Night of the Bloody Apes (1969)

This cheap Mexican horror film is a remake of Cardona's Doctor of Doom (1962), spiced with nudity, medical footage, women wrestling, and cheap gore shots. Female masked wrestler Lucy (who ... See full summary »

Director:

René Cardona

Writers:

René Cardona Jr. (story and adaptation), René Cardona (story and adaptation)

Stars:

José Elías Moreno, Carlos López Moctezuma, Armando Silvestre

Cast

Credited cast:
José Elías Moreno	...	Dr. Krallman
Carlos López Moctezuma	...	Goyo
Armando Silvestre	...	Lt. Arturo Martinez
Norma Lazareno	...	Lucy Osorio
Agustín Martínez Solares	...	Julio Krallman (as Agustin Mtz. Solares)
Javier Rizo
Gerardo Zepeda	...	Monstruo (as Gerardo Cepeda)
Noelia Noel	...	Víctima
Gina Morett	...	Mujer en regadera
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anna Levine
Roger Park

Storyline

This cheap Mexican horror film is a remake of Cardona's Doctor of Doom (1962), spiced with nudity, medical footage, women wrestling, and cheap gore shots. Female masked wrestler Lucy (who looks like the devil) beats the stuffing out of an opponent - a wrestling lady with a red costume like Catwoman. Lucy finally hurls her opponent from the squared circle and knocks her out cold. Although Lucy's cop boyfriend tries to convince her that it's all part of the show, Lucy can no longer handle the stress of wrestling. Meanwhile, a mad scientist (Dr. Krellman) attempts to cure his son's leukemia by doing the first 'ape-to-human' heart transplant. He decides to put a gorilla's heart into the lad and orders his flunky to "prepare the gorilla!". There is actual footage of a graphic open heart surgery inserted in the ape operation scenes. This of course causes the boy to turn into a big stinky man-ape. He becomes deformed and mutated, as he sprouts excessive facial hair and takes on the ...

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Plot Keywords:

gorilla | zoo | orangutan | wrestling | operation | 

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Taglines:

They rip, they claw, they tear you to pieces!

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Night of the Bloody Apes

Filming Locations:

Estudios Churubusco Azteca, Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinematográfica Calderón S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min (dubbed)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was released on DVD by Something Weird Video as part of a double feature with another Spanish-language horror movie, the 1967 Argentine production Placer sangriento ("Bloody Pleasure", a.k.a. Feast of Flesh). It was released uncut on DVD in the UK by Redemption in 2007, and Nucleus Films released the remastered and uncut version on DVD on October 8, 2012.

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Goofs

When the girl is attacked in the park, the fake "grass" is accidently pushed aside, revealing the hard studio floor beneath.

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Quotes

Dr. Arturo Martinez: Prepare the gorilla.

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Connections

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 6 (1999)

User Reviews

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES {Original Spanish-Language and Alternate U.S. Versions} (Rene Cardona, 1969) **

This is another notorious Mexican horror film: however, while the original Spanish-language version is quite tame, all sorts of gore and nudity were inserted for the English-dubbed variant (prepared by Jerald Intrator - who did similar duties on THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP [1967/71] - and, like the U.S. version of that film, had previously been available on DVD through Something Weird/Image)!

I watched the original first and, while no great shakes, it was fairly engaging - especially with a plot as familiar as this one was: a doctor goes beyond the call of duty in attempting to save the life of his terminally ill son; he even has a hulking, game-legged assistant (played by Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, who had essayed a strikingly similar role - though in a more sinister vein - in THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN [1961]). I know that several Mexican films mingled horror with the "Lucha Libre" (Wrestling) genre but I had never watched one myself; this element is present here - in fact, the heroine is a wrestler - but the two styles are, perhaps thankfully, kept apart (that said, the wrestling sequences are competently done, with some of the moves proving highly amusing).

The doctor's son is transformed into a monster (looking like The Incredible Hulk with mud splashed over his face!) after having had an ape's heart transplanted into him - but, then, when this is replaced with that of a comatose female wrestler, he stays this way and grows a pair of fangs to boot (shouldn't he realistically have turned into a transsexual...though I guess that wouldn't have been very interesting)!! The climactic rooftop sequence in which the monster kidnaps a child and meets his demise at the hands of the police is reminiscent of THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942). My favorite unintentionally funny moments in the film, however, occur when the doctor, trying to comfort his son, tells him that he'll soon be cured - only to turn his back soon after on the verge of tears - and also the impatient look he gives his crippled assistant (as the latter staggers slowly into the car) when they're about to chase the monster who has escaped from the lab.

The alternate nude scenes work for the film (these were actually done by Cardona himself for a racier Mexican version entitled HORROR Y SEXO) but its reputation is largely based on the added material showing over-the-top violence, such as an eyeball being gouged out of its socket, a scalping and even a person's head being torn off. There are also several graphic operation inserts which, however, give rise to a goof: while it's made clear that only two people are involved in the operation, we see a third pair of hands constantly holding an oxygen mask to the patient's face!

The film is also said to be a loose remake of Cardona's own black-and-white horror film DOCTOR OF DOOM (1962) but, since I haven't watched that one, I can't say how much of it was actually pilfered for NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES...