Shakma (1990)

A wild animal attacks people trapped in a large tower.

Directors:

Hugh Parks, Tom Logan (co-director)

Writer:

Roger Engle

Stars:

Christopher Atkins, Amanda Wyss, Ari Meyers

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Christopher Atkins	...	Sam
Amanda Wyss	...	Tracy
Ari Meyers	...	Kim
Roddy McDowall	...	Sorenson
Robb Edward Morris	...	Gary (as Robb Morris)
Tre Laughlin	...	Bradley
Greg Flowers	...	Richard
Ann Kymberlie	...	Laura
Donna Jarrett	...	Brenda

Storyline

An experimental drug that is supposed to reduce aggression has the opposite effect on a baboon that is being experimented on by a group of medical students and their professor. While they are playing a fantasy role-playing game in their research facility, the baboon escapes and begins hunting them down.

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Plot Keywords:

attacked by a monkey | psychotronic film | baboon | medical student | role playing game | 

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Taglines:

The world's most aggressive primate just got mad

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

5 October 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Nemesis

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios Florida, Universal Orlando Resort - 1000 Universal Studios Plaza, Orlando, Florida, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castle Hill Productions, Quest Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

There were no female baboons on the set. Typhoon had an Alpha and a Beta trainer. The beta trainer was on the opposite side of the door whispering Typhoon's name which angered him.

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Goofs

The baboon appearing in the movie is not a chacma but hamadryas - a different species. The chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) is the largest species of baboon, whilst the hamadryas (Papio hamadryas) is significantly smaller and easily recognizable by a mane around his face - the only baboon species to have such feature.

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Quotes

Tracy: You are soooooo male!

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Connections

Referenced in Best of the Worst: The Star Wars Holiday Special (2014)

User Reviews

some good baboon attacks, but a lot of boring uneventful wandering through empty halls and rooms

A bunch of college students play a live-action fantasy role-playing game like Dungeon & Dragons in an (apparently) locked building with caged primates, with their professor acting as Dungeonmaster. They wander alone from room to room, communicating with the professor by walkie-talkie. There's some supposedly unbeatable villain in the game named Nemesis, but I don't know who he was. They're supposed to figure out some sort of word puzzle from things written on blackboards, which I guess is a code word to give to the heroine, who is the only one who bothered to dress up in a costume for the game.

The game is deadly boring, and they really should have made it more interesting and involving, or else contrived some other reason for the students to be in the building. I'd have to guess this movie is actually older than 1990, due to the poor picture quality and the terribly simplistic computer graphics on the computers that appear in the movie (although that may be the fault of the budget and not the age).

In between boring unsuspenseful scenes of people wandering around, a baboon attacks. The attacks are fairly violent, and if the movie's editing had been tighter, this might have been a better movie. There is a good scene of the baboon running down a hallway, and also towards the end a student has a plan to beat the baboon when we think he has given up that is also a good scene.

However, on the whole, the movie is too long, and has too many scenes that drag without serving a purpose. The characters are not really fleshed out, and looking at the list of actors and their characters' names, I can't tell who was who.