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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Check it out!!!, 10 August 2001
Author: dmuel from downtown, Michigan

I must disagree with other critics here. This is a marvelous Mexican exploitation movie. One problem with the translated title, however, is that there is only one ape in the movie, not two, and he dies early on after having his heart transplanted to a human. Thereafter, a man-ape assumes the role of movie-monster, so he's not fully a gorilla. Apes?? Anyway, much of the movie was made to titilate Mexican male viewers in the era of the movie's release, 1972. The ape-man has a penchant for chasing voluptuous Mexican ladies and tearing their blouse and bra off. For some reason he also likes to rip the heads off of human males. Surely this is the consequence of his animal heart! The movie also features the obligatory masked wrestling women, the heroine in this instance having almost no connection with the ape-man or his evil scientist creator, but the dialogue makes for extremely bad/funny sequences. There is much red paint splattered about and some obviously phony gore scenes. A great and good laugh for the twisted soul such as myself.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
"Perhaps you have been seeing on your television too many pictures of terror.", 15 July 2006
9/10
Author: haildevilman from Tokyo, Japan

An incredibly successful combo of the Mexican 'Lucha Libre' genre with 70's style horror. And a dash of 'Mad Scientist' cliché's tossed in for spice.

The original Mexican title was 'Horror y Sexo.' Tell me it doesn't fit perfectly.

Great chase scenes.

The gorillaman's make-up was horrible in both senses of the word. It ended at the neck. But it WAS ugly. And like a lot of classic horror films, it did make you nervous during the night scenes.

The Mondo style heart surgery footage was a tinge gross. It didn't hurt the film, it didn't help either.

Graphic (and I do mean GRAPHIC) violence will put some of you off. But I still liked it.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Oh come on! you can't be too harsh with this one., 4 July 2006
6/10
Author: insomniac_rod from Noctropolis

Now, this is a really obscure Mexican Horror flick. It's almost impossible to find it even in Mèxico. I don't know if it's banned but it's worth searching. This is a movie with many clichès from Mexican Horror: we get wrestlers (now that they are popular), boobs, and creepy settings.

This movie has good cheesy gore. Don't expect a shocking exploitation movie. It's just an ultra low budgeter with guts.

The beast is not that horrid as the title says, in fact, it's kind of cheesy (in the likes of "Night Of The Demon") , but it delivers for the movie's tone.

I recommend this one for lovers of B-movies that can stand cheesiness through 90 minutes. There's some gore and violence but not enough to consider this one as exploitation.

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
"Move the table over to the cage... and prepare the gorilla!", 12 October 2004
5/10
Author: Doctor_Cheese from The Ninth Circle of Bad Movie Hell

This movie has EVERYTHING. Female wrestling. Gorillas. Open-heart surgery. A crappy-looking monster. Gratuitous nudity. Ridiculously fake gore. Bad dubbing. Retarded dialogue. Atrocious editing. In other words, all the makings of a masterpiece.

When a surgeon transplants the heart of an ape into his deathly ill son, the result is, of course, a guy in a stupid-looking gorilla mask running amok and attacking hot Mexican broads. I mean, duh, what else would you expect to happen when you mess with the laws of nature, or whatever.

Meanwhile, some chick in a red catsuit wrestles other women while her boyfriend watches. No, it's not what you're thinking. She wrestles in the ring and he sits in the audience. Why does this happen? I don't really know. But her boyfriend turns out to be the detective who tries to track the Bloody Ape Man of Death, so I guess it's all right.

After the requisite number of murders, the surgeon recaptures his homicidal son and transplants a human heart back into him, taken from the body of a woman he steals from the hospital he works at. But it's all for naught: Gorilla Boy just gets back up and rips more people's heads off. More chaos ensues until the chilling denouement.

Bottom line: this movie is apparent proof that Ed Wood had Mexican relatives. Which means it's safe for you to watch this crap.

Waiter, I'll take a grilled apeburger... with extra cheese. To go!

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Prepare the gorilla! Possibly the pinnacle of Mexican schlock, 3 July 2007
7/10
Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

This was one of the most puzzling entries on the legendary Video Nasty list. Cult film fans are no doubt familiar with this list compiled by British censors of horror films deemed unfit for the public. Many of the films' inclusions were certainly warranted ("Cannibal Holocaust", "Antropophagus", "Faces of Death"). However, "Night of the Bloody Apes" didn't deserve its inclusion on the list. Sure, there's sex and gore, but its so cheaply made and silly that its impossible to find even remotely offensive. Even the grisly heart surgery footage is so blatantly spliced in it becomes amusing. Where the film does warrant inclusion however is on a list of the all-time greatest bad movies. Mexico in the 60s produced many unintentionally hilarious and bizarre schlock films (such as the Santo series and "The Brainiac"), and "Night of the Bloody Apes" is possibly the most campy one of them all. Its just like the early 60s entries except with lots of gore and nudity.

There are several reasons why this bad film is so entertaining to watch. The concept itself (a scientist attempting to save his son from dying from leukemia by transplanting a gorilla's heart into him) is ridiculous and not exactly disturbing material. The female wrestling footage is also great fun to watch. The gore effects are laughably over-the-top and the dubbed dialog provides many snickers (my personal favorite being "Perhaps you have been seeing on your television too many pictures of terror"). The nudity and sexual violence are so silly they're hardly offensive. Also, the performances are hilarious. There's several admirable attempts at creating sympathetic characters, but the acting is so camp (with several hilarious emoting scenes), any chances of depth to the film is completely squandered. Despite the abundance of tasteless elements, this film retains the sense of nativity and innocence that trademarked the country's earlier b-films. "Night of the Bloody Apes" may as well be the pinnacle of Mexican schlock and one of the greatest bad movies ever made. (7/10)

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES {Original Spanish-Language and Alternate U.S. Versions} (Rene Cardona, 1969) **, 13 October 2006
4/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

This is another notorious Mexican horror film: however, while the original Spanish-language version is quite tame, all sorts of gore and nudity were inserted for the English-dubbed variant (prepared by Jerald Intrator - who did similar duties on THE CURIOUS DR. HUMPP [1967/71] - and, like the U.S. version of that film, had previously been available on DVD through Something Weird/Image)!

I watched the original first and, while no great shakes, it was fairly engaging - especially with a plot as familiar as this one was: a doctor goes beyond the call of duty in attempting to save the life of his terminally ill son; he even has a hulking, game-legged assistant (played by Carlos Lopez Moctezuma, who had essayed a strikingly similar role - though in a more sinister vein - in THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN [1961]). I know that several Mexican films mingled horror with the "Lucha Libre" (Wrestling) genre but I had never watched one myself; this element is present here - in fact, the heroine is a wrestler - but the two styles are, perhaps thankfully, kept apart (that said, the wrestling sequences are competently done, with some of the moves proving highly amusing).

The doctor's son is transformed into a monster (looking like The Incredible Hulk with mud splashed over his face!) after having had an ape's heart transplanted into him - but, then, when this is replaced with that of a comatose female wrestler, he stays this way and grows a pair of fangs to boot (shouldn't he realistically have turned into a transsexual...though I guess that wouldn't have been very interesting)!! The climactic rooftop sequence in which the monster kidnaps a child and meets his demise at the hands of the police is reminiscent of THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942). My favorite unintentionally funny moments in the film, however, occur when the doctor, trying to comfort his son, tells him that he'll soon be cured - only to turn his back soon after on the verge of tears - and also the impatient look he gives his crippled assistant (as the latter staggers slowly into the car) when they're about to chase the monster who has escaped from the lab.

The alternate nude scenes work for the film (these were actually done by Cardona himself for a racier Mexican version entitled HORROR Y SEXO) but its reputation is largely based on the added material showing over-the-top violence, such as an eyeball being gouged out of its socket, a scalping and even a person's head being torn off. There are also several graphic operation inserts which, however, give rise to a goof: while it's made clear that only two people are involved in the operation, we see a third pair of hands constantly holding an oxygen mask to the patient's face!

The film is also said to be a loose remake of Cardona's own black-and-white horror film DOCTOR OF DOOM (1962) but, since I haven't watched that one, I can't say how much of it was actually pilfered for NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES...

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
yawn - kind of boring yet also very funny, 7 April 2000
Author: B.M. from US

Night of the Bloody Apes has to be one of the most trashiest movies I've ever seen. It's Mexican horror at it's best/worst depending on how you look at it. You've got unintentionally funny dialogue, wrestling women, real open heart surgery, a man in an ape mask, and a bit of scalp ripping, eyeball gouging. It's kind of tame in terms of graphic violence nowadays, but I can't imagine what it was like back on it's first release.

The "plot" or lack thereof goes as this--

A young man is dying of a severe illness, so his dad (who is a physician), decides to transplant an ape's heart into him, in an incredibly gory scene where real heart transplant footage is shown.

After the operation things seem to be going well until the small side effects show up. The result is a maniacal monster ( a man in a cheap Halloween ape mask) with an insatiable lust for blood.

Sounds like a winner, huh? I thought so. It's quite funny at times although not on purpose.

Only recommended if you're looking for a trashy, outdated, funny, low-budget, gory grade Z movie. YES!

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
There's no ploitation like Mexi-ploitation!, 20 July 2005
7/10
Author: mondo_schizo from North Carolina

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Sleazy... and cheezy... (God I love those two words) René Cardona's "Night of the Bloody Apes" is guaranteed (by me) to entertain from beginning to end.

When Dr. Krallman realizes that his much beloved son (who suffers from leukemia) is incurable and just moments away from death, he quickly springs into action his secretive back-up plan ......to exchange the heart of his son, with the heart of an ape! Now of course it doesn't take a genius to figure out what happens next, right? The son turns into an ape! No, a... man-ape!! Better yet... a man-ape with the body and prowess of a Mexican wrestler!!! And speaking of wrestlers, there's a bunch of 'em in this film ...and they're women too (goody, goody!). Anyhow, this newly concocted beast escapes from the doctors laboratory and rushes out into the town where we soon find out he likes to attack and rape women. Now being interwoven with this story is another about a female wrestler who's been feeling real bad about seriously injuring one of her comrades. I'm guessing with Mexico's love of 'Santo', they figured throwing in all this wrestling business could only help the film. Well, eventually the two stories come together and the film concludes as one would expect.

Everything that I love about bad movies is here: funny acting, monkey suits, cheap gore (great eye gouging scene here), gratuitous nudity, laughable dialogue, bad dubbing, etc. (oh, and now I can add female wrestlers to that list!). If you love ridiculously bad movies...this is one you simply cannot miss! Highly recommended!

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Terrible but fun., 9 February 2002
5/10
Author: gridoon

I simply can't believe that "Night Of The Bloody Apes" was included in the notorious "Video Nasties" list. If you ever see it, you'll probably agree. This film is too stupid to be offensive. Oh, there is a lot of gore, to be sure, but most of the bloody sequences are so badly edited and inserted into the picture that either you don't even get a clear idea of what's going on (the heart transplant sequence, allegedly including real shots) or you simply laugh at the lame effects (the eye gouging). Terrible but fun picture, if you're in the right mood. (**)

P.S. There is also some brief but entertaining female wrestling footage.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Prepare the gorilla., 3 October 2008
6/10
Author: lastliberal from Florida

This was one of the infamous video nasties banned in Britain and released with approximately 1 minute of pre-cuts in 1999.

The quality of the DVD was excellent and really made the film enjoyable. Even the dubbing was good.

A doctor (José Elías Moreno) whose son had an incurable disease tries to save him by transplanting a gorilla heart. Of course, the son (Agustín Martínez Solares) turns into gorilla man. If he didn't have an ugly gorilla face, he could easily be in the top five for Cosmo's bachelor hunt.

He searches out victims and manages to rip some flesh from one man's neck, pop out the eyeball of another and decapitate a third in his quest that left six or eight dead.

I have absolutely no idea why the Luchadoras are in this movie. It switches from the doctor's operations to wrestling. The wrestling has nothing to do with the story, but it was fun to watch.

Eight boobies, three boobies, and, of course, one dead gorilla.

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