Product Description

From writer/director George Romero, the man who unleashed Night of the Living Dead, comes a 'terrific psychological thriller (L.A. Weekly) that delivers a disturbing message about messing with Mother Nature. Starring Jason Beghe ( Melrose Place ) and Janine Turner ( Northern Exposure ), this riveting tale is a white-knuckle triumph [that doesn't] let up (Newsweek)! Allan Mann (Beghe) is a bitter, angry and vengeful man ever since an accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. He's fed up with himself and everyone around him. All that changes when he's given Ella, a monkey trained to meet his every need. But when Ella begins anticipating Allan's thoughts, strangeand deadly things start happening. And as she stalks and wreaks havoc on Allan's fair-weather girlfriend (Turner), incompetent doctor and meddling mother, Allan realizes he must stop the cunning maniacal creature...before she takes over his mind!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22500 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE/MGM
• Released on: 1999-09-28
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.com
George A. Romero monkeys with nature in this gripping and fearful tale based on the novel by Michael Stewart. Allan Mann (John Beghe) is a law student who's hit by a truck while jogging, leaving him a quadriplegic. Luckily, his scientist friend Geoffrey (John Pankow) is experimenting with capuchin monkeys, making them smarter with injections of human genetic material. Geoffrey arranges with Melanie (Kate McNeil)--who's working on an experimental program that matches monkeys with paraplegics to perform guide-dog functions--to train his prize subject, Ella (Boo), to act as Allan's helper. Allan is paralyzed from the neck down, confined to a wheelchair he moves by working a lever with his mouth. He's really vulnerable. Ella can fetch things and do errands, and a real emotional bond develops between Mann and monkey. Too strong a bond, it turns out, as Allan begins to experience dreams from the monkey's-eye view (capuchin-cam), Ella's boosted intelligence giving her the residual benefit of a telepathic ability in which the monkey begins to act out Allan's subconscious rage. Allan's nurse, former girlfriend, doctor, even his mother are terrorized by the creepy capuchin, leading to a showdown between Ella and Allan himself. With Allan trapped in a house, alone with a super-intelligent and malevolent monkey, there is plenty of suspense to make you rip holes in your upholstery. But perhaps even more tension could have been wrung out of this story if Ella had been more sympathetic (being as she was the victim of a scientific experiment gone bad), her wicked antics the acts of a kind of exterminating angel. Performances are brilliant by both Ella and Jason Beghe, who turns in one of cinema's most accurate and intelligent depictions of a high-level quadriplegic character. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews

Gripping Psychological Thriller....
Yes, fans of George Romero who believe he's only capable of creating zombie/gore films and are looking for cheap thrills will likely be disappointed in this film; others who appreciate razor-sharp suspense, well-defined characters, and the fascinating thin line between man and animal will love this spellbinding thriller. A wheelchair-bound man who is sufffering from depression gets a scientifically altered monkey as a companion and helper...suddenly the man develops a renewed interest in life when the monkey steals his heart. But before long, science has hindered the progression of nature, and the monkey starts acting on its own animal instincts, ensnaring the man in a psychological battle of wills. The final half hour is edge-of-your-seat riveting; Romero did a splendid job balancing the drama and shocks with a fascinating insight in teh relationship between man and beast. "Monkey Shines" is, simply put, a classic suspense film, and most highly recommended for fans of quality cinema.

Monkey Shines
From a purely animal training perspective this movie is brilliant. Romero did a great job directing these 6, 10 pounds capuchin monkeys to look like 1 monkey did the job. Much harder than Lassie and Flipper.The editing was also very slick. Watch the movie from a technical POV and see if you can find the different monkey faces, bodies and also puppets used in the more intense scenes.

I trained them all and was very proud of them.

Show me the monkey!
Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) had a bright and promising future. He had a beautiful girlfriend. He was physically fit. All of that is taken away from him in the blink of a headlight, when Allan gets run down by a truck and is left a bitter, hopeless quadriplegic. He loses all zest for life until a sprightly Capuchin monkey named Ella (played by Boo) enters his world. She's been trained to do everything for him, but soon she starts to read his mind... And what's in Allan's mind isn't very nice. Still, Ella is determined to fulfill her beloved master's every wish: Allan think, monkey do.

As someone who is not enamored of Romero's zombie flicks, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Yes, it's hokey here and there, but it never fails to entertain.

Based upon the novel Monkey-shines, by Michael Stewart.

Staci Layne Wilson