WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’m sure when you say “Killer Ape” to people, the first thing that would spring to mind would be King Kong (especially with the continuous new films that have been coming out). Well, let’s just say that he’s not the only killer ape out there – there’s even Inga who is on the side of good that kills in Dario Argento’s Phenomena…but here are a few that aren’t so good.
The Ape
Starring one of the greats of horror in Boris Karloff, this film may blur the lines when it comes to officially being an ape horror, as it is a man dressed in an ape’s skin. Yes, I said skin – not costume! Well, I guess the ape does kill 2 people before being killed by Dr Adrian so it still slightly fits. The one thing I will say is that follows along the lines of several other horror films that include animals, it always seems to be about doing something for the greater good and in this case Dr Adrian is trying to help one of his patients walk again. Interestingly, yet not surprising, Nabu the gorilla is the only animal that isn’t real when he escapes from the circus. What’s clever however, is that we never actually see Dr Adrian getting in and out of the ape’s skin so it would be easy to believe the ape is still alive until right at the end.
Blood Monkey
Can you complain about a film using false advertising the same way as you can regular business? Because the image for this film looks like the aforementioned blood monkey is a cute little spider monkey when in fact, based on the opening scene, it’s a gorilla – which is not a monkey! I feel the same way about this as I do the opening scene of Arachnaphobia, if the indigenous people won’t go any further – probably not the best idea to do so yourself! Oddly enough, this film actually reminds me a little bit of Anaconda, including the secretive professor as it seems the main characters have no idea about the killer gorilla. I actually feel that Professor Hamilton is the real antagonist in this film as he starts to use the students as bait to lure the gorilla.
The Ape Man
Much like The Ape, this film stars another great of horror history in Bela Lugosi as Dr James Brewster – the titular Ape Man. Instead this time it is not a man dressed in an ape’s skin, he has turned himself into an ape by becoming his own guinea pig for his experiments. Because of this, Dr Brewster is believed to have disappeared. Also in similarity to The Ape, the deaths that take place throughout this easy-watch 1 hour film are for the same reason – the need for human spinal fluid, the only thing that will help Brewster become human again. Mentioning the fact that the lead character isn’t just a man dressed in an ape’s skin brings me to another difference between the two films – the murders are committed by the ape that Brewster has had sheltered in his laboratory, making this more of an ape horror than The Ape.
Shakma
I actually want to know how they did the surgery scene right at the beginning because it looked like they were actually operating on a baboon’s brain. However, I don’t know how many times I have to say it, can we stop messing with animals for the supposed good of science? Have these people not seen what can happen? Shakma, the titular ape of this film, doesn’t ask for what’s done to him and its craziness in the first place to mess with the most aggressive primate. I don’t want to side with what Shakma does to those playing the game because not all of them were involved in the surgery, and I especially do not agree with the fact that he kills the other primates! He also seemed to be eating them when Bradley finds him which is just disturbing! The one thing I will say is that no matter how brutal the deaths are, we actually don’t see the characters die. Much like Grizzly, which I mentioned in my Arkoudaphobia article, it seems they used a real baboon for this film. I’ll be honest, with the mention of the trackers, I was expecting to see a similar scene to that in Alien.
Bride of the Gorilla
At the risk of repeating myself, but then again it shouldn’t be a surprise as this film, along with The Ape and The Ape Man,were made around the same time, and here we have a film starring a 3rd great of horror history in Lon Chaney Jnr. However, unlike the previous two – this film has nothing to do with science. Is it weird that I actually feel sorry for Barney? Yes, he kills his boss, but he does it for love (I’d thought from the write-up that he took Dina by force but he doesn’t, she loves him too) so I feel the curse is a little unfair on him. What’s great about this compared to the other two is the transition of Barney into a gorilla – it’s so seamless. Especially when Barney sees his own hand changing when signing the marriage certificate. The only thing is, there is reference to the death of animals but we never actually see anything or anyone killed until right at the end.
Swamp Ape
With this only being 58 minutes, at first I thought it was made around the same time as The Ape, Bride of the Gorilla and The Ape Man but it seems it is more of a modern short film. It may be called Swamp Ape but this feels a lot more like a Bigfoot style of story. Unless the point they are trying to make is that the swamp ape is the reason for the Bigfoot myth. The funny thing is, we don’t actually see much of the swamp ape throughout the entire film! Yes, it attacks the dog at the beginning of the film but nothing outside of that until there’s about 20 minutes left. I’ll say this much, for quite a cheap film, the deaths still look pretty good. I don’t think there was much need for the swamp ape penis though – was about as disturbing as Bunny the Killer Thing.
