The Monkey's Paw

source: The Monkey's Paw

Brett Simmons is a director who manages to challenge as well as enlighten through the horror genre with style and intelligence. Putting our spirituality and even our basic existential beliefs to the test, he uses a timeless story of terror to force us to examine the very basis of our own identity. Stephen Lang, giving a performance even more extraordinary than his sublime characterizations in Gettysburg and Gods and Generals, breaks your heart with his humanity while shocking us with his incredible depravity. The violence is sudden and startling but never gratuitous. It serves an important purpose if we are to accept the greater questions presented in the film. The climax is both stunning and courageous and perhaps Lang is one of the few actors capable of pulling off the overwhelming task given him by director Simmons. The moody cinematography and understated score create an atmosphere that is both beautifully haunting and a bit unnatural to our senses. All these elements come together perfectly in one of the most impressive films of the last decade.

I have to say that this movie did go further than I would have anticipated. Though it is flawed by the general clichés, I think there is actually a clever mini-plot behind it. Even though Voodoo is a religion that celebrates life and death and has very little to do with black magic and considering that you can't revive a dead guy even if you had a mountain of monkeys with 4 paws, the movie leaves an open alternative. And that is: that actually everything was a coincidence, but the paw played the part of not bringing luck. In the end, maybe Cobb didn't die in the crash (or maybe just clinically died for a brief moment) and just went insane from the head injuries and the car may have just been abandon by a run away guy. There is no clear evidence of magic but maybe just psychical influence. I liked how the story was twisted here and there, characters were OK developed and the action moved relatively fast paced with the events. I give it 7/10 cause with a better cast and more time to shape the plot better would have made this movie a great classic.

The Monkey's Paw was written in 1902 by W. W. Jacobs, but if you didn't know that and you read the message board for this film, you'd be tempted to think it was originally a Simpsons or Goosebumps episode. While so many iconic stories like the one Jacobs penned lend themselves to parody or adaptation, the writers of this version actually created something original - which is why, I would guess, the ratings here are so much lower than they should be. Instead of giving us one more pass through of the "be careful what you wish for" scenario, the filmmakers take us in a different direction. Saying much more would ruin the story, so I'll only point out that it's not only the protagonist who suffers for his choices. All aspects of this film are competent or better. The length is also very appropriate to the overall arc and pacing. I'll also mention that the connection to the original story is so subtle that many will miss it.

The Monkeys Paw is a tale that has been covered cinematically several times over the years including as far back as the early 30's. It tells the story of a paw that grants wishes but the twist is that it corrupts whatever it provides. The original story always told of a parent who wants a deceased child returned from the dead, this version tweeks that slightly but is still loyal to its source material. Stephen Lang brings life to the rather dull cast and brings forth a performance only rivalled by his in Don't Breathe (2016) Not the best version and a tad slow this is one of those premises where you could do a lot with it but here they fail to do so. Perfectly watchable but perhaps should have been somewhat better. The Good: Stephen Lang The Bad: Oddly boring Things I learnt from this movie: Monkeys Paw would make a great television series!

The Monkey's Paw! - started out with pretty much, no expectations whatsoever. So glad I did that! The story behind this one is quite easy to anticipate, wont have any sick twists to it, but it will have a normal presentation, and it will follow its course quite nicely. The acting is good, especially from Stephen Lang, who made the film happen (my opinion), the death scenes are more than OK I'd say, and it has a nice pace. Doesn't slow for anything, has no dumb reactions as many modern horror got us used to, so all in all, a perfect movie for a late, cold, night! Without going on and on about a simple, natural, yet effective horror, I would definitely recommend this one. A small surprise, a great add-on to one's collection, something that will put its mark upon you. Such movies are hope that modern horror will not ultimately present itself as a complete failure. Aw, and of course, I recommend "Monkey Shines", if you wanna see a horror, with a monkey! That one is also truly great! Hope you'll enjoy both of them. Cheers!

Remains true to the original story, which is truly horrific. It's an old idea, you get three wishes but the granting of those wishes makes you wish you were dead. The victim usually ends up wishing that his first two wishes be reversed. This film has a different twist at the end. What's also good about this version is the very realistic slice of life of some factory workers living somewhere near New Orleans. You feel that these are real people. To me this is better than a lot of special effects and some hard to believe monster. There is a nicely creepy aura to that part of the world. Anyway, this film keeps you going with action and surprise twists. In a word, it will haunt you.

I'm a huge fan of Horror and am always searching for a well made, well acted story, even if it does follow the same tropes. This is a classic "be careful what you wish for" story. A man receives a Monkey's Paw from a fellow co-worker and is granted three wishes. His first wish is selfish, and results in an accident that makes his second wish unavoidable. That is when the fun starts. Stephen Lang makes this movie. He was interesting and engaging in Avatar, but this performance was emotional, visceral, and thoroughly entertaining. C.J. Thomason left me scratching my head as the lead character, but he was just good enough to not ruin the story. I definitely went into this without any expectations and though the story is not new, and the characters did do some dumb things with stilted dialogue at times, I think the very interesting setting and the performance by Lang makes it worth watching.

Last week I did a review of Brett Simmon's new direction Animal. I mentioned that he had previously done a film with this production company, which according to critics wasn't the best film either. Well I gave the film a go at proving them wrong. It was made by Chiller Films and was released not long ago. It's genre? The one that seems to go hand in hand with the director. Horror. Monkey's Paw had a lot of the same going for it as Animal, but I'd be hard pressed to call any of it positive. While it's true that the story isn't about a wild beast, but an ancient horror legend, we end up with a zombie story, with a dash of voodoo, and a pinch of modern day America. The problem with stories like this is that they are cliché and not really all that interesting. The story: The film centers on Jake Tilton, who acquires a mystical "monkey's paw" talisman that grants its possessor three wishes. Jake finds his world turned upside down after his first two wishes result in co-worker Tony Cobb being resurrected from the dead. As Cobb pressures Jake into using the final wish to reunite Cobb with his son, his intimidation quickly escalates into relentless murder-- forcing Jake to outwit his psychotic friend and save his remaining loved ones. First off granting wishes, voodoo story is a little overused, there have been oodles of films about this topic and if that's all they were about they didn't really stand out of the crowd. The whole story and atmosphere would work great in say a Tales from the Crypt episode, but not in a feature film. Plus the film has a bunch of things wrong with it too. First off it's so TV movie. It's not really that it's just reminds me of one and the script helped in that department. Not to mention that it's so riddled with logical holes it's Swiss cheese. Sometimes they were made out of stupidity, sometimes it just seemed they weren't really paying attention. The next problem is something I spoke about in relation to Animal too – though it was a lot more annoying in that film – is the fact that there is no blood. Yeah you can make a case for that not being too important and it really isn't if the film has something else going for it, if it has squat? Then at least it could be bloody no? Unfortunately it's sorely lacking here. The one positive thing are the actors, who did a solid job, other than that I don't really have anything good to say about it. It seems like this production company is predominantly going for broke in horror stories that can be easily shown on TV. But then I kind of don't get how come they don't just make films for the SCI-FI Channel. All in all the director Brett Simmons was true to himself. Animal was a kind of pointless, but watchable once, mediocre horror and so was Monkey's Paw. I think the whole thing took a left turn at Albuquerque when they picked out the basic story. Sure that makes it hard to go anywhere good, so then why the hell make the film? 2/10 https://www.youtube.com/user/Videodromeblog

In New Orleans, Jake Tilton (C.J. Thomason) works in transportation business as assistant of the supervisor Gillespie (Daniel Hugh Kelly) with his friends Anthony "Tony" Cobb (Stephen Lang) and Catfish (Corbin Bleu). When the manager Kevin (Andy Favreau), who got married to Jake's former girlfriend Olivia Corbin (Michelle Pierce), fires Gillespie, Jake and Cobb meet him drinking in a bar and Gillespie gives a magical monkey's paw to Jake telling that it grants three wishes to the owner. Jake does not believe in his words but he wishes a nice car that is parked at the bar. Soon he and Cobb discover the keys inside the car and Jake drives the car. However he has a car accident and Cobb dies. Then he wishes that Cobb resurrects and his friend becomes a soulless undead. Cobb wishes that Jake uses his last wish to make his son to love him, but Jake has thrown the paw away. Cobb decides to kill everyone connected to Jake to force him to use the monkey's paw to grant his wish. In 1902, in England, the writer W. W. Jacob published the supernatural short story "The Monkey Paw" where the owner of a monkey's paw is granted with three wishes with tragic consequences. In Tales from the Crypt (1972), there is a segment with the title "Wish you Were Here" based on this short story where a bankrupted businessman uses a statue with the legend that it could grant three wishes to the owner to make the wishes that lead him to eternal damnation. "The Monkey's Paw" is a horror movie with a good version also based on this short story with the idea that you shall be careful with what you wish for. The creepy and gore story takes place in the mystical New Orleans and does not disappoint fans of horror. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): Not Available on VHS / DVD / Blu-Ray