Video Nasty #19
AN ORGY OF TERROR!
Night Of The Bloody Apes
1969
HALF MAN, HALF BEAST, ALL HORROR!
Original title: La Horripilante Bestia Humana
Also known as: Horror y Sexo
NTSC Running time: 83:46
Directed by Rene Cardona, with additional scenes directed by Jerald Intrator
Written by Rene Cardona & Rene Cardona, Jr.
Produced by Guillermo Calderon and Alfredo Salazar
Starring: Jose Elias Moreno, Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, Armando Silvestre, Norma Lazareno
Body Count: 11, plus a gorilla. (It's a guy in a suit, maybe the worst film gorilla I've ever seen.)
Availability: Uncut Region 1 DVD from Something Weird Video (as a double feature with Feast Of Flesh)
BBFC Status
Why it's a Nasty: Sexual assaults and (what else?) gore.
What was cut: Unspecified cuts were made to the original cinema version (certified X on March 26, 1974). Subsequent video versions certified 18 on May 19, 1999 and again on June 24, 2002 were pre-cut before being submitted for classification.
Current UK Status: An uncut Region 2 DVD from Redemption was rumored to be released in 2007 uncut...although the BBFC hasn't certified the uncut version and it is not listed on the Redemption website. The reviews I have found of the Redemption DVD (of which there were two) were written before the alleged release
Availability: 18 certified version on Region 2 DVD from Film 2000. The Redemption disc appears to have been mooted.
Night Of The Bloody Apes was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
Night Of The Bloody Apes was successfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act, making it one of the DPP39.
Remember that Christian Slater movie where he had a baboon's heart? This is what really happened.
When Dr. Krallman (Jose Elias Moreno) learns that his son's condition is inoperable...he decides the time is right for an operation! Meanwhile, wrestler Lucy Ossorio (Norma Lazareno) critically injures her opponent by tossing her from the ring. Julio Krallman (Agustin Martinez Solares) survives his father's radical procedure, his body accepting the heart of an ape, stolen from the local zoo. Heading up the zoo investigation: Lucy's boyfriend, Lieutenant Arturo Martinez (Armando Silvestre). The cops think the gorilla is still on the loose. But what's really out there is much more horrifying: Julio, with an apeface and a raging, confused libido, transformed into a beast by his father's medical meddling!
Julio prowls the streets, murdering men and clumsily attempting to mate with women, an enterprise he doesn't seem to be any good at. (He may succeed at one point, but we don't see it and the victim [understandably] doesn't mention it.) His father's English-dubbed voice keeps calling him "Joo-lee-oh", which is laughable for its' ignorance. There's lots of terrible gore and gratuitous nudity, apparently shot for foreign markets like the US by Jerald Intrator. And without those elements, there would really be no reason to watch it...unless you love wrestling that much.
The wrestling isn't anything spectacular, but I'm sure it was more than adequate for the Mexican audiences of 1969, who devoured anything that featured the sport. Cardona had done well earlier in the decade with Las Luchadoras Contra La Momia (Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy), and before that he pitted Santa Claus against The Devil Himself in 1959's Santa Claus. Campy, campy.
Is there anything special about this film? Not really. It's a rehash of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with gore, girls and gorillas. Fun and unintentionally funny, but I can't quite bring myself to recommend this one. If you think John Waters has refined taste, you'll love it.
These older ones don't give me a whole lot to say. Three releases by Something Weird, and only the first (Blood Feast - see Video Nasty #1) gave me enough literary fuel for a decent entry. I'm not a huge fan of the 1960s. It's like looking at a junior high annual: it got you where you are now, but that doesn't mean you need to revisit it. There's one more from that odd decade on the list...but it's a doozy: Love Camp 7, a Nazisploitation film that a fellow Nasty completist has rated as the Nastiest Nasty of them all. I can't wait. Bring it.
In other news, the BBFC has rejected another recent torture-themed film, The Bunny Game, for classification of any kind. While The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been passed at 18 after several cuts, appeals and addressing the issue of cuts for The Bunny Game has yet to transpire. Further bulletins as we get 'em.
Until next time, if you run into a guy with a horrible scar on his bare chest who looks and sounds just like a monkey, I recommend stabbing until he stops. Paranoia is always there for you. And so am I. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Julio prowls the streets, murdering men and clumsily attempting to mate with women, an enterprise he doesn't seem to be any good at. (He may succeed at one point, but we don't see it and the victim [understandably] doesn't mention it.) His father's English-dubbed voice keeps calling him "Joo-lee-oh", which is laughable for its' ignorance. There's lots of terrible gore and gratuitous nudity, apparently shot for foreign markets like the US by Jerald Intrator. And without those elements, there would really be no reason to watch it...unless you love wrestling that much.
The wrestling isn't anything spectacular, but I'm sure it was more than adequate for the Mexican audiences of 1969, who devoured anything that featured the sport. Cardona had done well earlier in the decade with Las Luchadoras Contra La Momia (Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy), and before that he pitted Santa Claus against The Devil Himself in 1959's Santa Claus. Campy, campy.
Is there anything special about this film? Not really. It's a rehash of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein with gore, girls and gorillas. Fun and unintentionally funny, but I can't quite bring myself to recommend this one. If you think John Waters has refined taste, you'll love it.
These older ones don't give me a whole lot to say. Three releases by Something Weird, and only the first (Blood Feast - see Video Nasty #1) gave me enough literary fuel for a decent entry. I'm not a huge fan of the 1960s. It's like looking at a junior high annual: it got you where you are now, but that doesn't mean you need to revisit it. There's one more from that odd decade on the list...but it's a doozy: Love Camp 7, a Nazisploitation film that a fellow Nasty completist has rated as the Nastiest Nasty of them all. I can't wait. Bring it.
In other news, the BBFC has rejected another recent torture-themed film, The Bunny Game, for classification of any kind. While The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been passed at 18 after several cuts, appeals and addressing the issue of cuts for The Bunny Game has yet to transpire. Further bulletins as we get 'em.
Until next time, if you run into a guy with a horrible scar on his bare chest who looks and sounds just like a monkey, I recommend stabbing until he stops. Paranoia is always there for you. And so am I. Because my name's Justin. JustinCase.
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