A lab-made monkey-man with super-strength and zero impulse control? What could go wrong.
Half man, half monkey, Chad was born in a lab and kept hidden from the world. A journalist, investigating a macabre mass-murder, discovers the mutant boy — a creature with the mind of a child and superhuman strength. But the reporter finds out the hard way that nothing, and nobody, can stand in the way of progress. (Re-titled for its American VHS release, "Monkey Boy" is an abbreviated film version of Lawrence Gordon Clark's 1991 mini-series "Chimera".)
Practical Effects
Chad's makeup: janky, earnest, deeply unsettling.
Acting
Douglas Mann commits to full monkey-boy physicality.
Direction
Clark squeezes epic scope into 104 chaotic minutes.
Director
Lawrence Gordon Clark
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1991 ITV mini-series ran four hours; this cut loses roughly half the character development and an entire subplot.
Chimera aired during Britain's early-90s biotech panic, riding headlines about genetic engineering and animal rights protests.
US
