THE BLOODY APE Super Simian Special Edition & BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 Special SS Edition (1997, 2008 dir Keith Crocker)

Wild Eye Releasing DVD

Filmmaker Keith Crocker of Cinefear Productions brings us his new take on 1970s Nazisploitation flicks as BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 comes to DVD via Rob Hauschild's Wild Eye Releasing. Also from Wild Eye has come Keith's first feature film from 1997 THE BLOODY APE, an homage to Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and grindhouse classics from the 1960s and '70s like NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES.

A love letter to fans of movies like the ILSA films and SS HELL CAMP, BLITZKRIEG brings us the story about a former Nazi wanted for crimes he committed during WWII. After barely escaping arrest, the former SS member finds his way to a church and tells his story to a priest at the confessional. We are shown life at the camp known as Stalag 69 where prisoners are subject to a wide variety of vicious acts of brutality, sadism, torture, rape, and murder. Among the prisoners is a Russian woman who seduced a Nazi who was after her before brutally castrating him in a bathtub (in a scene that kind of pays to tribute to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE) and stabbing him to death. She runs naked through the woods with his gun battling other Nazis before she is captured. Spending most of the movie naked and being tortured by having her fingers crushed, bamboo shoots shoved under her fingernails, she comes out in the end as the toughest person in the camp when the time for rebellion by the prisoners has come and the massive uprising against the Nazis brings about a bloodbath of amazing proportions. BLITZKRIEG is gory, sick, and sleazy fun with some very nauseating torture sequences (especially one involving a branding iron on the feet of a prisoner), genital mutilation, and naked females. It's easy to tell right from the get go that Keith Crocker had his heart in the right place with this one as all the best elements from the '70s Nazisploitation flicks are all thrown together in a blender to create a loving tribute feature that's sure to please diehard grindhouse moviegoers.

The Wild Eye DVD of BLITZKRIEG contains a healthy amount of extras including a director's commentary, making-of featurette with cast and crew interviews, footage from the movie's premiere, the original SCHINDLER'S LUST promo trailer Keith shot back in the '90s which BLITZKRIEG is based on, deleted scenes, bloopers, a stills gallery, and an early short film of Crocker's called DE SADE '88.

THE BLOODY APE brings us the story of Lampini, a carnival barker with a circus ape. Lampini is at a moment in time when nothing is going his way. He has to deal with an ignorant, racist car mechanic, a complete joke of a jeweler, and his relationship with his lady is falling apart. Soon Lampini's ape, which also happens to have a severe case of banana fetish, makes an escape from the circus and goes on a gory rampage ripping people to bits. The people who turn up dead and horribly mutilated are mostly enemies of Lampini's. An incompetent, racist detective is hellbent on blaming the rash of killings on an unfortunate black kid caught up in the scheme of things. THE BLOODY APE is funny, offensive, gory, and over-the-top and has plenty of nudity and references to other classic killer ape and gorilla flicks. 1980's NIGHT OF THE DEMON is one movie you can spot a nod to in a scene where a hippie has his dick yanked off by the ape (NOTD featured a biker having his dick ripped off by a killer Bigfoot). Other scenes of grue include a beheading, a guy's head crushed under the wheel of a car, and a nipple ripped off. Shot on Super 8 by Crocker on a shoestring budget, THE BLOODY APE is a perfect example of guerilla (excuse the pun) filmmaking at its most ambitious. The movie also has a very anti-racist message to it and it kind of shows us what racism can be like in our society in the behavior of the detective and how quick he is to assume the worst when something involving a black man comes up. Though some may just dismiss it as being offensive for the sake of being offensive, that really isn't the point if you can look deeply enough. In no way were they trying to glorify racism, they were more or less showing the ugliness of it in society and what causes people with that certain mindset to behave in the manners they do.

The Wild Eye DVD of THE BLOODY APE contains a director's commentary, a featurette featuring interviews with the cast and crew, production stills, artwork galleries, trailers, and an early short film from Crocker entitled ONE GRAVE TOO MANY.

Both releases of Keith Crocker's work from Wild Eye are sure to be the ultimate delight for exploitation fans. If you're looking for a good double feature of gory mayhem, sex, and sleaze, you can't go wrong with the Special SS Edition of BLITZKRIEG and the Super Simian Special Edition of BLOODY APE. Go to Wild Eye's website and order your copies today!