Oh my, how the mighty had fallen! I had vague memories of Monkey Shines when I watched it over twenty years ago and, after revisiting this, it all makes sense why this film doesn't spring to mind when I think of Romero's great early body of work. George A. Romero's first studio film ideally should have been the perfect opportunity for him to showcase his talent in a direction that nobody would expect and on paper it would seem that was his intention.
The story itself isn't exactly straight horror. In fact, the first hour of the film plays off of a tragedy and is meant to create empathy for Jason Beghe's character in a way that Christy Brown earns empathy in My Left Foot, but Beghe's character isn't developed enough to forgive or understand his selfish demeanor. He's portrayed as simply a victim of circumstances and way too many other characters are introduced that end up meaning absolutely nothing at the end of the film.
Although Orion Pictures tampered with the final product, they don't deserve all of the blame for the film's shortcomings. Most of what doesn't work with Monkey Shines are things that Romero could take the blame for and that includes choosing to adapt this material that was so out of his comfort zone, that he ended up molding more towards his old conventions anyways. It wasn't like the case of the criminally underrated Knightriders where Romero used his sensibilities to bring an extra dimension to a genre that was outside of his typical wheelhouse, this was just the case of Romero biting off more than he could chew.
From the very opening of Monkey Shines where Beghe's character is living out the the Perfect Day Theory with no subtlety to support it and a tragic accident that's seen coming a mile away is shown off screen and the bricks are seen flying in slow motion to symbolically shatter on the pavement, it's clear that Romero is not comfortable in this territory.
For the following hour, when Beghe's character awakens from his surgery, Romero is struggling to deal with melodrama and it all unfolds like something you would stumble across on a bad Lifetime movie. This section of the film where Beghe's character is essentially alienated from people he should be able to trust and finds love and support from his monkey caregiver requires focus and emotional urgency that doesn't come through enough to prevent this part of the movie from dragging like a lifeless corpse. There's a great supporting cast that makes the very best of what was written for them and in the case of the undeniably talented Stephen Root, this was his very first feature role next to Crocodile Dundee II.
Stanley Tucci delivers just the right amount of smugness to a character we're never meant to feel anything towards except hate and John Pankow acts like he's delivering Shakespeare when he delivers his mad scientist monologues to his caged simian audience. The two substantial females besides the smothering mother and his insufferable nurse both represent opposite sides of the spectrum in serving the film's sexist attitude that serves the main character's egotistical male fantasy. Janine Turner immediately becomes the harlot that betrays him with his surgeon and his misfortune is shown as her burden that she refuses to bare. Kate McNeil portrays the selfless and goodhearted woman that sees the qualities that the audience doesn't in him and gets to participate in one of the most awkwardly ridiculous love scenes ever captured on celluloid.
When the monkey begins her homicidal rampage is when Monkey Shines shows any personality at all because it's where Romero seems to feel confident and that's even when relying on the ridiculous telekinesis angle that became a horror staple in the eighties and contributed to one of the weakest Friday the 13th entries of the series. Cinematographer James A. Contner who not only filmed many episodes of Miami Vice for Michael Mann but also contributed his early skills to interesting films like Cruising and Times Square, just seems to be mostly uninspired and bored up until this point, though the monkey vision shots become tedious and don't add much suspense or anything Composer David Shire who created astonishing scores for films like The Conversation and All The President's Men doesn't seem to be able to make heads or tails with the images on screen and the scenes that are meant to thrill have an upbeat tone to them that makes them practically laughable.
Until I revisit The Dark Half I can't say for certain if Romero ever became inspired after this misfire, but I do know that he never regained the fire that he had before this film and since he's still directing movies, I certainly hope he finds that creative spark again. Scream Factory does a great job as usual with the transfer and offers plenty of special features that includes a new audio commentary with George A. Romero, An Experiment In Fear - The Making Of "Monkey Shines" - a retrospective with George A. Romero, Stars Jason Beghe And Katie McNeil, Executive Producer Peter Grunwald, Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini, etc., a vintage "Making of MONKEY SHINES" with additional interview clips and more.
Movie Score: 2/5 Disc Score: 4/5
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