In the grand tradition of Samson vs. the Vampire Women (1962), Blue Demon vs. the Infernal Brain (1967) or any of the countless Mexican horror adventures featuring the masked wrestler Santo, Night of the Bloody Apes (1972) takes a popular mini-genre in Mexican cinema and updates it for seventies audiences, liberally adding large helpings of violence, sex and female nudity. If nothing else the film shows just how far things have progressed since the more innocent black and white Santo features of the early sixties. Sure, the standard stock ingredients are still here – lots of wrestling interspersed with mad scientist/monster-on-the-rampage shtick but there’s also something new – gross-out gore effects rendered in garish color (the original film was released in Mexico in 1969 but the 1972 U.S. version included newly shot insert footage of sex, nudity and bloody violence).
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