Night of the Bloody Apes

Night of the Bloody Apes is an el cheapo Mexican flick that features a nearly irresistible combination of luchador wrestling, mad science and nudity. It’s also bloody. And there are apes.

A female masked wrestler Lucy, launches her copyright-infringing Catwoman-attired opponent, out of a wrestling ring – but that’s just the beginning.

There’s also a more intriguing plot involving the diabolical Dr Krallman, who’s treating his son for leukemia by doing an’ape-to-human’ heart transplant’. This is one for the medical licensing board to take a look at, as leukemia is a bone-marrow disease. This this would certainly not bode well for Mexico as a medical tourism destination.

Interestingly, the New York Times reported that in 1984, a 15-day-old girl received a baboon’s heart in a procedure done at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California. Four earlier efforts to use ape hearts dating back to 1964, five years before the release of Night of the Bloody Apes – all failed; we don’t know if they were particularly bloody.

Regardless, Dr Krallman’s unorthodox cure results in an unfortunate er, side effect: the creation of a murderous, angry and it should be said, quiet cheap looking ape-like creature out of his son. The ape then runs amok, giving the film its not entirely accurate name: you see, it’s the people that the ape kills that are actually bloody, but we digress.

No apes were harmed in the making of the film, nor were they turned over to unscrupulous research facilities or taught to sign obscene gestures to passing zoo goers.

** (out of 5)