Monkey Shines (1988)

George A. Romero, the original zombie gangster (OZG). King of independent horror films who, in 1988, went commercial with Orion Pictures to make Monkey Shines. Instead of working with original material as he had in his earlier works, the screenplay was based on a novel of the same name by Michael Stewart.

The concept sounds interesting. A scientist under pressure to produce results starts injecting monkeys with human brain tissue to try to make them smarter. He gives one of these simians to his recently paraplegic friend, Alan, partly as a good gesture but also to get his prized research out of the reach of the head of his department. With continued injections, this particular monkey not only gets super smart but also becomes super psycho, developing some sort of psychic connection to the wheelchair-bound main character.

The execution is less than interesting. It's almost as if Romero can't quite get his hooks into the story, or that he doesn't care to. The pacing in the beginning is glacial, spending far too long on Alan's new life of disability and the struggle of his personal life. We get glimpses into the side-story about the scientific research, but not nearly enough, and we're left with questions that never have a satisfactory answer.

The tension between Alan and the monkey takes up most of the last half of the movie. As their bond deepens, the monkey continually escapes the house and allows him to experience the freedom of walking, running, climbing, and murdering people. It's here where Romero drops the ball, not daring to push things far enough. Just when you think things might get good, we're back to reality dealing with Alan's mommy issues. Even the ending, where we're supposed to be left with warm and fuzzies, is uncharacteristically Romero.

I don't know how much of this we can blame on the source material or the hazards of independent filmmakers working with major studios, but it doesn't matter. The film carries Romero's name and if you've seen and enjoyed Night of the Living Dead you will be severely disappointed.