CARNOSAUR (1993) Reptilian creatures resembling dinosaurs hatch from genetically manipulated chicken eggs and terrorize a dust bowl town that neighbors the evil genetics laboratory responsible for creating the chicken monsters. The creatures waste no time in munching on human flesh, the first victim being a poultry delivery man who’s turned into the main course after several of his feathered cargo start off as appetizers. More locals are shredded to pieces before a drunken security guard (Raphael Sbarge) and a beatnik environmentalist (Jennifer Runyon) stumble upon the carnage—even after witnessing the remains of an eviscerated body, Runyon and her ecologist friends chain themselves in protest to a construction site, offering themselves on a platter to the growing dino population—and proving just what little thought by the writers went into the screenplay and its paper-thin characters. In the end, Carnosaur ends up being a soulless Roger Corman-produced cheapie that apes Jurassic Park and features not-so-special special effects that look like they belong on the SyFy Channel.
MONKEY SHINES (1988) Monkey Shines was zombiemeister George A. Romero’s first film with studio backing, and the results are a mixed bag. Based on a 1983 paperback by Michael Stewart, the story centers on a quadriplegic (Jason Beghe) given help in the form of a highly intelligent capuchin monkey named Ella, who’s been injected with an experimental brain serum by scientist John Pankow. For reasons unexplained, Ella forms a psychic link with Beghe, and, in Cronenberg fashion, becomes the physical manifestation of Beghe’s festering anger and resentment towards the world. Through visions, Beghe sees Ella committing acts of violence, including the murder of Beghe’s sleazy surgeon, who’s been shacking up with Beghe’s ex-girlfriend. Adapted by Romero, the script flirts with interesting ideas on the tried-and-true man-versus-animal scenario that’s been popular since The Birds (1963). The film features good acting and moments of suspense, but is bogged down by unbelievable character motivations—a subplot involving Beghe’s mentally unstable mother is ludicrously overblown—and a longer than necessary runtime. You might say Monkey Shines is close, but no banana.
WINDOWS (1980) After being raped in her Brooklyn apartment, a shy divorcee (Talia Shire) accepts emotional support from her neighbor (Elizabeth Ashley) unaware that Ashley is an obsessive psychopath. Ashley becomes more unstable when Shire moves right across the river and through her picture window spies on Shire with a telescope á la Rear Window. Ashley loses any shred of social grace when Shire becomes romantically involved with a cop (Joseph Cortese) by metaphorically (and physically) bringing out the knives. Shire eventually discovers Ashley hired her attacker to record the event so Ashley could swoon over the sound of Shire’s painful moaning. This psycho-chiller has a good performance by Shire, and a great freezer gag, but it doesn’t create the tension that similarly themed Fatal Attraction would generate years later. Ashley is convincing but comes off more as a caricature than a real character. A passable but minute time-waster.
