Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

★★☆

Directed by: Ted Post

Written by: Paul Dehn & Mort Abrahams

So I watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes last night. Although I believe it is critically regarded as one of the worst films in the series, I still enjoyed it, albeit not as as much as the first one, but it did still have some great moments.

One of these moments is when Cornelius and the gorilla army are marching on the Forbidden Zone. In an attempt to deter the apes, the mutants create horrific telepathic illusions of apes strung up and burning alive, as well as a gigantic statue of the Lawgiver who then bleeds from the eyes and mouth. Even though the visual effects used to created this sequence are very obviously outdated (sadly, you could tell they were quite proud of their superimposed flames that were WAY out of the scale with their surroundings), I still found this scene to be very effective. The fact that it was so dated gave it a very different feel to anything that could be created today (or at least, would be created today). Instead of horrifying the audience with it's visuals, which would be lost on today's audience, because of it's unrealistic, 'antique' look, it had a much more eerie feel to it, which I think was very effective, and for me, still made this sequence rather chilling.

Having said that, I did come close to having a mental breakdown when the mutant's singing scene just went on FOREVER. We get it, they have gross, mutant faces, and yet they are still capable of beautiful singing, just please, for the love of Lawgiver, CUT TO THE NEXT SCENE!

Here's a fun fact for you: the ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes; having Taylor detonate the Doomsday bomb and destroy Earth, was Charlton Heston's (who played Taylor) idea, as he was reluctant to reprise his role in the film to begin with, agreeing to it only if his character died and destroyed the Earth, in hopes that would destroy any chance of more sequels being made. But of course it didn't, as I still have Escape from, Conquest of and Battle for the Planet of the Apes still to watch! And I have to say that I'm glad Charlton didn't have his way, as I am rather looking forward to watching them. So until then, bye, "you bloody bastards!"