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For his immediate follow up to the excellent Day of the Dead, George Romero ditches shuffling, flesh-eating corpses in favour of a much smaller, hairier, and altogether more unlikely antagonist: a capuchin monkey called Ella.After being injected with an experimental serum designed to enhance her intelligence, furry-faced Ella (brilliantly played by Boo, whose acting career has inexplicably stalled after this impressive debut) gradually turns into a murderous beast capable of tapping into the anger and resentment of her paraplegic owner Allan Mann (Jason Beghe) and carrying out his most primal desires. As little hairy Ella proceeds to bump off those who have wronged or upset her master, she proves to be every bit as deadly as a reanimated corpse, only a damn sight more devious.Monkey Shines is a decidedly different beast to the '...of the Dead' films for which Romero is so well known: the director eschews the cartoonish blood and guts approach that has made his zombie films so popular with gore-hounds (although make-up legend Tom Savini is still on hand to provide a couple of impressive effects), and opts instead for slow-burn tension and nail-biting suspense.This more mature and reserved directorial style, coupled with excellent performances (Beghe, who is limited to acting only with his head, is superb), a well written script (adapted by Romero from the novel by Michael Stewart), and a few decent jump scares, results in a satisfying little horror/chiller that proves there is more to Romero than just gut-munching and bullets to the head (not that I dislike gratuitous splatter, but a change is as good as a rest, as they say!).
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