Monkey Shines ★★★½

THE MONKEY MIND-MELD! Who but Mr. Romero could pull off a movie that's so mainstream yet so out-there at the same time? "Horror" might be the wrong genre tag, it's more like a drama which turns into a home invasion thriller halfway through once the monkey goes bananas. Definitely closer in spirit to the sentimental (often mushy) Knightriders than to Creepshow's "The Crate".
I've read complaints about the main character's whininess before. It's true that he isn't a happy-go-lucky ray of fucking sunshine; he's a suicidal quadriplegic. But there's a charming jumble of unconventional side characters, and their relations to one another are complex, and man, I just love how Romero puts forth a bunch of topics that are either taboo in Hollywood (quadriplegic sex scene, the frustration and abusive behaviour on the site of the carers) or weird as fuck anywhere (telepathic interspecies love affair).
As in Day of the Dead, my favourite character has to be the ethically questionable Mad Scientist, Geoffrey, who gets all the best lines, like in his rant against the surgeon Dr. Douchebag: "How do we diagnose this one, Wiseman? Clinical asshole syndrome? Clinical rat? Clinical snake in the grass? [turns to the doctor's girlfriend:] And you? You clinical cunt."

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