Night of the Bloody Apes / Feast of Flesh (1972) Review

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(More customer reviews)Night of the Bloody Apes is a ham-fistedly made concoction of sex, wrestling, gorillas and gore with footage of actual open-heart surgery tossed in for good measure. Making a long story short, Dr. Krellman replaces the bad heart of his son Julio with that of a gorilla. The primate's heart proves to be too "powerful" and transforms our boy into a rampaging ape-like thing. The good doctor, realizing his folly, then replaces the damnable organ with the heart of a female masked wrestler. I had high hopes at this point that Julio would change into a transgender-masked-wrestling-ape-like thing, but regrettably we only get to look at the silly chimp get-up some more.
As a monkey-man Julio terrorizes the city, raping women and disemboweling men. Not a banana in sight, so blood and intestines will have to do. Giving in to the idea that all gorilla movies are spawned from King Kong, director Cardona deliberately carries out a similar fate and finale atop a lofty structure mid-city (sans the airplanes and helicopters - no money for that!). Julio the beast is brought down by gunfire, our heroine is returned safely to her boyfriend and all is well, the happiest of the happy.
Night of the Bloody Apes is less than compelling in the narrative department and even a might dull in places. The lengthy trailer would be plenty for most but I'm a glutton for punishment and only the full 84 minutes will suffice. While shoddy and ill-paced, `Apes attempts to make up for its short-comings by bombarding the viewer with its bevy of (un) redeemable qualities: gobs of make-shift gore, nudity and wrestling all interspersed with a deadpan delivery that approaches the surreal, perfect for those late night viewings, in a bewildering sort of way.
`Apes was lensed in 1968 by Rene Cardona as a vile send-up of his very own Doctor of Doom from 1962. The film houses an arsenal of alternate titles including: Gomar The Human Gorilla, La Horriplante Bestia Humana and Horror Y Sexo but was eventually christened Night of the Bloody Apes and dumped on the American drive-in circuit.
-Christopher Curry

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