MONKEY SHINES (1988)

OVERLOOKED HORROR FILMS PART 9

PLOT SUMMARY (from imdb.com): When Allan becomes a quadriplegic he loses all hope for living until he meets Ella - a monkey trained to fetch and carry for him around the house, obeying him in all things. But Ella is part of another experiment, and when she starts responding to Allan's underlying rage and frustration she has the ability to carry our her master's darkest wishes.

This is a not so well known film by well known and respected director, George Romero (Night of the living dead, Dawn of the dead, Creepshow), who needs no introduction for most people, especially for horror fans.

Anyway, I think this is great film and it deserves more attention. I actually like it more than his zombie flicks. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of zombie films except for Re-Animator and Brain Dead which I'm going to be writing about soon on this blog. I'm into more of psychological horror films.

This movie is really tense and the death scenes are great, I couldn't wait for some of the characters to get what's coming to them. The sadistic, lazy nurse, the jealous mother, the cheating ex-girlfriend, and the vindictive doctor. One reviewer on imdb said this: " Take Kathy Bates from Misery and make her every character."

By the middle of the movie, you're rooting for this little monkey just to to lose it and lay everyone out. Isn't it every crippled man's dream to have a killer monkey around to help him? The concept of the pet protecting his master (even if it means killing everything in it's path) has been attempted before but it only seems to work to suspenseful effect in this movie and a handful few movies. Another movie I'm reminded of is "Phenomena" where the antomologist has a pet monkey that kills for his master. I'm also gonna review that film soon.

I think the film succeeds in giving the audience a few genuine scares and has a general overall creepiness and atmosphere of despair to it. The only pisser is that some of the characters that clearly deserve to die don't, especially the nurse and Stephen Root. Other than that, I got no complaints.

Shine on you crazy monkey...