While the original 1933 King Kong is an all-time classic, there have been a slew of imitators
that slipped on the proverbial banana peel. Here are bizarre King Kong rip-offs you never
knew existed.
While King Kong was a critical and commercial smash in 1933, its sequel Son of Kong – which
came only nine months later — was not, sending the Kong brand back to Skull Island. Fifteen
years later, B-movie studio Film Classics released its own low-budget Kong-inspired
movie: Unknown Island.
The story should sound familiar: An adventure seeker convinces his soon-to-be wife to finance
an expedition to an island supposedly populated by dinosaurs. When they arrive, it turns out
the legends were true!
So yeah, same basic story as King Kong, although Unknown Island doesn't feature a gorilla-like
monster. Instead, it has giant sloths and actors in dinosaur costumes. Unknown Island
isn't the worst King Kong ripoff, and at only 75 minutes it isn't a big time commitment
either. It's also in the public domain, so tracking it down should be much easier than
fighting off a horde of hungry dinos.
Brad Pitt once said he discovered his love of cinema from Toho Studios' 1966 release
The War of the Gargantuas, released to American cinemas in the 1970s. Most people didn't know
what the hell he was talking about.
"Toilet paper, new cars, computerized blenders, electrically operated sexual devices."
Gargantuas is actually a sequel to 1965's Frankenstein Conquers the World, in which
a green-skinned Frankenstein monster who is about 60 feet tall fights a fire-breathing
dinosaur to the death before he is carried into the sea by a giant octopus. Got all that?
In The War of the Gargantuas, the dead Frankenstein's DNA is used to create Sanda, a peaceful, brown,
primate-like Gargantua who escapes from his lab. His blood creates a mutated, killer,
green Gargantua named Gaia. Despite being "brothers," the Gargantuas go to war. It's
a lot, but it's also pretty awesome. The Gargantuas have shown up from time to time in other Godzilla-related
media, but there has never been a sequel, remake, or reboot.
India's Bollywood film industry is one of the biggest in the world, but that was most
definitely not the case in 1963, when Shikari was released. This may be the most impressive
King Kong rip-off — not because it's good, but because the filmmakers didn't even try
to disguise that it was a blatant King Kong rip-off.
In the movie, the owners of a struggling circus set out to capture King Kong at Kong Island
— so yeah, not exactly subtle. They are joined on their adventure by a scientist,
a beautiful girl, and a circus clown.
Instead of Kong, they encounter Otango, the result of experiments in turning humans into
gorillas by the Island of Dr. Moreau-like mad scientist Dr. Cyclops… yeah, that's
his name. Sound crazy? It gets crazier. We won't spoil it, except to say Otango doesn't
get nearly enough screen time, which is instead spent on the human leads. Shikari isn't particularly
memorable, though the soundtrack to the movie did become popular in India.
We wished we came up with "King Kong Goes Hong Kong," but alas Celestial Pictures snagged
that particular tagline to promote 1977's The Mighty Peking Man. It's the most impressive
part of this picture, which is basically what King Kong would be if it were made by a 13-year-old
boy.
While every giant gorilla picture is a rip-off of the original King Kong, The Mighty Peking
Man is technically a cash-grab of Dino De Laurentiis' 1976 blockbuster King Kong remake,
by the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers Studio.
If you know Shaw Brothers Studio, you know what to expect. If you don't, it's basically
an exploitation-era King Kong with thin plotting and a thick coating of 1970s sleaze. Even
if you haven't seen it, you know what it's about: Explorers travel to an island to find
a mythological monster and bring it back to civilization. It's King Kong but with Hong
Kong replacing New York City, and a terrified Fay Wray being swapped for Peking Man's companion,
a Russian blonde in an animal-skin bikini.
The Mighty Peking Man was re-released in the late 1990s by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling
Thunder Pictures, prompting a glowing three-star review from Roger Ebert. No, Ebert didn't
actually think it was "good" and you won't either, but if you can track it down you'll
love its delightfully kitschy absurdity all the same.
Ever wonder what Michael Gough was up to before playing Alfred Pennyworth in the Tim Burton
and Joel Schumacher Batman movies? Well, in 1961, he starred in one of the "better" King
Kong rip offs, Konga.
"Konga!"
"Better" is a relative term here – Konga is still an embarrassment Gough probably wishes
he never made, and you'll wish you never saw. What Gorgo is to Godzilla, Konga is to King
Kong, abandoning the original films' cities and contexts for Merry Old England.
Gough plays Dr. Charles Decker, who spent a year in Africa — where he was presumed
dead — doing mad scientist-y things like turning plants and animals into giant monsters.
Dr. Decker brings back a baby chimp, Konga, injected with his serum, to kill his enemies.
But the baby chimp grows into a giant gorilla and causes destruction across London.
Konga is a pretty basic cross between a "man-in-a-gorilla-suit" movie and the "monster run amok" pictures
of the 1950s, trading giant ants, spiders, and condors with, well, a man in a gorilla
suit. It's bad, but not quite laughably so, at least once you get used to the characters
screaming bloody murder while being attacked by a dude in a cheap Halloween costume.
We're glad to say that 28 years later, Gough graduated to another film about a guy in costume
attacking people.
We're genuinely shocked it took 43 years for anyone to think of Queen Kong. It was actually
released before the movie it was ripping off, Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong remake. The
American blockbuster remake came out December 17, 1976, while Queen Kong arrived on December
10, 1976, but only in Italy and Germany — Kong's then-copyright holder De Laurentis stopped
it from being released elsewhere. In hindsight, we should probably thank him for burying this
movie, because nobody should have to be subjected to it.
Honestly, Queen Kong is less a rip-off and more of a spoof. The British-German co-production
is a comedy adventure film and plays like a gender-reversed King Kong. A female film
crew kidnaps a male actor and takes him to the jungles of Africa to star in a movie.
There the actor, also a petty thief, becomes the object of desire for a giant female gorilla.
We applaud the effort, not the result.
"If you destroy this beautiful beast, you destroy a lifetime of female struggle."
It wasn't beauty that killed this beast, but the critics, as its 23% audience score on
Rotten Tomatoes and 3.3 score on IMDb demonstrate. Turns out that if you're going to make a comedy,
it helps to be funny, which Queen Kong is not. In order to be "so bad it's good," a
movie has to be unintentionally funny. Queen Kong is unintentionally not funny, which makes
it just a bore.
"No one waves into the camera. That's what I'm famous for. Not one wave."
We gotta hand it to the American distributors of King of Kong Island — they weren't even
trying to hide the fact that they were ripping off King Kong. Ironically, this movie doesn't
feature a giant gorilla or even an island. Don't be fooled, however. While only the title
rips off King Kong, the movie itself is basically Tarzan, if the Lord of the Apes were a lady.
In fact, the original Italian title is translated as Eva, the Savage Venus.
This 1968 Italian jungle adventure film is about a mad scientist who is using mind control
devices on gorillas in Kenya. When he kidnaps a young woman, a mercenary adventurer leads
a team into the jungle to find her. Along the way he encounters a legendary "white jungle
woman" wearing only a loincloth that the natives call The Sacred Monkey. Coolest hero name
ever? Maybe.
The Sacred Monkey's actually an orphan named Eva who was raised by apes and who speaks
no human language, but can communicate with animals. Despite her name being in the Italian
title, Eva is only a supporting character, as the focus is on the adventurer. So it's
called Eva, The Savage Venus, but isn't about her, and was changed to King of Kong Island
in America, but has no giant gorillas. Got it? Sounds like the ones getting ripped off
the most were the people watching it.
A*P*E is probably the worst King Kong rip-off, though it only wins by a hair. With a 2.5/10
IMDB rating and a 9% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie is truly terrible. A*P*E
is a 1976 American-South Korean co-production, featuring a Western director and stars, and
a largely South Korean crew, and was one of many giant gorilla movies made to ride the
waves on Dino De Laurentiis' remake. The words "Not to be confused with King Kong" are even
on the poster.
"Oh, hello? Hello? If you should bump into him, ask him if his name is King Kong."
To give you an idea of what kind of movie you're dealing with, consider the title for
its 1982 grindhouse theatrical re-release: Attack of the Giant Horny Gorilla. Honestly,
it probably made more money with that title. There's also its signature scene, in which
the gorilla flips the bird, which admittedly is pretty great.
A*P*E skips the whole "journey to a mysterious island" setup and starts aboard an oil tanker,
where an imprisoned 36-foot tall gorilla escapes and immediately battles a giant great white
shark before making its way to shore. The ape is at large, killing people across South
Korea, stalking a beautiful blonde, and facing off with the military. Wash-rinse-repeat.
A*P*E is awful but short, so if you have 87 minutes to kill… honestly, you should still
probably find something else to watch.
Both the original 1933 King Kong and the 1976 King Kong remake inspired plenty of rip-offs,
but sadly Peter Jackson's epic 2005 remake didn't inspire nearly as many. However, there
was one noteworthy rip-off — 2005's King of the Lost World. Released by The Asylum,
the cinematic masterminds behind the Sharknado franchise, King of the Lost World bills itself
as a retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, but let's be honest, it's
the kind of cash-grab mockbuster that makes you assume the actors had to be tied up to
keep them from leaving the set.
"Dana. Dana. Come on, Dana. Untie me. Natalie?"
What's the plot, you ask? A crew crash lands in a remote jungle, where some are killed
by giant scorpions, and some are brainwashed into performing a sacrificial ritual to appease
the monsters that live there. Wouldn't you know it, King Ko — er, some giant gorilla,
shows up to stop the ceremony. It's been a minute since we've read Doyle's book, but
we don't remember any of this. Hey, creative license, right?
There are bad special effects, horrible special effects, and then there's The Mighty Gorga.
We can say with 100% certainty that you can spend $45 at your local Halloween Depot and
create more convincing special effects than this. The storyline for the 1969 film pretty
much is just King Kong: A showman short on cash travels to the African jungle to find
an overgrown gorilla named Gorga. There's something about a witch doctor, a volcano,
and all the usual tropes, but yeah, this is basically King Kong if it were filmed by a
12-year-old with a Super-8.
"Here we go, and action."
How do such blatant King Kong rip-offs keep happening? Well, because nobody really owns
King Kong. As Flickering Myth explains, quote, "The intellectual property status of King
Kong has always been a grey area," going all the way back to Kong's creator Merian C. Cooper
thinking he owned the rights, only to find out he only had the rights to the novelization,
which expired and went into the public domain anyway. It's complicated.
Japan was actually the first country to jump on the King Kong rip-off bandwagon with not
one, not two, but three knockoffs released within five years of the original 1933 classic.
And eventually, of course, Japanese studio Toho dropped the ape right into their own
mega-popular Godzilla franchise.
"Okay, drop him."
So if you want to make a Kong movie, you probably can, but have an attorney on standby. It can't
cost any more than whatever the budget was for The Mighty Gorga.
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