Shakma (1990) – Hugh Parks/Tom Logan.

'Shakma is one severely sanguineous simian!'

'When mega-dosed beasts go bonkers!' has a proven track record in B-Horror/schlock, with Link, Monkey Shines, Dogs, and Killing Birds' being personal faves. I would have given Shakma a shot based solely on the innate prettiness of stars Amanda Wyss and Christopher Atkins, with icon Roddy McDowell making it a no-brainer. During an elaborate evening's live-action role-playing game, an activity teens enjoyed pre-memes, synthetic drugs, and sleazy dating aps, Sam's (Christopher Atkins) baboon goes ballistic, reacting super-murderously to a procedure by Professor Sorensen (Roddy McDowell). According to the text baboons are the most brutal primate next to man, thereby suggesting the protagonists have nothing to worry about, since the odds must surely be in their favour as earth's most destructive predator?

Happily, Shakma ignores its own rationale, and let's the bellicose baboon go absolutely monkey ape nuts! If Shakma were made today, it would, perhaps, be an Asylum dirge, starring Eric Roberts as the game master, with a CGI'd travesty as Shakma, which makes the 90s Shakma objectively more cherishable. In my psychotronically distorted mind, I'll always make room for batso B-horror baboon! Even as a wee one, I always thought Baboon's looked pretty bad-ass, sorry, red ass, and Shakma boisterously provides some old school monkey magic! I can readily see why Shakma has maintained a fanbase over the years, as I had a blast rewatching this feral, awesomely teed off primate tear up the joint! It might simply be wishful thinking, but I'm sure that Shakma momentarily had a simian stiffy? In conclusion, Shakma remains a fun time-killer, but I can't help think Sam's exceedingly bloody ordeal might set him up for a serious case of PTSD?