Much of the film concentrates on the efforts of a recent quadriplegic adjusting to a new life and finding companionship in, of all things, a trained monkey. However, the monkey is more than trained; it has been enhanced through smart drugs by Pankow, intent on making the animal more human. Perhaps inevitably, the animal cannot cope with the added intelligence, as the film asserts that intelligence and reason artificially stimulated in an animal will in effect turn that animal both emotionally reactive and psychotic. The clash between instinct and deliberation will be too much for it: it cannot handle a superego. Fans of Stephen King will of course note that the “Shines” of the title refers in part to King’s The Shining, which dealt with telepathy. Thus, the film explores its developing bond between the man and the monkey as they enter into a kind of mutual telekinesis. The now overly sensitive monkey feels Beghe’s complex resentments and affection but cannot process them rationally; in turn Beghe feels the monkey’s instinct, a primal rage he considers the very real form of the Devil. This clash between human and animal, between reason and instinct finally leads to psychosis when it is complicated by the monkey’s apparently empathetic and even romantic regard for Beghe. In this unusual but important and even rather affecting love story aspect Romero conveys pity for the monkey as much as inviting fear.
Make-up Artist Tom Savini in action
Monkey Shines falls uneasily between two stools as the human drama and the fascinating use of trained monkeys to assist paralysed people make for a realistic context that the segue into a form of psychic horror story threatens to undermine. Thus, the study of the changing attitude, despair and final hope of a man who has his life turned around is almost impossible for Romero to convincingly resolve, and the ending is ultimately a poor cop-out to the drama. Nevertheless, as a clever twist on evolutionary horror, Romero carefully and slowly essays the emotional inter-dependence of man and animal with a genuine concern for both. His main point is that the enhanced-animal cannot ultimately cope with the complexities of the human world it has been forced to almost consciously realize and as a result will psychologically collapse. This is a quite ambitious thematic undertaking and is for the most part handled quite successfully, the idea of displacement onto surrogates being a major source of horror. An animal, having only primal instinct to fall back on, is incapable of truly coping with human responsibilities. Romero’s dual thesis is hence that intelligence and reason will drive the emotionally-inexperienced beast crazy and that uncontrolled instinct alone will turn even an emotionally-complex man violent and bestial. Love and empathy, integral to humanity, cannot ultimately temper this irreconcilable clash. read more