Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Horrorfest 2019: Jungle Woman


Directed by Reginald Le Borg, written by Henry Sucher, Bernard Schubert and Edward Dein
Starring Acquanetta, J. Carrol Naish, Lois Collier and Richard David
1944

In this sequel to CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN, the Jungle Woman of the title, now transformed into a gorilla-like beast, is brought back to life by a mad scientist who returns her to her more human form. Unfortunately jealousy turns her into a deadly murderer!

So, we’ve all heard of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and their string of endless sequels, but did you know that CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN spawned not only this sequel, but another one, JUNGLE CAPTIVE? So how come the amazingly-named actress Acquanetta is not right up there with Lugosi and Karloff? I guess because her movies weren’t very memorable compared to theirs, but still, she’s technically a Universal Monster, which is more than you can say for most of the horror stars I’m checking out this month.

It doesn’t help that this installment starts heavy with footage from its predecessor and then uses a court-room-drama bookend as a story-telling device. Not the most horrifying setup. Acquanetta has a compelling presence but she’s not given much to do. You might say she doesn’t seem like much of an actress, but it doesn’t seem like she was given much of a chance.

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