Monkey Shines

1988
R
1h 53m

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

13K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer1:39

1 Video

99+ Photos

Drama Horror Sci-Fi Thriller

A quadriplegic man has a trained monkey help him with his paralysis, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master.A quadriplegic man has a trained monkey help him with his paralysis, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master.A quadriplegic man has a trained monkey help him with his paralysis, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master.

Director
- George A. Romero
Writers
- Michael Stewart
- George A. Romero
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.2/10

13K

YOUR RATING

Director
- George A. Romero
Writers
- Michael Stewart
- George A. Romero
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 7 wins & 2 nominations total

Trivia
This was the first film role for Stephen Root, then a stage actor. According to Root, he had been instructed by his agent not to let the casting directors know that he was inexperienced with film as an actor. Root's official debut was Crocodile Dundee II (1988), which had been released in theaters a month before this film, despite being shot a month after it.

Goofs
Fisher incorrectly refers to performing an "autopsy" on Ella. An autopsy is performed on human remains. The correct term for examining animal remains postmortem is "necropsy". This is a common mistake for most people, one that Fisher would not make, given his profession.

Quotes
Geoffrey Fisher: You're a clinical cunt.

Crazy credits
"Introducing Boo as Ella"

Alternate versions
Earlier versions of Monkey Shines allegedly contained a bizarre brain surgery scene, as well as several abusive scenes involving the small monkey, Ellie. Although the scenes were all staged and no animals were harmed in the making of the movie, the filmmakers decided it would be better to simply leave them out to avoid conflicts.

Connections
Featured in Document of the Dead (1980)

Soundtracks
There'll Be Another Spring
Written by Peggy Lee and Hubie Wheeler
Performed by Peggy Lee
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
Under license from Capitol Special Markets

User reviews97

Review

Featured review

6/10

Capuchin antics

Offbeat horror film has a paraplegic being given a capuchin monkey named Ella as a companion. Only problem: the cute little monkey has been subjected to genetic experimentation, and has a mind of its its own. Pretty soon, the monkey is up to no good, and the paraplegic is becoming telepathically linked to the increasingly evil simian. George Rnmero made this little gem. The cast is largely unknown, although watch for a young Stanley Tucci as one of the paraplegic's surgeons and John Pankow as the paraplegic's buddy (and mad scientist). A weird little tale that takes its time to get to the nasty stuff, which is just fine with me as the killings are pretty routine.