Monkey Shines (1988)
AKA: Ella

Film details
View on IMDb ↗CastJason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci, Boo, Janine Turner, William Newman
KeywordsScience Fiction
Review
"Horror fans have seen these things before, but to Romero's credit where many filmmakers would use this story as a launching pad for gory set pieces and offer up a symphony of murder at the monkey's hand, here the emphasis is more on the psychological aspect of things. As Allan breaks down we get inside his head a bit thanks to the genuinely strong performance from Jason Beghe. We don't always like him but the movie is calculating enough to ensure that we do always understand him. This makes the more macabre scenes in which the murders do take place considerably more suspenseful than they would be had they just been simple gore films. As Allan's anger grows and he starts to crack, the film does grow in intensity thanks to the character development that came before it starting to pay off in interesting ways." - Ian Jane, DVDTalk
Ranking history
The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films
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