BloodMonkey (2007) (V)

Director:

Robert Young

Writers (WGA):

George LaVoo (screenplay) and
Gary Dauberman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 January 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Experience the dark side of nature.

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Jungle | Student Group | Chimpanzee | Face Ripped Off | Roundkick

Cast

F. Murray Abraham	...	Professor Hamilton
Matt Ryan	...	Seth
Amy Manson	...	Amy Armstrong
Matt Reeves	...	Greg Satch
Laura Aikman	...	Sydney Maas
Sebastian Armesto	...	Josh Dawson
Freishia Bomambehran	...	Dani Sudeva
Prapimporn Karnchanda	...	Chenne
Mascagni Andrea	...	Pilot
Manop Seengoen	...	Porter
Ulf Peder Johansson	...	Man 1
Anu Thureekan	...	Man 2
Thunya Suwanchatree	...	Man 3

Also Known As:

Blood Monkey (Australia) (DVD title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Thailand

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Krabi, Thailand

Company:

Thai Occidental Production Limited

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: During the scene that the documentary crew is boarding the plane, the boom mic is visible on the reflection of Greg's sunglasses.

Blood maybe, monkeys not so much

A group of students is summoned to assist a professor in exploring jungle regions never before touched by the human hand. But soon they learn about a whole new primate species that just might still be alive. After one of the students disappears, suspicions turn against the professor and the blood monkey begins his prowl.

Did you ever have a movie you just knew was going to be bad without giving it five minutes of a chance? This was one of those -- with a name like "Blood Monkey" and the fact it seems to be from the Sci-Fi Network, I had little hopes. Even the fact it's a "creature feature" is unfortunate, because those are so hard to make decent (I'm still recovering from "Prey"). And the selling point? It stars Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham as Professor Hamilton.

Highlighting Abraham was a good idea, as he's really the only one in this film who has a real chance at another movie appearance. I'm just sad he had to sink this low to pay his rent. The only other character I really liked was student Sydney Maas (Laura Aikman), but this was more for her questionable attractiveness than any special talent.

As my title says, this film suffers from one big lack: the monkey. Every so often you'll get some blood and at one point there's an arm. But the monkeys are always in the distance, in the shadows and blurry, so they could be boars or lions or anything else. Even, perhaps, Dennis Franz. I really don't know. But have students get attacked by a creature, but never showing the creature attack, gets really old.

I don't know who would enjoy this film. I will say they paced the suspense out, so I never wanted to shut it off (which is more than I can say about a lot of movies). But others might not be so patient. With minimal action, minimal gore, no nudity... this is not the ideal horror film. Sometimes you can remedy that with solid writing ("The Beast Must Die!") but this film is a one sentence idea stretched to 90 minutes. You're better off watching reruns of "Murder, She Wrote".