Wrath of the Skunkape (1997)

 

Director: Mike C. Hartman

Screenplay: Mike C. Hartman

Cast: Mike C. Hartman as Clause; John M. Morgan as Johan Von Smith; Jason Severson as Stinky Thumbs

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies)

 

Skunky won’t you sing this song, Skunky, Skunky…

Wrath of the Skunkape is a film I would recommend to many. A micro budget, micro-length film from a director-writer Mike C. Hartman, he would go on with Silver Bullet Pictures to continue making other films, and this feels like the first attempts at making a movie with all the issues that you could imagine in his position, and things which have no aged well in throwing whatever wacky premise onto the walls to see what sticks too. I openly admit the reason I got some pleasure from this film, aside from only being forty minutes long, is that this has a lead that least makes those forty minutes compelling every time he is onscreen, even if he is improvising. That would be Jason Severson as Stinky Thumbs Arbuckle, out to revenge his brother Billy-Bob-Joe-Jr., and with Severson swinging for the fences, and his character pursuing the skunkape responsible over decades, he represents the pleasures one can find even in films which struggle in the micro-budget genre in their creation, in this case some of the content here, technically and in presentation, struggle like the first attempts of any person attempting to make a movie.

Skunkapes belong to a type of ape-like creature catalogued by cryptozoologists to inhabit forests and swamps in the southeastern United States, though alongside way too high a potassium build up for all the bananas it eats, this particular one is a monkey costume where the lack of usable mouth prevents the actor from eating them onscreen. Said to be really smelly, Skunkape as a film is split between a) an insanely cheesy no budget film which struggles with its lack of production, b) a very silly film, for the better, when Stinky Thumbs Arbuckle is on screen and, c) the one idea that, whilst tamer than it is presented, does add an unfortunate trait of scuzziness many may not be comfortable with about cryptoid apes being interested in human women, to paint that as politely as possible and needing to be dealt with later on in the review.

Not a lot happens, despite three other male characters being introduced, alongside there being an antagonist played by the director, a crazed German scientist who wants to capture the skunk ape to breed an army of them under him, barring some dialogue scenes and some “horror” scenes of the ape attacking people. Baring one strange tangent involving a seemingly English accented vagrant wanting cheese, this feels mostly improvised, with moments where this does show how it was shot on the fly. It has a production many may not be able to sit through, such as a camp fire scene at night where you cannot see anything baring a screen of orange-red from the fire. It also has licensed music, which would prevent it from getting an official release, such as Johnny Cash; one example was removed in the version I saw, as you hear the opening of Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion before hastily cutting it off for banjo music.

As mentioned, this is another film with cyroptozoological ape people sexually interested in human women, and if that may raise an eyebrow in the word “another” being there, it is a slight list but there are a few films obsessed with this. There is a hardcore film called The Geek (1971) about this idea, released by Something Weird Video among their vast catalogue of weird titles where you could probably discover any subject like this got a low budget film back in the day, and there is the Video Nasty Night of the Demon (1980) which makes this a key plot point. Here, whilst it is ridiculous, and eventually involved actresses in bikinis tied to a tree, it is creepy and understandably will put people off. The film does feel like the silly ideas of a younger guy making a film, but this one with hindsight unfortunately went into something which becomes more an issue in the decades past, and when female characters are introduced, they are literally there for wearing bikinis. Whilst it is thankfully done with clothes on, this does get into content no matter haphazardly done, when the skunkape interferes with the male and female cast getting intimate, which is going to be unacceptable to many. Thankfully the film never goes further with this, as much because the film only gets to some dramatic stakes by the last ten minutes, but when even the end credit bloopers have the female cast being instructed by the men working on the film to pose the right way for these scenes, confused and little uncomfortable themselves, it is at least distasteful if not offensive. Even some of the dialogue about “perfect breeding hips” earlier on is going to offend some viewers, with the banter between male characters, only for me as a male viewer just glancing by in how absurd it is especially, even with that distasteful plot thread, with the inane silliness of a character with a mock German accent obsessed with an army of skunkapes being a creditable weapon, where the silliness of the production thankfully undermines questionable content for the better.

Stinky Thumbs/Severson is a godsend in comparison to all this, and thankfully he gets most of the film. Some viewers will not appreciate what is clearly a non-actor going for the most ridiculous southern accent and even repeating himself, but there is something which worked for me with his obsession in skunkapes not being able to see food unless its green, or just shouting nonsense about wanting to catch the skunkape and being impatient about it. He is the kind of thing, if you are able to appreciate micro-budget genre films even when they fail, you come to appreciate the more of them you watch, for the levity, bordering between the intentional and unintentional, where you see the fictionality of what a film is as a construct being blurred, by what is undercutting the craft but is charming and entertaining in itself. Also Severson’s way of saying his lines is so over-the-top, on a gut level, it is just funny for me as a viewer. When you feel uncomfortable with the entire treatment of women in the film, no matter if the amateurish nature undercuts it, or the film is a series of prolonged scenes of dialogue, Stinky Thumbs emphasizes something in his dialogue to a comedic affect or when he ends up in a slap fight with the skunkape by the final scene. Alongside the surprisingly good country music on the soundtrack, these are the things that help get through even a film like this. Silver Bullet Pictures made this available on their YouTube page on the 18th May 2012, which I am glad of as all films deserve to be preserved and seen, but this is a film I cannot recommend to a viewer unless you can find that sense of fun within it. Mike C. Hartman would go on to make more films, and in comparison, including the concerns of the content with is questionable, it is truly one of those early films someone makes over a few weekends, for good and for bad.