NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES

(A.k.a. HORROR Y SEXO; LA HORRIPILANTE BESTIA HUMANA)

A classic of twisted Mexican horror, and a former banned video title to boot, NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES returns to UK DVD …

Dr Krellman (Jose Elias Moreno), a leading surgeon in his field, is desperately unhappy. His son Julio (Agustin Martinez Solares) is dying of a rare heart disease.

One evening Krellman and his faithful assistant visit the city zoo and, armed with a rifle, drug the largest gorilla they can find. Smuggling the oversized monkey back to the doctor's lab, they perform a bizarre heart-transplant, instilling the ape's ticker into the chest of the near-dead son.

These preposterous events coincide with a female wrestling match that turns ugly - leaving one of the wrestlers comatose and in need of medical attention. She is, naturally, sent to Krellman's surgery.

These two apparently unconnected plots come together when Julio awakes as a deformed monkey-man with huge biceps and bloody murder on his mind.

A night of bloody rampage ensues - a naked young woman is fondled and murdered in her own apartment; followed by great hammy episodes including eye gouging, throat tearing, decapitation, scalping and rape.

These scenes are pretty gory for their time - 1969 - and the rape scene's graphic in the sense that I imagine seeing women thrown to the floor, breasts exposed, having their clothes torn off while screaming was still pretty radical at the time!

The father tracks Julio down and sedates him. Back at the lab, Krellman assumes the safest thing to do is remove the offending simian heart and replace it with the nice girlie wrestler one - after all her skull is crushed and despite the doctor's surgery, she is sure to die.

Uh-oh, bad mistake - and more mayhem unfolds ...

The monster make-up is horrendous, the dialogue laughably bad and the dubbing atrocious. Witness the medical assistant's comedy limp! And who the fuck conducted the (undoubtedly genuine) heart transplant footage?! Their hands are shaking more than a belly-dancer's arse. I only hope they don't perform my inevitable bypass surgery …

But in the tradition of BLOOD FEAST, this is entertaining fast-paced fun ideal for party audiences or those cheeky little evenings home alone with a few beers and brain switched quite securely off. For unrepentant gore, minor nudity and a cracking 'bad' script - you can't do any better.

Rene Cardona's ridiculous monster movie, a remake of his own less interesting DOCTOR OF DOOM from 1962, has earned itself a reputation on UK shores over the years thanks to its appearance on the DPP's pig-ignorant 'Video Nasties' list.

Nucleus Films are releasing this former video nasty onto UK DVD fully uncut (80 minutes 18 seconds), presented in a slightly cropped but still nicely framed 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The picture benefits from 16x9 enhancement and is largely decent.

There are minor specks evident throughout and some fleeting screen wobble in the earlier moments, but nothing that’s too distracting: this is an authentic grindhouse film, after all – we wouldn’t want to see it being cleaned up TOO much. As it stands, colours are vibrant and blacks are stable throughout. Contrast holds up well; compression is not an issue.

English mono audio is in decent shape, with only fleeting moments of background noise to speak of. There are some missing sound effects, but it may be that this has always been the case on the English dubbed soundtrack (the silent crowd at the opening wresting match, for example).

We also get a Spanish language soundtrack option which sounds a little more muffled but is acceptable throughout. It certainly synchs to the actors’ mouths a lot more accurately!

Optional English subtitles are available for both audio tracks. These are different depending on which language you choose: they both stay true to the dialogue being spoken.

A static main menu page leads into an animated scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with an optional introduction to the film from Dr Patricia MacCormack. This is 3 minutes in length and is lifted from Nucleus’ acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE set.

Two US TV spots follow, both of which are short, very similar and unexpectedly gory.

A US theatrical trailer basically crams all the film’s most salacious moments into its 2-minute running time.

A well-produced gallery of colourful stills and posters is very attractive indeed.

We also get a plethora of trailers for other Nucleus titles: CANNIBAL GIRLS, BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH, FANTASM, FANTASM COMES AGAIN, ESCORT GIRLS, DRESSAGE, GWENDOLINE, EDUCATION ANGLAISE, DEATH SHIP, GHOST STORY, DEAD OF NIGHT and SOME LIKE IT SEXY.

Keen-eyed viewers will find a cheekily placed Easter Egg also on the Extras page. This contains the 3 minutes of gore FX outtakes which also featured on Something Weird’s US DVD release of the film. These are window-boxed and presented without sound.

The disc is also defaulted to open with trailers for CRUEL PASSION, CHILDREN SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS and the aforementioned VIDEO NASTIES: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE.

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES, a gloriously bad film given prolonged life in the UK thanks to its inexplicable appearance on the hallowed ‘banned list’, receives its best British DVD release to date, courtesy of the fine folk at Nucleus Films. Nice cover art, too.

Review by Stuart Willis