Our Take

The Ape (1940) - Boris Karloff plays a desperate doctor who decides the best way to save a paralyzed girl is to dress up in an actual ape skin and murder people for their spinal fluid. It’s as insane as it sounds, but Karloff brings a staggering amount of tragic dignity to a role that should be completely ridiculous. This is the dark, grimy corner of 1940s horror where the science is mad and the morals are non-existent. A weird, skin-crawling character study of a man losing his soul for a miracle that requires a butcher’s knife.