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Monkey Shines

Monkey Shines

Horror · Science Fiction · Drama · 1988

A quadriplegic man is given a trained monkey help him with every day activities, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master and those who get too close to him.

Movie details

Monkey Shines

“Once there was a man whose prison was a chair. The man had a monkey, they made the strangest pair. The monkey ruled the man, it climbed inside his head. And now as fate would have it, one of them is dead.”

1988 Horror · Science Fiction · Drama 1h 53m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

A quadriplegic man is given a trained monkey help him with every day activities, until the little monkey begins to develop feelings, and rage, against its new master and those who get too close to him.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Monkey Shines?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

George A. Romero

Written by

George A. Romero

Jason Beghe

Jason Beghe

Allan Mann

John Pankow

John Pankow

Geoffrey Fisher

Kate McNeil

Kate McNeil

Melanie Parker

Joyce Van Patten

Joyce Van Patten

Dorothy Mann

Christine Forrest

Christine Forrest

Maryanne Hodges

Stephen Root

Stephen Root

Dean Burbage

Stanley Tucci

Stanley Tucci

Dr. John Wiseman

Court is in session

Put Monkey Shines on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.