For his follow-up to DAY OF THE DEAD, George Romero chose this adaptation of a novel which manages to be scary thanks to the fact that it's an extremely realistic film. I don't think the scientific experiments on monkeys portrayed here are that far-fetched, do you? Of course, it wouldn't be a very good film if there weren't some fantastic moments, but for the most part this is an accurate and bleak tale. It's also a rather unpleasant one, albeit a film without the graphic gore which Romero usually delivers. Fans of his zombie trilogy will probably be disappointed with the total lack of blood and guts on here, as instead we get a slow-moving, character-focused drama which runs for nearly two hours. Yes, there are a number of deaths, but most of them are off screen. Tom Savini is credited with effects but seriously, they're few and far between.What makes this film an interesting one for me is the unusual story that it has. Monkeys have always seemed to be quite evil creatures (check out OUTBREAK if you don't believe me) and this film dwells on an evil monkey, called Ella. The nature-running-amok theme is handled quite well, leading to a lot of creepy moments amid the more typical shocks. The acting can best be described as adequate, seeing as this is a late '80s movie... although I rather liked Jason Beghe's Jekyll/Hyde routine as the lead. But the real star of the show here is Ella, the monkey, who frequently does astonishing things. Watching a monkey running around with a straight razor and stabbing needles into people is something I found to be quite disturbing.Although the film is gore-free, it's also not for the squeamish, as lots of nasty things happen to people involving needles and implied violence (especially when that needle gets too close to someone's ear, ugh!). The climax is quite good, highlighting the shortcomings of Beghe's disability as he desperately fights for control against the monkey which is now openly murdering all and sundry. And I defy you not to be shocked by the ending, which sees Beghe literally biting and ripping the monkey apart using only his teeth (as he's paralysed from the neck down). All this and there's time for a happy ending too. MONKEY SHINES is a film with a great idea behind it, only let down by the long running time and slow pace which frequently mean scenes verge on boredom. I would call it an interesting curiosity piece, but not one to go out of your way to see and not one you would want to watch again.

While this will likely never be considered one of filmmaker George Romero's best, it still represents a commendable effort in one of his rare forays into studio productions (in this case Orion). Scripted by Romero based on a novel by Michael Stewart, it tells the story of Allan Mann (handsome Jason Beghe), a law student who gets into a horrible accident that renders him a quadriplegic. He soon becomes despondent enough to attempt suicide, but soon he receives some temporary salvation in the form of Ella (Boo), a capuchin monkey who is trained to see to his needs. What he doesn't know is that his friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) has been playing mad scientist and injecting the cute lil' thing with human brain cells. Soon the bond between patient and helper becomes so strong that a mental connection is made, and Ella is physically acting out Allan's worst impulses. So what is he going to do about this little homicidal primate? Romero does a good job here at telling a fairly interesting story, although some viewers might be turned off at the lack of sympathetic characters. Most of them are flawed to some degree or another - creepy dean Burbage (Stephen Root), smarmy, incompetent doctor Wiseman (Stanley Tucci), fair-weather girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner), bitchy nurse Maryanne (Christine Forrest, a.k.a. Mrs. Romero) - and even a guy like Geoffrey, who initially just wants to help, has his problems as he's obsessed with his work. At least Allan has an appealing love interest played by Kate McNeil, whom horror fans will recognize as the lead in the slasher "The House on Sorority Row". The cast is pretty good overall; Joyce Van Patten plays the stereotypically smothering mother to good effect, and it's a treat to see character actors Root and Tucci near the beginnings of their careers, but the one performer the audience is likely to remember is Boo, who's adorable and very well trained; the animal action is first rate throughout (there's also a rather annoying bird on hand). The evolving relationship between Allan and Ella makes for a compelling hook, and it makes one appreciate the real-life efforts that people put into training service animals, and the animals themselves. The film is light on horror - most of the violence is implied - as Romero tends to go for a more psychological approach, and refrains from going for the gore. Overall, this is a decent flick, worth a look for genre fans who are interested in checking out Romero's non-zombie films. Seven out of 10.

I hated this movie. It was boring, it dragged, it wasn't scary, and it had nothing noteworthy. Before you start flaming me keep in mind that I do realize that this is George Romero and the studio messed him over or whatever. I feel bad for the guy and I like his films, but at the end of the day this movie is just flat out dumb. If you've seen the cover for this movie ignore it and move along. This cover was skunk turds. It showed this evil monkey looking creepy and scary. Well guess what that monkey isn't even in the film. Instead we get a super smart helper monkey. If it sounds cool to you I can't blame you but it was a bunch of garbage.Nothing in this movie is scary. The plot is too ridiculous for the audience to relate too, thus nullifying the feeling that this could happen to you. The tension in the film really doesn't work, because even though the main guy is in a wheel chair helpless, he goes so slow and it just seems humorous rather than scary. The worst part of this movie is the pace. It drags along from one uninteresting scene to the next before somebody dies. It must have been at least one hour before there was any action, and that includes the monkey killing the bird. So really if your a horror fan and a Romero fan then you will still hate this movie. This film is more for the stay at home mom who has a soft spot for paraplegics and they want tension, drama, and a feel good ending. So please do yourself a favor and skip this garbage.

It seems that every once and a while, a neat little horror film comes along that eschews genre conventions and is able to tap into a new vein to provide its scares. Writer-director George A. Romero, of "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) infamy, brings forth "Monkey Shines," an adaptation of the novel by Michael Stewart.Romero has always been a director who goes for the throat in delivering the shocks in his horror pictures. But in the savage gore and mayhem, he has never lost sight of the human characters, their drama, and their plight. In "Monkey Shines," Romero seems to have been domesticated somewhat - dare I say, "tamed" - in that characters and drama are most essential to the core of the film, and that horror is really the last thing on his mind."Monkey Shines" begins with the Good Day Gone Bad, Really Bad: Allan Mann (Jason Beghe), is a highly physical law student who goes for a jog early one morning after spending the night with his girlfriend Linda (Janine Turner). To avoid a dog on the sidewalk, he unknowingly runs into the path of an oncoming truck. He wakes up several weeks later in the hospital, now a quadriplegic, paralyzed, unable to use his body anywhere below the neck.Confined to a wheelchair he moves around by working a lever with his mouth and having to rely on live-in nurse Maryanne (Christine Forrest), his doting, overbearing mother Dorothy (Joyce Van Patten) and having to deal with his pompous surgeon Dr. Wiseman (Stanley Tucci) who begins having an affair with Linda, Allan gives up and tries to commit suicide. Luckily, Allan's mad-scientist friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) may have a solution: Ella, an extremely intelligent capuchin monkey who is being trained by animal specialist Melanie Parker (Kate McNiel) to be a sort of help-primate for paraplegics and quadriplegics, much like a seeing-eye dog is used for blind people.At first, a great weight seems lifted off Allan's shoulders; Ella's the perfect helper - she can answer the phone, play cassette tapes in the radio, and even help Allan turn the pages of his books when he reads. She even raises her hand in class for her turn to be called on. A deep bond develops between the two that's right out of any made-for-TV movie about hope and determination to beat the odds. Of course, and this is where the horror elements begin to kick in, what Allan doesn't know is that Ella is really Geoffrey's guinea pig in an experiment to create super-intelligent primates: he's been secretly injecting her with human brain tissue, which explains her super-intelligence in helping to make Allan's life a little bit easier. Even more horrifically, Allan has been having incredibly realistic nightmares in which he has acquired a monkey's-eye view of the world, and Ella is subconsciously acting out his deeply-suppressed anger, frustration, hatred, and rage for those around him. And it soon begins a battle of wits to see who is really controlling who, which also sees if Charles Darwin was really right all those years ago."Monkey Shines" develops so nicely during its first hour that it's easy to forget that first and foremost, it's a horror film and not just any horror film, a George A. Romero-directed horror film. Romero shows remarkable restraint in combining both the human story with the horror story, that both elements are given enough screen time to thoroughly develop and not seem so tacked-on to each other. That atmosphere and tension of the film's horror-themed second half is pretty intense, even if things can be forgiven for the haunted house-style climax.This is easily the best-acted film Romero has ever directed, though obviously it's not his best; that honor goes to "Dawn of the Dead." All of the characters turn in fine and realistic performances, including John Pankow as Allan's drug-addled mad-scientist friend who truly has his friend's best interests at heart, even if they're morally gray in the end. But there is one performer who is highly deserving of much praise, and that is Jason Beghe. Jason Beghe delivers a strong, controlled central performance that in my opinion, was criminally overlooked by a great many awards organizations. His performance is one of the most convincing and sympathetic portrayals of a physically handicapped protagonist I've ever seen in the movies. Essentially a prisoner in his own body, he hits every emotive note perfectly, and we believe and can see where and why his anger and rage at his condition is one of the most believable performances in the history of Romero's long and distinguished career as a filmmaker."Monkey Shines" is an overlooked career highlight from a highly distinguished director, George A. Romero. Even more so, Jason Beghe's criminally underrated performance makes the film even more worthy of more significant praise.This is one horror film that isn't monkeying around in the end. It is really scary.8/10