Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

This Something Weird double feature asks a question that has troubled science for some time: if you were to take the heart of a gorilla and transplant it into the heart of a young man suffering from leukemia what would happen? (a) He would lead a normal, productive life; (b) He would die because of tissue incompatibility; (c) He would suffer severe brain damage because the transplanted heart would not be up to the task; or (d) He would become a monster who kills men and rips the clothes off of women. If you said (d) you would be correct, especially if you explained that because the gorilla's heart was so strong if would cause a transformation whereby the young man's head would become ape like while the rest of him still looked human, but really bulked up (which would facilitate the aforementioned killing and ripping). Anyhow, that is the "science" behind the 1968 Mexican flick "Night of the Bloody Apes" ("La Horripilante bestia humana," which would be "The Grisly Human Beast" instead of "La noche de los Monos Sangrientos") although, to be perfectly clear, there is only one ape who over several nights makes a lot of other people bloody (we know this will be film with lots of blood because red paint is poured throughout the opening credits).

This strange chain of events begins when Lucy Ossorio (Norman Lazareno), a masked female wrestler who dresses up like a devil throws her opponent out of the ring and into the hospital. Meanwhile, Dr. Krallman (José Elías Moreno) learns his son, Julio (Agustín Martínez Solares) is dying. So the doctor and his faithful servant, Goyo (Carlos López Moctezuma), steal a gorilla and perform the operation (be prepared to see a heart cut out of a chest; twice, actually). This sounds like a good idea at the time, but then Julio's blood pressure causes his mutation into a wrestling with some sort of ape's head and he is begins his spree of killing and molesting. Krallman feels bad about this, so since Elena (Noelia Noel), the injured wrestling is going to end up a vegetable he transplants her heart into Julio. Meanwhile, Lucy keeps climbing back into the ring from time to time when she is not lying around naked talking to her police inspector boyfriend, Arturo Martinez (Armando Silvestre), who starts adding up the evidence and does not care how incredible his explanation seems to his superiors. When Lucy finds out what has been going on she comments, "Unfortunate. That's so sad," a final reminder that whoever wrote the English dialogue for this film is either intentionally bad or unintentionally funny, and then over the end title we get the pouring of more red paint. Apparently this is a remake of an earlier Rene Cardona film, "Doctor of Doom," with more blood and sex, but I cannot speak to the relative increase (but there is more blood than naked bodies and rarely a combination of the two). But this movie has gory special effects, naked women without tan lines, and incredibly bad dubbed dialogue, which makes it a triple threat B-movie.

After the first feature you can enjoy outtakes from the film, all set to dance hall music and most of which involve lots of fake blood, although the eyeball popping scene is the most interesting one, along with the apparently discarded notion of having the woman in the green dress run from the monster without her breast falling out of the aforementioned dress. You also get the trailers for several of these Something Weird combinations, the best of which is the reporter trying to interview weird people who sat through the double-bill of "Blood Splattered Bride" and "I Dismember Mama." There are also a whole bunch of trailers for movies most of which involve the word "flesh" in their title and which most of which are apparently not available for viewing, just to drive you crazy (who would not want to see a movie in which Veronica Lake asks the question, "Don't you like my little maggots?"). The exception here is "The Deadly Organ" which is really another name for the second feature, "Feast of Flesh." Too bad the trailer is at least twice as good as the movie.

Then there are the black & white short subjects, all of which are thematically related to the first feature. "Gorilla and the Maiden" offers a gum chewing, smiling, dancing blonde who then comes out dancing in a flimsy outfit and then is attacked by a guy in an ape suit who touches her when she faints and dances with her when she wakes up. When she is down to her bikini, well, let us just say you will not believe what comes next (but pasties are involved). Then there is "The World's Championship Women's Wrestling Contest," between Clara Mortensen, Champion of the World, and Rita Martinez, Champion of Mexico (commentary by Sam Hayes). "Artist's Paradise" is badly scratched footage of naked women bathing in a river only to be chased off by a gorilla. Finally, "White Gorilla" is about an English hunting part being attacked by Germans in the Congo. Meanwhile, there is a white gorilla who ends up chasing the young woman in the party through the jungle, until he finds a black gorilla to fight and we are back to the DVD's wrestling theme. Meanwhile, the plot looks more and more like a "King Kong" rip-off and the natives speak one of the most wretched faux African languages of all-time. There is also the "Ghastly Gallery of Ghoulish Comic Cover Art with Music by the Dead Elvi" for your viewing and listening enjoyment.

"They live to kill and kill to live" is apparently the tag line for "Feast of Flesh" ("Placer sangriento" which translates as "Bloody Pleasure" as opposed to "El banquete de Carne"), a film for which spare body parts were available free of charge at the box office of your friendly local theater. Actually, after seeing the trailer for this black & white 1967 film, I was rather interested in seeing any movie that offers a Phantom of the Opera-like character wearing a mask that makes him look like a Muppet version of Christopher Lee playing Frankenstein (specific enough for you?). But it turns out his "love drug" is just heroin, and the film consists more of Inspector Ernesto Lauria (Mauricio De Ferraris) and the cops investigating the string of murders rather than watching this guy inject his victims and then play his organ. You understand that these two plot lines are going to collide at some point, but it becomes hard to remember that fact for most of the film. Besides, I guessed who it was going to be from the credits so when the requisite backstory floated by it only confirmed my suspicion.

"Feast of Flesh" is from Argentina and director Emilio Vieyra, who prefers women to have tan lines and favors eroticism over outright nudity (think the "Wicked Game" music video). But this film is just too weird. We must be seeing this guy injecting these women the second (or last) time he does so, because otherwise there is no reason for them to be so amorous towards such a weird looking cat. We are having enough trouble figuring out what he is doing let along be concerned with who is doing it. Fortunately, the fiend insists on playing the same music over and over again, thereby providing Lauria with a key clue (apparently driving a Porsch did not help narrow down the suspects). To keep his identity secret, he nevre talks until the climax of the film. Unfortunately, half way through this little blemmish pops up on the top of the screen and starts to drive you crazy. The result is a few visually interesting moments trying to make up for the lethargy of the police investigation (they watch this guy kill his final victim, their "guinea pig," using his telltale injection of heroin right into the heart).

So that would be 4 stars for "Night of the Bloody Apes," 2.5 stars for "Feast of Flesh," and 4.5 stars for the DVD extras. Take the .5 from the 4.5 and add it to the 2.5 to make it a 3 and that gives us two 4s and a 3, so we round up and call it a night. The Easter Eggs are on the main menu once you click on "Special Features." Go left for the trailer for another one of Vieyra's films, the better known and much more highly regard (believe it or not) "The Curious Dr. Humpp." Go right for a clip on the "Gorilla Woman." Anyhow, be sure to join us next Saturday night when we watch a comedy combo, "Dracula: Dirty Old Man" and "What Happened to Count Dracula?"

Another of those lovely 70's Video nasties that were banned in the UK in the early 80's and watching this today you gotta wonder why? Man in Ape mask goes round raping and killing young ladies, a sub-plot involving a female wrestler and one has to say the worst scalping ever commited to celluloid (It's a wig god damn it!!) all of this in mind the film is hilarious in every department, the only contentious scenes are those of real life heart surgery which if you've ever watched ER will come as no surprise or shock to anyone and the whole film is so deliciously camp, how this ever got viewed as being depraved and shocking is lost on me. Apparently theres a xxx version made for mexican porno theatres floating around but i have yet spoken or heard of anyone thats actually seen it. This is the most complete version available and if like myself your an avid horror historian or just want to have a good giggle my advice is buy the dvd then seek professional help. Happy monkey-ing.