Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 4, 2021

VCI Entertainment seems like it's trying to carve out a niche for itself with a number of Spanish language films that were produced in Mexico, and which often fall into the so-called Luchador subgenre. It may be a smart marketing decision akin to, say, Well Go USA's emphasis on Asian cinema, but the films VCI offers are often kind of low grade fare (even if they have their proponents and perhaps ardent fans), and are probably consigned to being cult items. This release aggregates two kind of bizarre and probably unintentionally amusing efforts that have some plot points in common.

The main feature on this disc is a 1969 film called Night of the Bloody Apes, which according to several supplements on this disc exists in three different versions. When a "mad scientists" who nonetheless has honorable intentions in trying to save a mortally ill son transplants an ape heart into his scion, the kid starts morphing into an ape, and a murderous one at that.

Presented as an ostensible "bonus" item is 1963's Doctor of Doom, which once again offers your standard issue "mad scientist", this time one intent on brain transplants, though he at least has an ape like assistant.

Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night of the Bloody Apes and Doctor of Doom are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. VCI continues to struggle with its high definition content, despite touting a 4K scan off of the camera negative for Night of the Bloody Apes. While there aren't the same huge encoding errors that have been seen in some previous VCI releases, Night of the Bloody Apes features widely variant color temperature, with the first hour or so of the film looking oddly purple, making flesh tones look like everyone suffers from high blood pressure, with almost beet red complexions. Things improve quite a bit as the one hour mark approaches, but are still inconsistent. Rather oddly, both the trailer and stills seen in the image gallery boast much more natural looking color than the feature itself. This is yet another VCI release that has something akin to grain floating intermittently through the frame, but which still has a noticeably smeary, filtered appearance. To my eyes at least, this is also looks very slightly anamorphically squeezed. There are occasional pretty serious downgrades in image quality (see screenshot 7). Doctor of Doom struck me as a more consistent looking transfer, perhaps due to its black and white cinematography, and detail levels are often quite good (see screenshot 8), but once again "grain" does some patently odd things, kind of swirling and clumping, and at times disappearing altogether. Both source elements display quite a bit of age related wear and tear, with the usual kinds of dings, scratches and other blemishes.

Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both films on this disc feature somewhat strident, brash sounding Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono tracks. There's a bit of brightness verging on distortion in some of the more exuberant scoring choices, but dialogue is presented cleanly enough, albeit with that oft mentioned "loose sync". There are some vestiges of age related wear and tear, including a few errant pops, along with some background hiss. Optional English subtitles are available.

Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:53) arguably offers better color than the feature.


• Night of the Bloody Apes Video Essay (HD; 34:48) is not a "video essay" in the way that collectors of Arrow Video's releases may be used to. Instead, Dr. David Wilt simply addresses the viewer in a kind of Zoom-like presentation. He gives a good rundown of the film's history, showing previous home video releases (he holds up the packages), and getting into the film's notorious legacy as a "video nasty".


• Doctor of Doom Video Essay (HD; 23:29) offers Dr. Wilt again with another engaging presentation.


• Photo Gallery (HD; 4:31) again arguably offers better looking color than the feature.


• Audio Commentary on Night of the Bloody Apes is by Travis Crawford, and is accessible under the Setup Menu.

Additionally, an insert booklet offers an essay by Dr. David Wilt. Packaging features a slipcover.

Night of the Bloody Apes / Doctor of Doom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The actual history behind Night of the Bloody Apes is probably at least as interesting as the film itself, and so fans may find some value in the "video essay" and commentary on this release. Technical merits are definitely improvable, for those who may be considering a purchase.