MOVIE REVIEW : Well-Crafted Shivers in ‘Monkey Shines’

Heaven and hell, some philosophers say, lie within ourselves. Some movie makers second the sentiment. In his shiveringly well-crafted “Monkey Shines . . . An Experiment in Fear” (selected theaters), George Romero shows us a paralyzed victim unwittingly responsible for the carnage around him--and a rampaging monster more sympathetic than her victims.

It’s a twist reminiscent of “King Kong”: The character we love most is the ape running amok. This isn’t simple perversity. “Monkey Shine’s” monster is the most beguiling in any recent genre shocker. She’s innocent of any evil intent, motivated by love and duty: a tiny, amazingly adroit capuchin monkey named Ella (played by the nonpareil monkey actress Boo).

Ella, with her delicate features, quick limbs and yearning, smart eyes, is one of a group of exceptional monkeys trained to work as all-purpose companions for paraplegics--a remarkable real-life program. In the film--a fantasy of innocence corrupted--she’s a bright, wondrous beast poisoned by humanity: first, by the bizarre intelligence-boosting experiments of an over-the-edge grad student, Geoffrey (John Pankow), and later by the repressed rage and guilty desires of her master, Allan (Jason Beghe).

Allan, paralyzed from the neck down after an accident, is unable to adjust, awash in self-pity and resentment--against his girlfriend (Janine Turner), who dumps him; his doctor (Stanley Tucci), who stole her; his mother (Joyce Van Patten), who smothers him with attention; and his nurse (Christine Forrest), a lazy, foul-mouthed slattern. Impotent and angry, he focuses his hatred on this largely female group. There are only two exceptions: Ella, his perfect servant and pet, and her brisk but compassionate trainer, Melanie (Kate McNeil).

The story’s dark pivot is the symbiosis between Allan and Ella: a match made in hell. Ella, preternaturally sensitive to all her master’s desires, becomes infected with his hatreds--just as, in the lab, she’s been made addicted to a serum containing human brain tissue. It’s not a matter of the beast emerging against the human--but of humans perverting the beast.

Like Roman Polanski, Romero specializes in the horror of entrapment--and in “Monkey Shines” the idea of being pinned down helplessly in a room achieves a new glittering menace. Allan, immobile, is surrounded by high-tech electronic playthings--reading machines, stereos, computers, a provincial yuppie paradise--in a house where everything will be turned into a weapon, and his worst impulses sent battering back at him.

“Monkey Shines,” is the least gory of Romero’s horror movies, and, with “Martin,” the most sophisticated. But it has a deeply flawed ending: two cliched codas after the resolution. The first pointlessly recycles a now standard horror-movie climactic zap. The second is so sappily upbeat it is defensible only if--as in “Blue Velvet”--it’s intended ironically. (Unhappily, you feel it wasn’t.)

But what makes “Monkey Shines” special--beyond Romero’s cinematic lucidity and sheer storytelling ability and the talent of his cast and crew--is the ambivalent responses aroused by monkey Boo as Ella. The audience that rejects her as a little toy-terror--or the movie as a piece of icy misanthropy which perversely trashes women, animals and quadraplegics--misses the point. Watching this movie, one loves Ella, bleeds for her, wishes desperately to preserve her from harm. But hell and humanity carry their own demands. That’s what makes the movie’s real climax in Allan’s room such a genuinely disturbing and terrifying moment--and “Monkey Shines” (MPAA-rated R for sex, nudity, language and violence) the best of its genre since “The Fly.”

‘MONKEY SHINES . . . AN EXPERIMENT IN FEAR’

An Orion Pictures release. Producer Charles Evans. Director-script George Romero. Executive producers Peter Grunwald, Gerald S. Paonessa. Camera James A. Contner. Editor Pasquale Buba. Music David Shire. Production design Cletus Anderson. With Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci.

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian).