
When Allan becomes a quadriplegic he loses all hope for living until he meets Ella - a monkey trained to fetch and carry for him around the house, obeying him in all things. But Ella is part of another experiment, and when she starts responding to Allan's underlying rage and frustration she has the ability to carry out her master's darkest wishes.... (Full plot summary below)
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When Allan becomes a quadriplegic he loses all hope for living until he meets Ella - a monkey trained to fetch and carry for him around the house, obeying him in all things. But Ella is part of another experiment, and when she starts responding to Allan's underlying rage and frustration she has the ability to carry out her master's darkest wishes.
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| EmpireRob BeattieGetting the best out of a middling novel, Romero finds new, less gruesome avenues for his skills. |
| Chicago TribuneDave KehrOne of Romero's most complex and challenging creations. The film shifts effortlessly between playfulness and outrage, between a distanced irony and an awful, immediate horror. |
| Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonWhat makes Monkey Shines special--beyond Romero's cinematic lucidity and sheer storytelling ability and the talent of his cast and crew--is the ambivalent responses aroused by monkey Boo as Ella. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumDespite a hokey prologue and ending (the latter imposed by producer Charles Evans), this is one of George Romero's most effective and interesting horror thrillers—not as profound as his remarkable Living Dead trilogy, but unusually gripping and provocative. |
| NewsweekDavid AnsenRomero loses momentum in the closing passages because he has too many loose ends to keep track of. Somewhere within this movie’s two hours or so is hidden an absolutely spellbinding 90-minute thriller. |
| Creative LoafingMatt BrunsonOne of Romero's best non-zombie flicks, this intelligent, absorbing watch includes early roles for Stanley Tucci and Stephen Root. |
| CinePassionFernando F. CroceA brilliant realization of a mind awakening to its animal instincts, expressed in satirical Hitchcockisms |
| Time OutDerek AdamsRomero's is a formidable talent which others can only hope to ape. |
| Washington PostRichard HarringtonWhile Romero's past films have for the most part been experiments in horror (or at best, terror), Monkey Shines moves in another direction -- the psychological thriller, with a difference. It's not just "a man and a woman" story; it's a man-woman-monkey triangle, and how the sparks do fly. |
| StarburstMichael ColdwellThe absurdity is played up, the dark laughs are plentiful and some very-repeatable lines of dialogue suggest Romero may have been midway through a John Waters marathon at the time. |