Bizarre King Kong Ripoffs You Never Knew Existed

"We need Kong. The world needs him," insists Alexander Skarsgård's Nathan Lind in Godzilla vs. Kong. That's the 600-pound gorilla of understatements. Kong is good (monkey) business, based on the official Kong films – and the number of rip-offs from around the world. You know a concept has taken hold when everyone wants in (just look at the Godzilla series). Besides, the King Kong formula is simple: Giant Monkey. That's it. Sure, you can add in beautiful blondes, greedy tycoons, ferocious dinosaurs, even Robot Monkeys, but when it comes down to it, all you need is a giant primate-like creature who just wants some peace and quiet. 

Naturally, every film on this list falls far short of the 1933 King Kong (or for that matter, Peter Jackson's 2005 remake and the Monsterverse's Kong), not only because the original is a cinematic masterpiece, but because most of these rip-offs are really bad. Bad as in "the filmmakers spent the entire budget on a used gorilla suit"-level bad. Almost every one is unwatchable, literally in some cases, as a few have even been lost forever. Whether you're hoping to avoid these monstrosities, or want to watch moviemakers slip on a proverbial banana peel, here are bizarre King Kong rip-offs you never knew existed!

Brad Pitt said he discovered his love of cinema from Toho Studios' 1966 kaiju eiga The War of the Gargantuas, released to American cinemas in the 1970s. Most people didn't know what the hell he was talking about. But by the mid-1960s, Toho had already made one King Kong film, 1962's groundbreaking King Kong vs. Godzilla, and was set to release another, 1967's King Kong Escapes. In between Toho made the brilliantly bizarre King Kong ripoff, The War of the Gargantuas. 

Gargantuas is actually a sequel to 1965's Frankenstein Conquers the World, in which a green-skinned, bolts-in-neck Frankenstein monster who is about 60 feet tall (because this is a Japanese monster movie) fights a fire-breathing dinosaur (also because this is a Japanese monster movie) to the death before he is carried into the sea by a giant octopus (in the Japanese version). Got all that? 

In Gargantuas, the dead Frankenstein's DNA is used to create Sanda, a peaceful, brown, primate-like Gargantua (*cough* Kong rip-off *cough*) who escapes from his lab. His blood creates a mutated, murderous green Gargantua named Gaia. Despite being "brothers" (clones?), 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. Here's hoping ol' Sanda and Gaia bring their hairy, scaly mugs to the Monsterverse. Brad Pitt could star!

Calling Half Human a "King Kong rip-off" may be inappropriate, as it's really an abominable snowman movie. Still, the monster and storyline from the 1955 film are suspiciously similar to King Kong – and the yeti looks like it could be a first cousin to Toho Studios' own Kong in 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla. We're including it because the backstory is so interesting. Directed by Godzilla auteur Ishiro Honda, Half Human is about a yeti and his son who are worshipped by villagers in the Alps of Japan, when a ruthless tycoon sets out to capture the beasts. In development even before 1954's Godzilla, Half Human was soon banned after its initial Japanese release, was never released on home video, and has only been seen sparingly at festivals since. 

The reason? According to Cool Ass Cinema, it's because of the movie's "alleged depiction of either the Burakumin people, or the Ainu aborigines as outcasts, deformed, and or psychopathic inbreds." So kinda like Deliverance with yetis? While the original Half Human is supposed to be unnervingly effective — albeit problematic — the only widely seen version is the dreadful 1958 American edition, which inserted scenes of Western actors, including longtime John Ford character actor and David Carradine's dad, John Carradine. Sadly, while 1955's Japanese Half Human isn't half bad, you're unlikely to ever see it, as it was canceled before that became a thing.

Ever wonder what Michael Gough was up to before playing Alfred Pennyworth in the Tim Burton-Joel Schumacher Batman movies? Well, in 1961, he starred in one of the "better" King Kong rip offs, 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 (Gorgo and Konga were even released in the same year), 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 (we're not sure how that happened either) 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, condors, and gila monsters 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, Batman.

We gotta hand it to the film's American distributors, Better Television Distribution — they weren't even trying to disguise 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. The original Italian title was Eva, la Venere selvaggia, which 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 (sound familiar?), 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 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 stinks worse than an unwashed gorilla. 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. "Not to be confused with King Kong" is even on the poster.

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 (an unmistakable Jaws reference) before making its way to shore. The ape is at large, killing people across South Korea, stalking a beautiful blonde, and eventually getting blown away by the military. Wash-rinse-repeat. A*P*E is awful but short, so if you have 87 minutes to kill...honestly, you still probably shouldn't bother watching it.

Japan was 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. King Kong proved so popular with Japanese audiences that movie studio Shochiku decided to remake it and just not bother asking RKO Pictures. Wasei Kingu Kongu (literally "Japanese King Kong") came out the same year as King Kong and was basically the same movie, but as a short subject with no sound (Japanese cinema was still silent in the 1930s). Five years later RKO re-released King Kong in Japan, so another studio ripped it off with King Kong Appears In Edo. 

Nobody knows the 1938 film's plot and only a few stills survive, though "Edo" (Tokyo's original name) suggests it may have been a period film. Finally there's Kingu Kongu Zenkouhen, but even less is known about this film than King Kong Appears In Edo. There's a chance they're the same movie. Want to see them? We wish you could. Most pre-war Japanese movies are long gone, both due to deterioration and the Allied bombings during World War II. Two of those attacks, the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, inspired another giant monster two decades later, Godzilla. While these two (or three) films are shameless King Kong rip-offs, they are also the earliest examples of the kaiju eiga genre Japanese cinema would become famous for.