10 Films You Won't Believe Were Released At Christmas

Release Date: December 19, 1986

A decade after Dino de Laurentiis blew $24m on an intentionally camp (but mostly stupid) King Kong remake, a sequel that played it straight arrived in theaters– and immediately became a camp classic.

Being asked to believe that Kong survived his climactic tumble is one thing; being told that Dr Linda Hamilton has been looking after him in Atlanta ever since is more likely to raise a smirk. However, by the time Lance Kerwin’s explorer chances across a double-D female Kong in Borneo while Hamilton carries out a heart transplant on The King using oversized instruments and a crane, you may well be helpless with laughter.

Movie scientists are of course idiots so the doc keeps our hirsute hero chained up in a hangar patrolled by a single guard, who proclaims, “the other monkey’s gone apesh*t” as Kong gets a whiff of the female’s scent and decides to break free. Somehow able to grab her and elope without being followed or spotted, he takes his new bride to “Honeymoon Ridge” so he can make goo-goo eyes at her, snuggle up and show her why they call him The King. Funny by itself, this scene works even better when you realize it’s two men inside the monkey suits.