Simply A Masterpiece

Please don't spend money on this.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A repairman is infected when his hand is "cut" by a certain flower which causes something encased in a cocoon to exit his mouth while he's unconscious in an emergency room of County Memorial Hospital. This causes an infection which soon leaves paramedics who brought the victim to the emergency room to become unconscious and afflicted as well. Detective Jim Bishop(Steve Railsback) enters the emergency room with a partner who was shot during a stakeout which went awry. Along with Dr. Rachel Carson(Gwynyth Walsh)and entomologist Elliot Jacobs(Don Lake), Bishop will have his hands full as hospitalized kids being mischievous enter the lab holding the cocooned insect, feeding it a large dose of NAC-5, an accelerant growth promoter, because they thought it was hungry and needed nourishment, which works as a catalyst in metamorphosing it to a substantial degree, now an insect monster on the rampage. The Lincoln Center for Disease Control(working with Department of Health) puts County Memorial Hospital under quarantine and burns down the greenhouse which contained the flower behind the insect. Developments emerge which includes the fact that a bottle of Jack helped stop the toxins(caused by the infection) from spreading throughout the bodies of two elderly ladies who get wasted, an audio recording by Elliot of the giant insect mate's "voice" actually interrupts its path towards killing Bishop, County Memorial has a laser research lab(Laser research is the wave of the future Dr. proclaims) for future benefits in molecular breakdown and DNA experiments which will be used as a method to distract the creature, and we are informed through the entomologist that future insects will breed at an alarming rate(feeding from humans slowly, as we see in the case of a nurse and scientist who are cocooned and eaten from!). Essentially a "giant bug" movie with Railsback up against an insect which walks upright and beheads innocent victims who cross its path. I think this film has a bad rep due to its ridiculous title, because BLUE MONKEY(the alternate title, INSECT, is actually more logical)is more or less reminiscent of other 50s giant insect titles, except in a modern 80s setting. The creature is darkly lit and carefully edited as it causes mayhem obviously so that it wouldn't cause chuckles if seen clearly. Railsback gets to play hero again, but will need help from Walsh and Lake if he is to conquer the fiend and its offspring. Susan Anspach is another emergency room doctor, Judith Glass(she's the one who discovers the solution to the outbreak)and John Vernon is the hospital administrator(not as much an asshole as he normally is in other movies). Joe Flaherty and Robin Duke are a couple expecting the birth of their first child, a sub-plot which has no reason to be in the movie, to tell you the truth, other than to add some comedy.

When I first saw the cover of this movie (a giant bug chasing a few nurses) And the name "Blue Monkey", I knew I wasn't in for any big Hollywood movie. I was pleasantly surprised to see Steve Railsback in this cheese-ball flick, who always does a good job in whatever role he tackles.... The FX are pretty corny, there isn't too much of a plot, and I'm still not sure why this movie is called Blue Monkey, because there is nothing in this movie to do with monkey. But come on people, what did you expect?? It's not really as bad as it seems.... If you enjoy the old 50's style black and white bug attack movies, this one is basically an updated version, without the updates special FX

This wonderfully silly late 80's gigantic lethal bug on the loose creature feature manages to be good, brisk, dopey fun if one catches it in a properly childish state of mind. The crazy plot, cooked up with lotsa choice tried'n'true fright flick clichés by hack screenwriter George Goldsmith (the guy to blame for stretching "Children of the Corn"'s laboriously drawn-out plot to a clunky 90 minute length), has a giant, deadly, mutated insect stalking and killing people in a hospital, a plague caused by the bug infecting several patients so the building has to be quarantined (leading to your standard beat-the-clock tension and, better still, providing as good an excuse as any to keep folks trapped in the hospital so the bug can off 'em), likable take-charge macho cop Steve Railsback standing up to the slimy sucker, and SCTV veterans Joe Flaherty and Robin Duke supplying hilariously tasteless low-brow comic relief as a histrionic doofus and his equally hysterical pregnant wife, respectively. Helping out the stalwart Railsback are gutsy doctor Gwynth Walsh and nerdy bespectacled entomologist Don Lake, while Susan Anspach as another brave physician looks concerned on the sidelines and crusty hospital administrator John Vernon sourly grumbles his disapproval of the whole nutty mess throughout. Future star watchers will want to keep their eyes peeled for a very young and girlish Sarah Polley as a wee tyke the bug tries to snack on (the drooling fiend feeds on calcium, you see); at one point Railsback runs down a hallway carrying Polley in his arms while the bug chases after them! Yeah, as one could surmise from the above synopsis this is a seriously goofy and ridiculous affair, but the spirited direction by seasoned Canadian horror pic helmer William Fruet (his other credits include the savagely effective "The Last House on the Left" cash-in copy "Death Weekend," the spooky "Funeral Home," and the laughably lousy giant killer snake stinker "Spasms"), the surprisingly sound and straight performances from the admirably earnest cast (save Duke and Flaherty, who both mug it up gleefully with often sidesplitting results), the fiercely energetic and unflagging narrative momentum, a genuinely cool creature, a reasonable amount of gooey gore, and the inspired blending of 80's type gunky splatter with an endearingly hokey 50's style over-sized mankind-noshing killer bug premise make this thoroughly inane nonsense quite entertaining just the same.

Never even knew this movie existed until I found an old VHS copy of it, hidden deep in my dusty horror closet. The title on the box said "Insect" and the illustrations on the back made clear that it is just another insignificant and poorly produced 80's horror movie. They can surely be fun, of course, as long as don't expect an intelligent scenario and as long as you're not irritated by seeing a giant amount of cheesy make-up effects. Just about every important aspect that makes a horror movie worthy viewing is substandard here in "Blue Monkey"! The plot is ridiculous and highly unoriginal, the acting performances are painful to observe and there's a total lack of suspense. Following the always-popular trend of "big-bug" movies, "Blue Monkey" handles about a new and unknown insect species that wipes out the doctors and patients of a remote hospital. The makers couldn't be more evasive about the actual origin of this gigantically over-sized critter! All we know is that it's not from outer space and it initially crawled out of a tropical plant. Other than this, there's absolutely no explanation for where this new type of insect all of a sudden comes from! Like I said, don't get your hopes up for an intelligent screenplay. The first half of the film is entertaining enough, with some nice gore and the introduction of a couple deranged characters (an 80-year-old blind and alcoholic lady!) but the second half (when the entire hospital is put to quarantine) is dreadfully boring. It is also near the end that "Blue Monkey" begins to exaggeratedly rip-off older (and better) films. Approaching the climax, they apparently ran out of budget as well, since the lighting becomes very poor and the guy in the monster suit isn't very well camouflaged anymore. "Blue Monkey" is worth a peek in case you're really bored or if you really want to see every 80's horror movie ever made. Fans of B-cinema may recognize John Vernon ("Killer Klowns from Outer Space", "Curtains") in the small and meaningless role of Roger, who's in charge of the clinic.