Bloodmonkey (2007)
Director: Robert Young
Starring: F Murray Abraham, Matt Ryan, Amy Manson
Quite often my enjoyment of a horror movie depends on my expectations going into it. I knew going into Bloodmonkey that it had been produced partly by SciFi Network (a US science fiction channel), and I've seen quite a few SciFi Network flicks, so I knew what to expect.
In my experience, having SciFi Network attached to a movie means several things:
- No nudity
- Very little in the way of gore
- Crappy CGI
- Usually one "big name" attached (in this case Oscar winner F Murray Abraham, who won his statue for 1984's Amadeus)
That was what I expected, and Bloodmonkey didn't let me down. Tonight I was in the mood for something craptacular, and this movie delivered. It follows a group of anthropology students who venture into the jungles of Thailand on what they think is a nice little fieldtrip. Instead, they end up being used by an evil scientist guy (Abraham) as bait to lure out an undiscovered species of giant, intelligent and altogether angry apes.
Yup, I said apes. Not monkeys, so the title's a little misleading. This movie - part of the Maneater Series - conforms to a few more conventions of this kind of creature feature. For instance, the young people all fit stereotypes (hot blonde, geek, jock, shy person, practical joker etc). Throw in a few instances of shaky cam, which seems to be all the rage, and you've got yourself a very, very cliched movie.
Still, if you know what to expect going in, you might actually find Bloodmonkey a somewhat-enjoyable time waster. The CGI is pretty bad, but at least they keep the "monkeys" off-screen for the most part.
Oh, and I can't finish without mentioning one scene that provided some unintentional laughs. All I'm going to say is it involves apes pissing with the strength of a firehose.
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