I love monkey movies. This one unfortunately is probably one of my least favorite. Here George Romero tries to make a mainstream, almost bloodless horror film about a monkey that helps a paralyzed guy and then goes bat-shit nutso. Just by the that description you know this isn't going to go down in the history books as any sort of classic. I first saw this film when I was younger and recalled nothing about it except it had a monkey in it. Re-watching it recently did not raise it's status in my opinion at all. The main problem for me, besides all the murder scenes being complete cop-outs and the general premise being pretty fucking silly, is that this monkey is never really presented as all that menacing(I mean in the context of the film I guess if you're a guy who can only use his head lots of things,including a little bird in one scene, could possibly be terrifying but for your average viewer not so much) and the movie has such a cookie-cutter plot that you know there's gonna be a feel-good, happy ending right from the beginning. Another example of 80's crap that even a former master of horror couldn't spice up enough to even make memorable. On the positive side I will say that the razor-wielding monkey on the VHS box does make a fine mascot for your stupid movie blog. If you want to see a better movie with a razor-brandishing primate try Dario Argento's PHENOMENA. Also of interest here is that Romero chose his wife to play the role of a bitchy unlikable nurse. I guess he knew she could nail that.
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