Monkey Shines 4K 1988 Ultra HD 2160p

Jeffrey, a brilliant scientist working on increasing intelligence in monkeys, teaches a female capuchin monkey how to care for her paralyzed friend. The patient and the monkey get along perfectly until the monkey's dark, unknown abilities are suddenly revealed.

User Review

Allan, a promising student, ends up in a wheelchair after an accident. To help him get over his depression and find his will to live again, his friend Jeffrey, a genius scientist working on increasing the intelligence of monkeys, decides to give him a female capuchin monkey, the result of his experiments.

To teach the monkey how to care for the sick, Jeffrey turns to trainer Melanie. Allan and Ella, as he calls his new friend, get along perfectly, and after a while, Ella even begins to anticipate many of Allan's requests. Everything is going well, and the attraction between Melanie and Allan begins to develop into a stronger feeling. But one day, the monkey's dark side is revealed.

It is not uncommon for several films with virtually identical or very similar stories to be released at the same time. This was the case with The Matrix and The Thirteenth Floor, White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen, and a number of other films. This film by the director ideologically continues/repeats the events of the horror film Link, written by Richard Franklin and released two years earlier.

At first glance, it may seem that this is just another typical horror film, in which a monkey replaces the maniac. However, it is worth acknowledging that the story of this film is much deeper. Using the events unfolding on screen as an example, the filmmakers reflect on the humanity of using animals outside their traditional way of life (including through various experiments on them) and the cruel treatment of animals. In my opinion, this has not lost its relevance even now.

Otherwise, the story develops in a traditional horror form about obsession. So, if you've seen at least one horror or thriller about obsession, such as The Lonely White Woman, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and Misery, you have a rough idea of how the next 110 minutes of screen time will unfold.

At the time this film was made, James Romero had already made a name for himself with films such as Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, The Crazies, and a number of other pictures. That is why, when watching this film, you can feel the hand of a very confident and established director who masterfully maintains an atmosphere of suspense, tension, and anxiety. It is around this that a feeling of paranoia is built up, which turns out to be much stronger and more effective than scenes of violence, cruelty, and murder. Moreover, such moments are quite simple from a creative point of view, and there are not that many of them.

The lead actors, Jason Behr and Kate McNeill, performed well. However, the real star of this film is definitely the monkey Boo. It is always very difficult to create a film that actively involves animals. In this case, Boo the monkey does not just walk around in the frame, but actually acts.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (81.4 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Info Audio

#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
#English: FLAC 2.0
#German: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0

Info Subtitles