Monkey Shines

If you're looking for body count, blood, or bogeymen, this film is not for you. It is more of a psychological thriller than a horror film, though it was billed as horror, likely because of the pseudo-science gimmick that provides the basis for the conflict in the plot.

While the film tends to wander a bit (i.e. a sub-plot involving the research head that gets dropped 3/4 of the way through) it stays fairly well focused on the main character and his problems. Aside from the lead, the most effective acting was done by the monkey(s), but the "real" actors do a pretty good job of carrying their own. It gives you a little insight into what it's like to be quadriplegic. For a late 80's movie, the style of filming was well done, there is very little cheese, and the special effects didn't overreach.

The premise seems a bit farfetched to our currently more sophisticated and informed sense of what's possible on the genetic engineering front. After all, this movie was made 15 years ago. If Romero had gone with either a supernatural cause or a plain animal jealousy angle, it might be less dated, but then again it might have been a little less believable to begin with.

Not very horrific, not startling or scary, but worth seeing if you don't mind a slightly slow-paced thriller. I gave it a higher than average score (6 out of 10) just because it didn't make me say "oh, please!" too many times unlike other movies from that time--particularly horror films--are prone to do. For example, the pivotal moment is fully supported by plausible input earlier in the film, it's not one of those miraculous developments pulled out of nowhere in the last few seconds before the climax.

Aah, George A Romero - the master himself - does it again. This is a very stylish thriller and perfect study of how man's apparent progress goes horribly wrong.

The film captured my attention from the opening moment. Jason Beghe is perfectly cast in this demanding role. It was interesting (if somewhat creepy) to see how things started going wrong, very subtle at first, and how the situation declined to absolute chaos and mayhem. The romance interest felt very natural and enjoyable. Quite often the romance feels forced into a film; here it seemed inevitable given the circumstances.

This is a true classic!

This movie's not going to have a fan base larger than Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but it is another example of Romero's uniqueness as s film maker. An original story with an original cast, Romero adds to the horror genre by going somewhere where no other film maker has gone before. Monkey Shines cast includes Christine Forrest who shows her finest performance as the nurse. Worth checking out, so check it out.

This is not your run-of-the-mill slasher film. This is a well developed, well-paced suspense-type horror. If what you like it lots of blood and cheap scares punctuated by incidental music, then you should skip this film. If you like a horror involving a few good characters, and a really talented monkey, then take a look. The tension builds slowly. There are a lot of interesting characters, who are neither "good guys" nor "bad guys" (this includes the killer). The acting is not all that great, but the script is solid. That the monkey may be the best performer in the b=cast says more about the monkey than the human castmembers!

Well, I really can't understand why some people talk so bad about MONKEY SHINES - that's a real good one from Romero! Not only is the idea (the "evil" part of the human soul and behavior is the suppressed animal instinct that sometimes breaks through)in general fascinating - but it is also very well brought on the screen! Romero is often blamed for his unspectacular kind of filming, for his "low aesthetics" (especially his films of the 80ies) etc. but if you look a little deeper, you'll see how much sense his special kind of filming makes, for example as a means to show and develop characters. By the way: the beginning sequence is so great - in a way it shows the "poetry of a car accident" (does this sound perverted?). I appreciate the way of handling the topic of being handicapped - MONKEY SHINES is THE SEA IN ME (2004, directed by A. Amenabar) as a horror movie! The film not only works on a philosophical level but is also - of course it has to because it's a horror movie - very thrilling, even though Tom Savini doesn't go as far with his FX as in his splatter flicks. The only thing I didn't like was that the effect of the serum wasn't explained in a scientific way - this makes the story look like some old-fashioned mad-scientist-story from the early decades of the 20th century... And of course: you'll also find the characteristic Romero-sense for dark humor in this one, too.