Line #25 Film/Shakma


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shakma_poster.jpg]]
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3	->''"...and Shakma! Shocking audiences everywhere! '''SHAKMAAAAAAARGHH!'''"''
4	-->-- [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2tnp4QCKtk Trailer Narrator]]
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6	A 1990 DirectToVideo horror film directed by Hugh Parks and Tom Logan.
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8	Sam (Christopher Atkins) and his girlfriend Tracy (Creator/AmandaWyss) both work as lab technicians for Professor Sorenson (Creator/RoddyMcDowall) at a medical research facility housed in a high-rise office building. In particular, it's Sam's job to look after the animals used in Sorenson's work, and he has a particular fondness for a baboon named Shakma.
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10	Along with Sorenson and their co-workers Gary (Rob Morris) and Bradley (Tre Laughlin), they enjoy playing a {{LARP}} called Nemesis in the building after hours, and one night they schedule a game after all the other employees have knocked off for the night, inviting their friend Kim (Ari Meyers) to play with them. Unfortunately for them, Sorenson had earlier performed some questionable brain surgery on Shakma, in an apparent attempt to reduce his aggression. It didn't go well, and the experiment apparently got reversed - Shakma instead became dangerously aggressive and started attacking people.
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12	Sorenson orders the baboon destroyed, but Sam injects him with the wrong chemical and simply sedates him. Then thanks to further bad luck, Sorenson's assistant Richard forgets to process the "dead" animal in the facility's incinerator, instead leaving him lying unrestrained on a table. As the five friends and their surprisingly cool boss begin their [=LARPing=] adventure, none of them are aware that the sedative is beginning to wear off, and Shakma is starting to awaken...
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14	----
15	!!Examples
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17	%%* AbsentMindedProfessor: Sorenson.
18	* AirVentEscape: [[spoiler:Subverted. Tracy attempts this but Shakma attacks before she can climb up.]]
19	* AndStarring: Roddy [=McDowall=] is billed this way in both the trailer and the opening credits.
20	* AnimalTesting: Probably not the best idea to take an already aggressive animal like a baboon and screw around with its brain.
21	%%* AntagonistTitle
22	* AxCrazy: Shakma the baboon
23	* BeepingComputers: Used to keep track of the players in ''Nemesis''.
24	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Not only does [[spoiler: Tracy]] meet a nasty and untimely end at Shakma's paws, but apparently, whatever he does to [[spoiler: Kim]] shortly afterward is so horrible that her face can't be shown for the rest of the movie. Mind you, the movie has no problem repeatedly showing us close-ups of a guy who gets half his face burned/eaten away by acid.
25	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: After Shakma murders all his friends and co-worker, Sam is mortally wounded trying to trap him. But he does manage to lure Shakma into an incinerator and kills him before succumbing to his injuries.]]
26	* BlandNameProduct: The game, which is called ''Nemesis''.
27	* ClosedCircle:
28	** The gamers are trapped inside the medical building.
29	** Note that this is by design - Sorenson locked certain rooms to limit where the players of the {{LARP}} can go.
30	* DespairEventHorizon: [[spoiler:Sam crosses it when Tracy dies. Then he crosses it ''again'' after the death of Kim.]]
31	* ForScience: No explanation is ever given for why Sorenson's was [[IncrediblyLamePun monkeying around]] with baboon brains. The creepy narrator in the trailer suggests, "It started as an experiment in human aggression," but the movie itself never gets around to an explanation.
32	* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: A variant of this with Laura in her car with the window rolled up and the music turned on really loud.
33	* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:Sam while he's laying out the bodies of all his dead friends and co-workers.]]
34	* HollywoodAcid: Richard tries to kill Shakma by throwing a beaker of acid at him. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the baboon jumps him and he spills the stuff ''on himself''. We don't see the effects immediately, but half his face is dissolved when Sorenson finds him later.]]
35	* HopeSpot: When Kim and Sam notice Laura is sitting in her car outside. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, she first ignores them and then misinterprets their efforts to signal her as Richard screwing around, and drives off in a huff.]]
36	* IdiotBall:
37	** Gee Tracy, don't you think you could have just articulated to Gary that there was a dangerous lab animal on the loose and people are dead instead of just vaguely sputtering to him in sentence fragments and dramatic pauses not to go to the fifth floor?
38	** Sam, as well. He avoids telling Kim about [[spoiler:Richard's death]], despite the fact she is very visibly distressed and worried about him. [[spoiler:Needless to say, the second she's left alone, she goes looking for Richard and gets killed by Shakma.]]
39	*** Let's not even get started on how it was his responsibility to euthanize Shakma in the first place.
40	* {{LARP}}: A rare pre-internet era example. The main characters are each assigned a character and the research building is their gaming area.
41	* LeaveTheCameraRunning: If you like extended shots of people slowly wandering around office hallways, then this movie is for you.
42	* MadnessMantra: "It's all my fault" for Sam. And later, "I win."
43	* ManiacMonkeys: The titular primate is a genetically altered baboon with a murderous attitude.
44	* MonsterThreatExpiration: Shakma is all about ripping his prey to shreds for most of the movie, [[spoiler:but during the final confrontation he briefly attacks Sam and then runs away]]. This may be due to the fact he was quite affectionate with [[spoiler:Sam]] before the experiment.
45	* MurderByCremation: [[spoiler:Sam tricks Shakma into leaping into the specimen disposal crematory and torches the baboon]].
46	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sam, Sam, Sam... First, he injects Shakma with the wrong chemical, sedating him instead of killing him like Sorenson ordered him too. The movie is ambiguous on whether or not Sam did this intentionally. Then, later, he doesn't tell Kim about [[spoiler:the death of Richard]], which results in her wandering off to find him and [[spoiler:getting killed herself]].
47	* NonMaliciousMonster: While Shakma is a murderous baboon who kills everyone he sees, he is just an animal who doesn't understand right from wrong. And the fact that he became insane from having his brain experimented on makes his behavior quite understandable.
48	* PyrrhicVictory: Invoked. In the end, Sam, exhausted by his wounds, lays on the ground and finds it darkly humorous that he "won" the game.
49	* TooDumbToLive: Kim, who already isn't the brightest tool in this shed, for going off on her own to find Richard. While Sam didn't explain the exact nature of the situation, his highly panicked state, the bloody footprints/spatters in the hall, and other signs of disarray should have warned her that ''something'' wasn't right and that wandering around alone might be a bad idea.
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Context Film / Shakma