MOVIE REVIEW : ‘MONKEY’: THRILLER BREEDS CONTEMPT

Early into the shenanigans of “Blue Monkey” (citywide), a doctor, dumbfounded by what she encounters in an examination room, virtually turns to the audience and says, “I wish this made sense.” One can only echo the sentiments of the on screen character. For starters there is no blue monkey nor is there a green one (the film was originally titled “Green Monkey”)--the film’s horrifying creature is an exotic insect.

Yet, while the narrative of this science-fiction thriller is largely unfathomable, director Bill Fruet and writer George Goldsmith work hard to elicit both terror and amusement. Still, together with cast and crew, they’re ultimately involved in an exercise in career slumming.

The title monster derives from a new plant arrived from a remote atoll. Though the plant--transplanted to an American greenhouse--appears to prick an admirer with a thorn, the plant’s actually the work of an evolving life form. Rushed to the hospital, its victim becomes a breeding ground, coughing up a hideous pupa. We are told the plant has injected a virus into the man’s system to dissolve his bones and then feed on the calcium.

Matters get totally out of hand when the thing is mistakenly given a large dose of a growth inducer. Now its need to feed on human substance becomes gargantuan and the hospital is quarantined and cordoned off with troops.

How will it all end? Can our cop hero (Steven Railsback) in league with the doctor (Gwynyth Walsh) and an entomologist (Don Lake) find a way to combat the heinous creature before it spawns an invincible brood?

The answer should be obvious for devotees of late-night reruns of ‘50s horror classics. So the fun and gasps ought to “come from getting there” and indeed it does . . . from time to time. There’s a genuine sense of whimsy in the proceedings and nonsense in the logic.

But the slapdash style of “Blue Monkey” (MPAA rated R, for graphic violence) also contributes to its undoing. Important plot details--such as the need not to kill the monster so serum can be extracted from its fluid--are abandoned almost as quickly as they are introduced. In their place are forced amusements involving kids, an expectant couple and tipsy septuagenarians. The world has been saved but at a leaden artistic cost.