NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES

(a.k.a. LA HORRIPILANTE BESTIA HUMANA; GOMAR THE HUMAN GORILLA; HORROR AND SEX)

Already reviewed on two separate occasions on the SGM site, I'm not going to go into the in's and out's of BLOODY APES ludicrous plot yet again. I'm sure most people are aware of the film already, but if not here's a very brief summary for those too lazy to peruse the Reviews link on the left of this write-up:

A heart surgeon's son is dying. So the surgeon steals a gorilla from the local zoo and transplants it's heart into his son. His son awakes strong, healthy ... and insane. After going on a bloody rampage, he is sedated and brought back to the lab by his father who tries to correct his wrongs, this time utilising the heart of a female wrestler - but more gory madness ensues ...

The film stands the test of time as a preposterous gore movie, rife with insane dialogue, laughable "acting", crazy sensationalistic music and plasticine special effects. It's great trashy fun, the likes of which just doesn't get made anymore.

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES was unbelievably banned as a video nasty during all the tabloid-driven hoo-hah of the mod-80s. Since then it's made it's way onto UK DVD, but was precut by its distributor, Sovereign.

Kudos, then, are due to Salvation who have now released the film fully uncensored with an 18 certificate for the first time in the UK. It's the international version of the movie, more blood and less nudity, that's on offer here - identical to that served up on Something Weird's excellent R1 package (and also identical to the version originally banned on video all those years ago.

The film is presented in 1.33:1 and looks very good. Colours are sharp with good saturation of the bright reds. It's a clean transfer with only minor grain to report of. Compared to the SW transfer, Salvation's effort is only slightly inferior (I'd imagine it's a straight conversion of that very same print?).

The English dubbed mono track is equally good - free from hiss or dropouts.

The film can be accessed via 9 chapter stops, by way of a static scene-selection menu page.

Extras are neither here nor there: trailers for REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and LES DEMONIAQUES, 5 stills from BLOODY APES and a gallery of promo art (er, for gallery, read "3 stills"!).

NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES is a guilty pleasure. A gory, gratuitous pile of rubbish that remains, after repeated viewings, hugely enjoyable stuff. Now available uncut in the UK.

Review by Stu Willis