Bloodmonkey (Video 2007)

Bloodmonkey: Directed by Robert Young. With F. Murray Abraham, Matt Ryan, Amy Manson, Matt Reeves. A renowned but mad professor leads a small group of American students into the jungles of Africa to investigate a remote tribe of killer chimpanzees rumored to be the missing link.

“A group of students is summoned to assist a professor in exploring jungle regions never before touched by the human hand. But soon they learn about a whole new primate species that just might still be alive. After one of the students disappears, suspicions turn against the professor and the blood monkey begins his prowl.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDid you ever have a movie you just knew was going to be bad without giving it five minutes of a chance? This was one of those — with a name like u0026quot;Blood Monkeyu0026quot; and the fact it seems to be from the Sci-Fi Network, I had little hopes. Even the fact itu0026#39;s a u0026quot;creature featureu0026quot; is unfortunate, because those are so hard to make decent (Iu0026#39;m still recovering from u0026quot;Preyu0026quot;). And the selling point? It stars Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham as Professor Hamilton.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHighlighting Abraham was a good idea, as heu0026#39;s really the only one in this film who has a real chance at another movie appearance. Iu0026#39;m just sad he had to sink this low to pay his rent. The only other character I really liked was student Sydney Maas (Laura Aikman), but this was more for her questionable attractiveness than any special talent.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs my title says, this film suffers from one big lack: the monkey. Every so often youu0026#39;ll get some blood and at one point thereu0026#39;s an arm. But the monkeys are always in the distance, in the shadows and blurry, so they could be boars or lions or anything else. Even, perhaps, Dennis Franz. I really donu0026#39;t know. But have students get attacked by a creature, but never showing the creature attack, gets really old.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI donu0026#39;t know who would enjoy this film. I will say they paced the suspense out, so I never wanted to shut it off (which is more than I can say about a lot of movies). But others might not be so patient. With minimal action, minimal gore, no nudity… this is not the ideal horror film. Sometimes you can remedy that with solid writing (u0026quot;The Beast Must Die!u0026quot;) but this film is a one sentence idea stretched to 90 minutes. Youu0026#39;re better off watching reruns of u0026quot;Murder, She Wroteu0026quot;.”