BLOOD MONKEY is yet another poor effort from the Sci-Fi Channel. I'm tired of watching all these crappy movies, but something propels me on – maybe I'm hoping to find another like the ONE decent effort I saw, which was AZTEC REX. BLOOD MONKEY isn't it; it's another film that's been made in the Thai jungle which is the sole redeeming feature of the production. Otherwise we're in extremely familiar territory as a group of youths are whittled down, one by one, by a mysterious, unseen killer in the jungle.This film borrows heavily from the whole BLAIR WITCH PROJECT idea of using hand-held camera footage to enhance the immediacy of the horror. The problem is, this idea has literally been done to death now, so the twist ending isn't shocking but a rip-off and the hand held footage is just an over-laboured bore. The cast of nobodies are uniformly bad and don't get me started on the technical aspects; it's amateur night all around. F. Murray Abraham follows the tradition of once-great actors dragging their reputations through the mud and the monster is seen exactly once, in a single split second CGI shot at the end, where we find out it isn't a monkey at all but an ape. The scene in which the monkeys are urinating over the tents is one of the worst imaginable and even the gore effects amount to a single, albeit effective, makeup job. The rest is just noise and inanity, signifying nothing.

Matt Ryan star of the new Constantine TV series and F. Murray Abraham in a SyFy creature of the week while this has some better production values, well known TV director and an Oscar winning actor it also has a not so great script several poorly talented actors but to my surprise watched start to finish its a little slow getting started , passable entertainment for a late night or rainy day. When compared to some of the more recent films on SyFy its better than many. Shot on location in Thailand not some cheesy set or awful CGI. Average acting, so so storytelling, same goes for direction, beautiful jungle location, lacking suspense or many scares but better than watching wallpaper dry.

Most creature features recently had the same problem: extensively showing creatures that look computer generated from a mile. In that respect, 'Blood Monkey' is much better, because it doesn't show the monkeys through 95 pct of the running time. Suspense is created successfully, because the characters only know something is lurking in the jungle, but they have no idea how dangerous it actually is. This is closer to the 1940s horror movie style than the current gore-in-your-face flicks which leave nothing to imagination. I also liked the location in Thailand, it provides a convincing background.On the other hand, the movie has serious flaws. To name a few: the video camera thing, one actor filming the others, which has been done to death in the past decade. Story logic - for example, why do they go hunting with only one huntress and one gun, I'd have armed myself to the teeth if I were in the professor's place? Briefly, there is some irrational behaviour to the point it's sometimes annoying, such as the students buying cheap excuses, and some of the young actors appear to be quite amateurish, anyway, but I realise it is a tough job for them to play next to an F M Abraham.To sum it up, the movie was not extraordinary, but at least better than I expected from the other reviews around here, and more interesting than various recently released shark, crocodile or piranha flicks. I voted 5/10.

As an insomniac I tend to be awake late at night. Oftentimes this is simply a thorn in my side, but on certain occasions it's a blessing in disguise. One such occasion was the other night when, overcome by an inability to sleep, I turned on the television and stumbled across the film BloodMonkey. The opening, I will admit, made me skeptical as to what the quality of the film would be, but once the film started, I was hooked. Granted, at times the film is campy, but it's held together by strong dialogue and performances that truly develop the characters. The actors are all young, yet they nail the accents they put on; I was convinced that Seth was actually either Scottish or Spanish until I checked out his IMDb page! Not only are the performances well played, but the film-making itself is quite good. The suspense is truly tangible. After about and hour and fifteen minutes of nothing happening, I was on my seat waiting for the next development. As a man with some connections, I was able to get a hold of the script. I was blown away by what the filmmakers did with it! It truly is amazing to think about...