Night of the Bloody Apes (1969)

A doctor tries to save his son's life through a complicated heart transplant operation, the involuntary donor being a gorilla. Eventually, the young man turns into a violent hybrid beast.

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

Cast overview:
José Elías Moreno	...	Dr. Krallman
Carlos López Moctezuma	...	Goyo
Armando Silvestre	...	Lt. Arthur Martínez
Norma Lazareno	...	Lucy Osorio
Agustín Martínez Solares	...	Julio Krallman (as Agustin Mtz. Solares)
Javier Rizo
Gerardo Zepeda	...	Monster (as Gerardo Cepeda)
Noelia Noel	...	Victim
Gina Morett	...	Woman in shower

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:

female wrestler | surgery | transformation | blood splatter | monster | 

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Taglines:

An Orgy of Terror!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Features footage of an actual human heart transplant operation in two separate scenes.

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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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Alternate Versions

The film has an interesting history in the UK. It was released in cinemas with around a minute of cuts in October 1974 to heavily edit the rape & murder of the woman in the bedroom and to remove a closeup shot of a stabbing. It was subsequently released on video in the early -Eighties possibly uncut, however this release was banned and withdrawn in the mid-Eighties. In the early Nineties it was passed by the UK censors with cuts but whoever got hold of this tape (released by Vipco video) were in for a surprise at it was accidentally re-released intact, before it was withdrawn yet again. In 1999 it was released by Satanica video, in a version that was obviously taken from Vipco's planned cut version (Vipco's logo remains). This time the distributor removed every single violent scene before submitting it to the censors. Strangely the scene where the doctor assistant is killed contains several shots of a completely different character being killed, whose demise doesn't happen until a few scenes later in the film.

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Connections

Featured in Fear, Panic & Censorship (2000)

User Reviews

"Move the table over to the cage... and prepare the gorilla!"

This movie has EVERYTHING. Female wrestling. Gorillas. Open-heart surgery. A crappy-looking monster. Gratuitous nudity. Ridiculously fake gore. Bad dubbing. Retarded dialogue. Atrocious editing. In other words, all the makings of a masterpiece.

When a surgeon transplants the heart of an ape into his deathly ill son, the result is, of course, a guy in a stupid-looking gorilla mask running amok and attacking hot Mexican broads. I mean, duh, what else would you expect to happen when you mess with the laws of nature, or whatever.

Meanwhile, some chick in a red catsuit wrestles other women while her boyfriend watches. No, it's not what you're thinking. She wrestles in the ring and he sits in the audience. Why does this happen? I don't really know. But her boyfriend turns out to be the detective who tries to track the Bloody Ape Man of Death, so I guess it's all right.

After the requisite number of murders, the surgeon recaptures his homicidal son and transplants a human heart back into him, taken from the body of a woman he steals from the hospital he works at. But it's all for naught: Gorilla Boy just gets back up and rips more people's heads off. More chaos ensues until the chilling denouement.

Bottom line: this movie is apparent proof that Ed Wood had Mexican relatives. Which means it's safe for you to watch this crap.

Waiter, I'll take a grilled apeburger... with extra cheese. To go!

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

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$171

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinematográfica Calderón S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min 83 min (dubbed)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1