I remember seeing a very small add for this movie in the newspaper when I was younger. A crazy baboon killing teens? That sounded like my two favorite horror movie genres coming together, slashers and rabid monsters! But I couldn't jet off to the movies whenever I wanted back then so I had to wait for video and wait I did. I know I saw it, but I don't remember it. So, supported by nostalgia again, I dive into this film to relive that time not so long ago. I'm glad I ended up pleasantly blown away instead of violently disappointed.

Directed by two guys (Tom Logan and Hugh Parks), this film is essentially a game of Dungeons and Dragons gone wrong. Dr. Sorenson (played by the amazing Roddy McDowall) leads a group of medical students on a game one night in the medical school. It's basically an alternate-world role-play where the rooms, offices, and labs of the building act as caves, dungeons, etc. Sorenson is the game master (or dungeon master) and he controls the game from an upstairs lab where the building is mapped out on a computer and he keeps in touch with the players through walkie-talkies. All would be fine and dandy and the movie would be a lame night of teens running around looking for clues and answering riddles if it wasn't for Shakma. Shakma is a baboon that has been used for medical experiments. Earlier in the day it went berserk after a brain operation and was supposedly put to sleep. "Supposedly" is the operative word there, because Shakma is very much alive and very much pissed. The funniest scene in the movie is when one of the players mistakes Shakma for the hidden demon character in the game and sprinkles glitter at the red-assed, carnivorous monkey, then is torn to shreds by the creature.

When two of the players go missing, Sorenson leaves his control center to check on them and finds them both chewed up. He races back to the elevator but Shakma appears, racing down the hallway like a crazy...well, monkey I guess, and kills Cornelius from Planet of the Apes. You can literally smell the irony, can't you? Shakma's screams are heard by Sam (played by Christopher Atkins from The Blue Lagoon) and his girlfriend Tracy (played by the beautiful Amanda Wyss, who was the unforgettable Tina in A Nightmare on Elm Street). They go to investigate and run into the crazed and blood-matted Shakma. Here they spend a good chunk of movie trying to distract the baboon while they pull out the remains of their friends and teacher. This sequence is actually very suspenseful and it ends in the death of the token black guy who gets off on the wrong floor. Tracy tried to warn him, but was too late. Unfortunately for her, Shakma catches up with her and after terrorizing her in the ladies room, he breaks in and tears her to pieces in a bathroom stall. I guess Ms. Wyss was never meant to survive a horror movie, and her odds were pretty good this time around.

Sam goes to get Kim (played by the adorable Ari Meyers from TVs Kate and Allie...I confess to having a huge crush on her and that might have been another reason I wanted to see this movie so badly way back when). Kim is playing the princess in the game, the ultimate prize for the lucky player. He explains the situation and they go off to find the others, not aware that they are the only "others" left in the building. Sam finds Tracy dead and also finds Sorenson's keys, which will let them out of the building. Kim goes missing to look for her brother, who was the second guy to die. Sam has a mini-meltdown and decides to put Shakma down once and for all. He grabs a stick, a knife, and sets up a MacGuyver-esque trap to fry the monkey bastard, but it doesn't work as planned and he ends up trading bites for stab wounds with the massive monstrosity. Bleeding to death slowly and weak as hell, Sam realizes he has one more shot left in him to kill Shakma and he comes up with a brilliant plan involving the school's cremation ovens.

This was an amazingly great movie. Sure, it's got sort of a hokey premise (a killer baboon is loose in a building), but the film is handled and executed with grace, style, intelligence, and most of all class. I love to see a balls-to-the-wall horror movie that is belly-bursting with tension and refuses to follow the horror movie rules of who should die and who should live. We are treated to tons of scenes where Shakma goes apeshit (pun intended) and this shows us how out of control he is and monsters who have lost all reasoning are even scarier because of their unpredictability. This unpredictability, the bloody deaths, and the breathless pace make this a film to be studied. You may not have heard of it, or maybe caught it on late night TV, but I urge you to seek this film out. This solid little picture is available on dvd, although it may be out of print, and I guarantee you that you will not be bored one second of this film's 100 minute run time. Ultimately, the film proves my point. Monkeys are scary, violent psychopaths. Don't fuck with monkeys! These are words to live by, my friends.

- Jose Prendes