Rating: B-
Dir: Hugh Parks, Tom Logan
Star: Christopher Atkins, Amanda Wyss, Ari Meyers, Roddy McDowall
You could remake this film, reverse the perspective and get an interesting take on the story. It would become the story of a poor, innocent animal, stripped from his home and tortured beyond its breaking point in the questionable name of “science”, who finally snaps and take bloody revenge on his tormentors. Shakma: an empowering saga of animal rights, coming to cinemas soon. Brought to you by PETA and the new Impossible Burger from McDonald’s. The original movie, however, is not that story. The titular creature, a baboon used in a university laboratory, is depicted as not much more than hairy and large-buttocked feral rage, willing and able to rip the face off anyone it encounters.
In this case, what he encounters is a group of LARPers, who with the assistance of their educator, Professor Sorenson (McDowell), have turned the building into the location for a night of locked-in role-playing. They intend to solve puzzles as they make their way through the floors, and rescue the princess on the top level. This is clearly a fictional representation of college role-players, because the men in the group have social skills and the women are reasonably attractive. “How do you fend off an aggressive simian?” was not among the puzzles they originally intended to solve, but here they are, with no way out, a dead phone system, and a very annoyed monkey, out for their blood.
It’s mostly effective, because they clearly use a real baboon for just about everything. This is not a small animal, and when it enters attack mode, it’s quite convincing. Mind you, this was not Typhoon’s – that being the name of the animal actor – first dealings with a dodgy scientist. Four years earlier, he was in The Fly, getting turned inside out by Seth Brundle. He gets to do rather more here, and does so well, although he’s rarely in the same shot as the human actors, presumably for safety reasons. There’s a lot of him pounding on lab doors while they try desperately to keep it closed: per the IMDb, the “trainer was on the opposite side of the door whispering Typhoon’s name which angered him.” Baboons. They’re so sensitive.
I was impressed by the makers’ willingness to kill off just about everyone here, albeit the deaths happening largely off-screen. The most memorable sees one of the LARPers trying to climb up in a bathroom stall to reach a vent, only to be dragged down – not once, but twice – by Shakma. In the end, it’s down to Sam (Atkins), who must use his superior intelligence in order to defeat a foe who certainly has the strength and savagery advantage. Without giving too much away, the final result has a nice resonance, bringing everything back to how it all started, with Sam unwilling to dispose of Shakma. Ninety-odd minutes and several missing faces later, he has had all such qualms ruthlessly pruned. Sure, this is junk: but I found it amusing junk, and that’s all I wanted.