Monkey Shines (1988)

AKA: Ella
Monkey Shines film image
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CURRENT RANK#1006 VOTES23
STATUS DROPPED OUT
LAST APPEARANCE 2025AT#960
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Film details

View on IMDb ↗
Year1988
CountryUSA
TypeMovie
Runtime113m
CastJason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci, Boo, Janine Turner, William Newman

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

EDITIONS IN TOP 1,00010
HIGHEST#7772017
LOWEST#1,0062026
Top 1,000Outside Top 1,000Missing ranking data

Dashed lines indicate missing ranking data. Select a point to view that year's published list. The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films list was not updated in 2022.

Lists featuring this film 23 lists

80shorror.net's Derek Schweigert's The Top 200 Best Horror Movies of the 1980s2018Ranked#137
Allocine's 200 films pour Halloween2011Unranked—
AltFilmFan's 100 horror films from the 80s2012Ranked#65
Arrow in the Head's Jake Dee's Top 10 Murderous Monkey Movies!2014Ranked#3
Cinevistaramascope's Top 100 - '80s Horror!2013Ranked#87
Combustible Celluloid's Essential Horror Movies2024Unranked—
Cricket's top 100 horror movies2014Ranked#88
Den of Geek's Rebecca Clough's The Best Killer Animal B-movies2018Ranked#5
Finn's Wake's My Top 5 Favorite When Animals Attack Movies2015Ranked#4
groo-8's Top 200 Horror films Ever2012Unranked—
HorrorMovies.ca Forum's Top 300 horror films that MUST be seen before you die2012Unranked—
JarvisCity's 15 Best Horror Movies Of 19882017Ranked#15
Max Molinaro's 100 Overlooked Horror Movie Gems2014Ranked#26
Mike Mayo's VideoHound's Horror Show - 999 Hair-Raising, Hellish, and Humorous Movies1998Unranked—
Nightmare Nostalgia's One of the Greatest Years of Horror! The 15 Best Horror Films From 19882023Ranked#13
Screen Rant's Anthony Fertino's The 10 Best Killer Animal Movies2019Ranked#8
Splatter Critic's Top 113 Horror Movies2015Ranked#97
Taste of Cinema's Liam Hathaway's 25 Of The Most Underrated Horror Films From The 1980s2014Ranked#8
The Scariest Thing's The Top 500 Horror Movies of All Time2022Ranked#483
The Scariest Things' msoup's Top 10 Animal Horror Films2020Unranked—
Too Scary To Watch's Best 80's Horror Films2011Unranked—
TOP 666 HORROR MOVIES (Freaky Fuckin Friday)2014Ranked#593
Vanessa Morgan's When Animals Attack - The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals2016Unranked—