BloodMonkey
Encyclopedia
Blood Monkey is a 2007 American made-for-television natural horror film
produced by RHI Entertainment
and directed by Robert Young
. It aired on various video on demand
channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
on January 27, 2008. Filmed in Thailand
, the film is the first title in the "Maneater
" film series produced under an agreement with Sci Fi. The film followed a group of six students studying primate
s in Africa under the demented Professor Hamilton who find themselves under attack from bloodthirsty primates in the jungle
.
Reviewers panned the film, criticizing the acting, dialogue, plot, low quality special effects, and the lack of appearances by the titular monster, the monkeys. They also questioned the appearance of F. Murray Abraham
in the film, though note that his performance was its only positive aspect.
Meanwhile, another research team is inbound, this one a crew of college anthropology students with no idea of what they're in for. The students, Seth, Amy, Greg, Sydney, Josh, and Dani, are flown into a remote region of the Thai jungle, and picked up by a guide who drives them deeper into bush. He drops them off in a panic at the edge of trail/road, which leads further still into the foliage, claiming "bad things" are in there and won't go any further. He heads back the way he came, leaving the students to march forth into the unknown. They walk until they reach the end of trail and set up camp. As evening sets in, noises from the jungle raise suspicion until a set of glowing green eyes can be seen close by, watching. Just before the unknown creature attacks, Chenne arrives with a flare that scares off the unseen menace.
Chenne escorts the students to the relative safety of Professor Hamilton's camp, and the following day they meet the obsessed man and somewhat learn of his mission and their purpose. Hamilton professes of dream findings in an uncharted valley located deep within the jungle and their potential for career-launching documentation. He has Chenne confiscate their mobile phones and hand out information bracelets for each member that contain all of their emergency contact info, then he leads the slightly unwilling team to the valley entrance. After a pep talk, Hamilton convinces the students to continue and rappel down the cliffside and into the valley, although Josh is injured during the process.
On their first night in the valley, Hamilton passes around a skull and explains that it belongs to the creature he's looking for. The students cannot identify the skull since its characteristics are both human and primate in nature, but nearly twice the size of any known human or primate cranium. They are soon interrupted by a bloody survivor from the original research team, who Hamilton and Chenne quickly shelter and care for. The man dies shortly afterward, and Hamilton tells Chenne that the creatures let him go as a warning.
During the night, Sydney visits the outhouse, only to be dragged away into the jungle. The next morning, Hamilton tells the team that Sydney came to him scared and homesick and wanted to go home, so Hamilton has Chenne take her out of the jungle, leaving everyone suspicious. However, in another part of the jungle, Chenne is dragging Sydney through the brush and eventually leaves her, battered and beaten. Sydney eventually stumbles into an unseen creature that tears the right side of her face off.
The team continues to follow Hamilton and Chenne, who appear to be tracking something with a GPS reader. Unknown to the students, Hamilton is tracking each of the students by a hidden chipset in each of their bracelets. At the moment, he is tracking Sydney's bracelet. The team eventually demands more information about their expedition, and Hamilton comes mostly clean. The students remain unaware that they are being tracked, but resolve to steal the AK-47 in Hamilton's possession and maintain control of the situation to themselves. Seth begins leaving a trail through jungle by tying off pieces of cloth to trees.
On their third night, while the students are beginning to fashion their plan for the following day, a foul-smelling rain begins pouring down on their tents. Just as they recognize the smell as urine, Josh is yanked out of his tent and dragged up into the trees. Panic sets in as the team scatters and begins following his screams through the jungle. As Greg attempts to save Josh, Chenne accidentally shoots him, but then proceeds to tie him to a tree as bait. She camps out nearby with her gun, but one of the monsters sneaks up on Chenne and kills her before mauling Greg.
Hamilton runs across Seth during the chaos and knocks him unconscious after listening to his complaints. Hamilton locates the two remaining students, Dani and Amy, and continues his venture, ordering Dani to document everything with her video camera. Believing themselves to be the only survivors, both girls have little choice other than to follow the professor in hopes of being rescued. The professor successfully tracks Sydney's bracelet and finds it still attached to her severed arm which is dangling from a tree. Hamilton examines an apparent rigging done to the tree, only to spring a trap which results in several bamboo shoots impaling him through the back. He delivers a final address to the girls before he dies.
Just as they turn to run, Seth appears, to their delight. They run back to their campsite, only to find it cleared of their tents and equipment. Completely panicked, they keep running while the creatures seem to be following close by in the brush and in the trees. Dani is soon pulled up into the trees and killed, leaving Seth and Amy. They run further still and reach a cave, where they see Seth’s entire cloth trail assembled and attached to the opening. They go into the cave and use a the night vision from Dani's video camera to move around. At least one of the creatures follows them into the cave, grabs Seth and kills him.
Amy sheds light on one of the creatures for the first time, revealing it to be a huge gorilla with a bloody set of fangs. Several more gorillas enter the cave and Amy screams in terror as one of them bears down on her and kills her.
made a deal with the Sci Fi Channel
to produce a series of ten made-for-television natural horror films to air on the network the following year. Dubbed the "Maneater" series by RHI Entertainment, Blood Monkey was the first film of the series to be released. Although the agreement called for the films to premiere on SciFi, the first six films in the series actually premiered in Canada on video on demand
due to an existing pre-licensing agreement.
F. Murray Abraham felt his character was "so interesting because he is so monomaniacal". For one scene, in which the characters had to scale a high cliff, the actors learned abseiling
—the controlled descent down a rope along an extremely steep cliff or slope—and performed the stunt themselves. Abraham said it was a "thrilling" challenge. Matt Ryan felt the most challenging part of filming the movie was all of the running through the jungle that was required for many scenes.
channel Movie Central on Demand
earlier in 2007 as well as other VOD channels before it aired on Syfy
, then the Sci Fi Channel, on January 27, 2008. It was released on DVD
on November 6, 2007 by Genius Entertainment, with no extras. The film was re-released to DVD on July 22, 2008 as one of three films included on the first volume of the "Maneater Series Collection" film sets. The other two films were In the Spider's Web
and Maneater
, the second and third films in the series, respectively.
, author Nick Lyons thought the six students were "sterotypical" and expressed sorrow that "respected award winning actor F. Murray Abraham...lowered himself to star in this." Noting that other films in the genre are often "so bad it's good", he felt Blood Monkey failed at achieving this, with most of the film deemed "unwatchable" for mostly having scenes of the characters walking and a seeming lack of production values. Monsters and Critics.com's Jeff Swindoll also questioned Abraham's apparently not knowing "better than to star in this dreck" as a "cheapjack version of Captain Ahab". He panned the film's laughable special effects, though he offered it minor praise for its "rather bleak ending" similar to the series' titular title Maneater
. David Johnson of DVD Verdict criticized the film's low budget and "trite" acting, with no fright value when the actual creature doesn't appear until even the end of the film... Scott Weinberg, reviewing the film for FEARnet
, considers the film "extra-stupid" and also notes the film's lack of appearances by the titular creature. Stating "the dialog is rotten, the actors are bad, and the FX are hilarious", he felt Abraham delivered "a patently perfect performance" and notes that he "gets progressively more outlandish as the movie goes on."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
produced by RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
and directed by Robert Young
Robert Young (director)
Robert William Young is a British television and film director.Young was born in Cheltenham, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, established himself as a leading director of British TV drama. In the 1970s, he directed Vampire Circus and Hammer House of Horror...
. It aired on various video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on January 27, 2008. Filmed in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, the film is the first title in the "Maneater
Maneater (series)
Maneater Series is the name, logo and line look given to a series of made-for-television natural horror films on DVD produced by RHI Entertainment for the Sci Fi Channel, now called Syfy, and distributed by Vivendi Entertainment. The Maneater Series logo and line look were created under the...
" film series produced under an agreement with Sci Fi. The film followed a group of six students studying primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...
s in Africa under the demented Professor Hamilton who find themselves under attack from bloodthirsty primates in the jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
.
Reviewers panned the film, criticizing the acting, dialogue, plot, low quality special effects, and the lack of appearances by the titular monster, the monkeys. They also questioned the appearance of F. Murray Abraham
F. Murray Abraham
Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
in the film, though note that his performance was its only positive aspect.
Plot
Anthropological professor Conrad Hamilton attempts to study a new species of primate, possibly the missing link between humanity and the great ape, found in a hidden valley deep within the jungles of Thailand. Hamilton's initial research team tries to capture one of these new (and very large) primates, but fail and are all killed. Hamilton and his assistant Chenne, who survive because they are away from the camp site, scour the area looking for clues and remains of their team.Meanwhile, another research team is inbound, this one a crew of college anthropology students with no idea of what they're in for. The students, Seth, Amy, Greg, Sydney, Josh, and Dani, are flown into a remote region of the Thai jungle, and picked up by a guide who drives them deeper into bush. He drops them off in a panic at the edge of trail/road, which leads further still into the foliage, claiming "bad things" are in there and won't go any further. He heads back the way he came, leaving the students to march forth into the unknown. They walk until they reach the end of trail and set up camp. As evening sets in, noises from the jungle raise suspicion until a set of glowing green eyes can be seen close by, watching. Just before the unknown creature attacks, Chenne arrives with a flare that scares off the unseen menace.
Chenne escorts the students to the relative safety of Professor Hamilton's camp, and the following day they meet the obsessed man and somewhat learn of his mission and their purpose. Hamilton professes of dream findings in an uncharted valley located deep within the jungle and their potential for career-launching documentation. He has Chenne confiscate their mobile phones and hand out information bracelets for each member that contain all of their emergency contact info, then he leads the slightly unwilling team to the valley entrance. After a pep talk, Hamilton convinces the students to continue and rappel down the cliffside and into the valley, although Josh is injured during the process.
On their first night in the valley, Hamilton passes around a skull and explains that it belongs to the creature he's looking for. The students cannot identify the skull since its characteristics are both human and primate in nature, but nearly twice the size of any known human or primate cranium. They are soon interrupted by a bloody survivor from the original research team, who Hamilton and Chenne quickly shelter and care for. The man dies shortly afterward, and Hamilton tells Chenne that the creatures let him go as a warning.
During the night, Sydney visits the outhouse, only to be dragged away into the jungle. The next morning, Hamilton tells the team that Sydney came to him scared and homesick and wanted to go home, so Hamilton has Chenne take her out of the jungle, leaving everyone suspicious. However, in another part of the jungle, Chenne is dragging Sydney through the brush and eventually leaves her, battered and beaten. Sydney eventually stumbles into an unseen creature that tears the right side of her face off.
The team continues to follow Hamilton and Chenne, who appear to be tracking something with a GPS reader. Unknown to the students, Hamilton is tracking each of the students by a hidden chipset in each of their bracelets. At the moment, he is tracking Sydney's bracelet. The team eventually demands more information about their expedition, and Hamilton comes mostly clean. The students remain unaware that they are being tracked, but resolve to steal the AK-47 in Hamilton's possession and maintain control of the situation to themselves. Seth begins leaving a trail through jungle by tying off pieces of cloth to trees.
On their third night, while the students are beginning to fashion their plan for the following day, a foul-smelling rain begins pouring down on their tents. Just as they recognize the smell as urine, Josh is yanked out of his tent and dragged up into the trees. Panic sets in as the team scatters and begins following his screams through the jungle. As Greg attempts to save Josh, Chenne accidentally shoots him, but then proceeds to tie him to a tree as bait. She camps out nearby with her gun, but one of the monsters sneaks up on Chenne and kills her before mauling Greg.
Hamilton runs across Seth during the chaos and knocks him unconscious after listening to his complaints. Hamilton locates the two remaining students, Dani and Amy, and continues his venture, ordering Dani to document everything with her video camera. Believing themselves to be the only survivors, both girls have little choice other than to follow the professor in hopes of being rescued. The professor successfully tracks Sydney's bracelet and finds it still attached to her severed arm which is dangling from a tree. Hamilton examines an apparent rigging done to the tree, only to spring a trap which results in several bamboo shoots impaling him through the back. He delivers a final address to the girls before he dies.
Just as they turn to run, Seth appears, to their delight. They run back to their campsite, only to find it cleared of their tents and equipment. Completely panicked, they keep running while the creatures seem to be following close by in the brush and in the trees. Dani is soon pulled up into the trees and killed, leaving Seth and Amy. They run further still and reach a cave, where they see Seth’s entire cloth trail assembled and attached to the opening. They go into the cave and use a the night vision from Dani's video camera to move around. At least one of the creatures follows them into the cave, grabs Seth and kills him.
Amy sheds light on one of the creatures for the first time, revealing it to be a huge gorilla with a bloody set of fangs. Several more gorillas enter the cave and Amy screams in terror as one of them bears down on her and kills her.
Cast
- F. Murray Abraham as Professor Hamilton
- Matt Ryan as Seth
- Amy MansonAmy MansonAmy Manson is a Scottish actress, known for portraying Alice Guppy in Torchwood, Abby Evans in Casualty, Lizzie Siddal in Desperate Romantics and Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri in Being Human.-Background:...
as Amy Armstrong - Matt ReevesMatt ReevesMatthew George "Matt" Reeves is an American film writer, director and producer.-Early life:Reeves was born in Rockville Centre, New York, and raised in Los Angeles, California. He began making movies at eight years old, directing friends with a wind-up camera. Reeves met and became friends with J.J...
as Greg Satch - Laura AikmanLaura AikmanLaura Holly Aikman is an English actress who has been appearing in TV and films since childhood. She attended Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls and is best known for her role in The Mysti Show as Mysti...
as Sydney Maas - Sebastian ArmestoSebastian Armesto-Television and film:Armesto played Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in the series The Tudors. He also starred alongside Jane Asher in the 2008 ITV drama series The Palace as the King's carefree younger brother Prince George. He then played the character of Edmund Sparkler in the 2008 BBC version of...
as Josh Dawson - Freishia Bomanbehram as Dani Sudeva
Production
In October 2006, RHI EntertainmentRHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
made a deal with the Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
to produce a series of ten made-for-television natural horror films to air on the network the following year. Dubbed the "Maneater" series by RHI Entertainment, Blood Monkey was the first film of the series to be released. Although the agreement called for the films to premiere on SciFi, the first six films in the series actually premiered in Canada on video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
due to an existing pre-licensing agreement.
F. Murray Abraham felt his character was "so interesting because he is so monomaniacal". For one scene, in which the characters had to scale a high cliff, the actors learned abseiling
Abseiling
Abseiling , rappelling in American English, is the controlled descent down a rock face using a rope; climbers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection.- Slang terms :...
—the controlled descent down a rope along an extremely steep cliff or slope—and performed the stunt themselves. Abraham said it was a "thrilling" challenge. Matt Ryan felt the most challenging part of filming the movie was all of the running through the jungle that was required for many scenes.
Distribution
Blood Monkey premiered in Canada on the subscription-based video on demandVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
channel Movie Central on Demand
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
earlier in 2007 as well as other VOD channels before it aired on Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
, then the Sci Fi Channel, on January 27, 2008. It was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on November 6, 2007 by Genius Entertainment, with no extras. The film was re-released to DVD on July 22, 2008 as one of three films included on the first volume of the "Maneater Series Collection" film sets. The other two films were In the Spider's Web
In the Spider's Web
In the Spider's Web is 2007 American made-for-television natural horror film produced by RHI Entertainment and directed by Terry Winsor. It aired on various video on demand channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel on August 26, 2007. It is the second film in...
and Maneater
Maneater (film)
Maneater is a 2007 American television natural horror film directed by Gary Yates and produced by RHI Entertainment, starring Gary Busey, Ty Wood, and Ian D. Clark. The film aired on various video on demand channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel on...
, the second and third films in the series, respectively.
Reception
Blood Monkey was heavily panned by critics. Horror.com's Staci Layne Wilson felt Blood Monkey was "abysmal" with forgettable, expendable actors following F. Murray Abraham. In reviewing the film for DVD TalkDVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
, author Nick Lyons thought the six students were "sterotypical" and expressed sorrow that "respected award winning actor F. Murray Abraham...lowered himself to star in this." Noting that other films in the genre are often "so bad it's good", he felt Blood Monkey failed at achieving this, with most of the film deemed "unwatchable" for mostly having scenes of the characters walking and a seeming lack of production values. Monsters and Critics.com's Jeff Swindoll also questioned Abraham's apparently not knowing "better than to star in this dreck" as a "cheapjack version of Captain Ahab". He panned the film's laughable special effects, though he offered it minor praise for its "rather bleak ending" similar to the series' titular title Maneater
Maneater (film)
Maneater is a 2007 American television natural horror film directed by Gary Yates and produced by RHI Entertainment, starring Gary Busey, Ty Wood, and Ian D. Clark. The film aired on various video on demand channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel on...
. David Johnson of DVD Verdict criticized the film's low budget and "trite" acting, with no fright value when the actual creature doesn't appear until even the end of the film... Scott Weinberg, reviewing the film for FEARnet
FEARnet
Fearnet is a cable channel, website and Video on Demand television service owned by Horror Entertainment LLC, a joint venture between Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment, and Sony Pictures Entertainment...
, considers the film "extra-stupid" and also notes the film's lack of appearances by the titular creature. Stating "the dialog is rotten, the actors are bad, and the FX are hilarious", he felt Abraham delivered "a patently perfect performance" and notes that he "gets progressively more outlandish as the movie goes on."