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.

Just fun to watch, no meaning or anything. Just plain "giant mutated monster" inside a hospital and some people panic and scream while others try to stop it. I thought the acting wasn't bad, and there were a couple of gory moments. The "blue monkey" which is a giant insect was an ok model. Very predictable.

Blue monkey is actually mentioned in the film but not in any way that makes any possible sense. At one point,some kids are wandering thru the deeper levels, exploring.

They begin to discuss what they'll find down there and one of them (a girl) says she bets they'll find a blue monkey.

Yes, thats it. Totally inconsequential to the story, the only sad connection to the title, and no idea why she would suppose she'd find a blue monkey in a hospital's basement.

I'm embarrassed for having remembered it but somebody had to remember I suppose!

I remember having seen "Blue Monkey" on Polish VHS under the title "Insect" many years ago.The plot of this Canadian creature feature is fairly simple:a giant insect is running amok in a popular hospital.A worm like bacteria is spreading the disease on the patients.Once a group of kids mistakenly sprinkle a jar of growth stimulant onto the creature it eventually turns into a giant insect.The hospital is quickly quarantined by the government and the army.Cheesy monster flick with cult actor Steve Railsback of "Turkey Shoot" as the main hero.Unfortunately the amount of gore and violence is very low.If you like William Fruet's movies for example "Death Weekend" or "Trappped" give "Blue Monkey" a look.7 monkeys out of 10.