Monkey Shines

Monkey Shines is a film that has garnered a status of "instant retro classic" in horror. This "alleged" story seems ripped from Stephen King's head. The tale of monkey-man love relationship along with the genetic alteration has no choice but to relate instantly along the likes of Dean Koontz's Watchers and Stephen King's Cujo. Romero has worked on such Stephen King works as Creepshow and the pre-planned The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. All this over the ever-so-natural horror idolization. If there's any favoritism in the horror culture, it's between King and Romero, after all, neither seem to have their own signature blend of stylistic writing/filming.

Now there's absolutely no reason to wear glasses those enormous unless a secretive heirloom status.

Monkey Shines is a novel by a virtually unknown directed to the screen by the immortal "Romero". The reason this novel is unheard of is beyond me. The whole story figment of a killer primate is a rich blend of ironic evolutionary revenge that has not been seen in films such as Congo and Outbreak, regardless of which came first. The film plays out as planned, each move becoming more predictable than the last, ultimately leaving an anticlimactic battle of "who's higher on the food chain".

Monkey Shines will regrettably always be remembered. The film isn't by any means horrible or bad, but the lack of any visual direction disturbs me. Hell, if it weren't for the horrific poster artwork of the toy monkey with cymbals/razor, this film wouldn't bother my natural existence anymore than The Kindred (which parallels Monkey Shines with overly exceptional poster artwork. The same expectations were soiled with the recent release of Max Payne; a film that couldn't have been THAT bad, but ended up being the stuff of nightmares.

Monkey Shines is a certain kind of film that wishes to be both terrifying and stature sadistic as Cronenberg's The Brood. It takes a special kind of "dreamer" film to fail at any substance and only prevail as a generic tale of terror that isn't as scary as it looks. The obsessive villain of Ella is as intimidating as the average woman - which isn't intimidating at all. Lackluster opening linked directly to an inconsiderate ending. Monkey Shines would love to bridge a connection between man and beast, but fails in the birthing process.

As for unadulterated terror goes, Monkey Shines has a negative amount of those. With embarrassing infra-red monkey vision, you'd wish you had watched another film prime for replay. Whether the "tortured" quadriplegic main character wishes to be Corky from Magic or the entire lack-of-style wishes to "borrow" from The Brood, Monkey Shines doesn't shine in any aspect. Not necessarily a bad film, but nothing eye-opening about it other than the press material including the amazing poster. A species war could have been filmed so much better.

-mAQ