Killer Ape (1953) – Spencer Gordon Bennet

I knew that they all can’t be winners, but this one was scrape off the bottom of your shoe bad. Killer Ape with one time Tarzan, Johnny Weismuller as Jungle Jim is the next film in DK Canada’s always enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. This entry, in the chapter on monstrous apes, was just…

The Ape Man (1943) – William Beaudine

Bela Lugosi headlines another titles in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies as I continue my journey through the chapter on Monstrous Apes. This unusual little film, barely running an hour, tells the tale of Dr. James Brewster (Lugosi), who has a problem. It seems through some study, and research, and experimentation he’s transformed himself,…

Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) – Fight or Flight, and Strange New World

Captain’s log: 6 May, 2151 Rick Berman and Brannon Braga pen the follow-up episode to the series premiere. Fight or Flight debuted on 3 October, 2001, and despite the promise of an inhabited world that scans picked up at the end of the previous episode, the only lifeform they’ve found is an alien worm, christened…

Project Nim (2011) – James Marsh

The What Else to Watch list in DK Canada’s The Movie Book is proving fruitful with some fantastic documentaries, as they recommend a number of titles following my screening of Man On Wire. In the 70s, a newborn chimpanzee, named Nim, is recruited for a scientific experiment to explore nature versus nurture, to see if…

Day of the Dead (1985) – George A. Romero

DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies brings me a Romero zombie classic, the last installment of the original trilogy, Day of the Dead, as I continue to explore the chapter focusing on the walking dead, the zombie. With makeup effects work by Tom Savini, and a cool score by John Harrison, Romero’s classic is a…

War of the Worlds (1989) – Breeding Ground, and Seft of Emun

The morthren leader Mana (Catherine Disher) is proving to be a real threat as we dive into this week’s installment of War of the Worlds. Breeding Ground written by Alan Moskowitz first aired on 30 October, 1989 and sees Mana coercing a dying surgeon, Emil Gestaine (Gerard Parkes) into experimenting on his patients. In an…

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) – John S. Robertson

No visit to DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book chapter on mad scientists would be complete without renewing one’s acquaintance with one of the other men of science who fell to their studies, the infamous Dr. Jekyll. This silent film, using Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novel to inspire its tale, features John Barrymore in…

Splice (2009) – Vincenzo Natali

The next title in DK Canada’s Minsters in the Movies book, as I continue my way through the chapter on mad scientists is Splice, starring Adrien Brody and the always exemplary Sarah Polley. This film is very much the mad scientist take on parenting with all the mistakes and the oedipal complexes taken to a…

From Beyond (1986) – Stuart Gordon

Cult favorite actor Jeffrey Combs is the mad scientist in the next title featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Based on the seven page short story by H.P. Lovecraft the story follows Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) and a group of scientists that have developed the resonator, an experimental machine that can allow…

Altered States (1980) – Ken Russell

William Hurt is on the search for the purest truth, and that, in this case, places him squarely in the mad scientist chapter of DK Canada’s very enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Eddie Jessup (Hurt) is a scientist seeking the ultimate truth, and finds himself experimenting with isolation chambers and a ritualistic, possibly hallucinogenic…