Villain(s)  Ape man hybrid

Actor(s):  Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, Wallace Ford, Henry Hall

Brief Description  The Ape Man (1943) is a campy, low-budget B-horror film produced by Monogram Pictures, directed by William Beaudine, and starring the legendary Bela Lugosi. Clocking in at 64 minutes, the film is famous among cult cinema fans for its bizarre, logic-defying premise, "Poverty Row" production values, and a famously absurd gorilla suit. The film skips the backstory and jumps straight into the aftermath of a bizarre scientific experiment. The film is widely recognized as a "so-bad-it's-good" classic. Despite the dark concept of paralyzing and murdering people for spinal fluid, the execution leans into surreal comedy. Lugosi gives a characteristically intense performance that is heavily contrasted by the fact that his "ape" makeup makes him look more like a member of The Three Stooges than a jungle beast. Because of Monogram's tight budgets, almost the entire movie takes place within a single house and its underground laboratory.

Plot:
The Transformation: Brilliant scientist Dr. James Brewster (Bela Lugosi) and his colleague Dr. George Randall have successfully conducted an evolution experiment. However, Brewster uses himself as a guinea pig and injects himself with gorilla fluid. The experiment works "too well," leaving him permanently deformed as a stooped-over, incredibly hairy half-man, half-ape hybrid.

The Macabre Cure: Brewster discovers that the only way to reverse the mutation is an injection of freshly drawn human spinal fluid. The catch is that harvesting this fluid is immediately fatal to the donor.

The Killing Spree: Dr. Randall refuses to help Brewster commit murder for the cure. Desperate and hiding out in a secret basement lab, Brewster teams up with his fiercely loyal captive gorilla (played by an actor in a gorilla suit). Together, they sneak out into the city to stalk and murder "involuntary donors" to harvest their spinal cord serum.

The Investigation: As bodies pile up, the police, a pair of aggressive newspaper reporters (Jeff Carter and Billie Mason), and Brewster’s eccentric ghost-hunting sister, Agatha, all converge on the house to solve the mystery.

The Climax: Brewster's temporary injections keep wearing off, forcing him to kill repeatedly. Ultimately, his frantic quest for survival collapses when his own captive gorilla turns on him, leading to a chaotic and fatal undoing.