Monkey Shines (1988)
MGM / Shock DVD (region 4)
d. George A. Romero; pr. Charles Evans; scr. George A. Romero; novel. Michael Stewart; ph. James A. Contner; m. David Shire; ed. Pasquale Buba; cast. Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stanley Tucci (113 mins)
Director George A. Romero is known as a pioneer of visceral horror. His explicit, graphic works ironically helped both to stigmatize horror with mainstream audiences and yet oddly legitimize it with many critics. Always provocative, he has hence become something of a cult director, with several of his films perennially popular at midnight movie screenings. His gory Living Dead trilogy is at the forefront of intelligent, adult horror although he has been less able to find success outside of these zombie movies and his association with friend Stephen King (they collaborated on the original Creepshow, with Romero later helming the adaptation of The Dark Half). After his Day of the Dead was widely considered by critics to be a letdown, Romero strategically responded with the offbeat Monkey Shines. By now, however, his reputation as one of the great horror masters was sliding, his career opportunities not helped perhaps by his decision to remain staunchly outside of the Hollywood establishment (despite many offers). Monkey Shines, while straddling conventional horror films, thrillers and the independent scene, did little to alleviate the decline in his critical standing and remains an obscure work, although it is one of the more provocative of 1980s genre movies, adult and complex in nature at a time when horror movies were aimed at a teenage audience bred on an unrelenting glut of slasher films.
Monkey Shines tells the story of a young man (Jason Beghe), a law student, who goes out jogging one morning as per his usual routine and is terribly injured in a car accident. The accident causes severe spinal damage and even after extensive, corrective surgery he is left a quadriplegic. His mother (Joyce Van Patten) duly returns home, to his disgust, and hires a nurse (Christine Forrest) to care for him, also outfitting his home with the latest disabled-friendly gadgetry, hoping to make him as independent as possible. Beghe’s closest friend (John Pankow) is a researcher at a local university and there has been experimenting with capuchin monkeys, injecting them with a serum made in part from human brain tissue in the hope of increasing their intelligence. Feeling concern for his friend, he donates a subject to a woman who specializes in training these monkeys to assist disabled people, though he keeps his research on this particular monkey a secret from her. After training is complete, together they bring the monkey to Beghe, who soon warms to the creature, named Ella. Ella becomes an invaluable aide, much to the consternation of the uptight nurse. Soon, however, Beghe starts to believe that he has more of a connection to the monkey than is evident, something even telekinetic in nature. When his mother returns to take care of him fully, he can barely control his oedipal rage and in turn fears for her safety. read more