zaterdag 22 maart 2014

The Monkey's Paw (2013)

Genre : Horror
Country : USA

Cast :
C.J. Thomason : Jake Tilton
Stephen Lang : Tony Cobb
Corbin Bleu : Catfish

Director :
Brett Simmons

Summary
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.

My opinion
"The Monkey's Paw" is a movie for in between and looks like a movie version of one of Stephen King's short stories. Upon further investigation, it appears to have originated from W.W. Jacobs who has written this story in 1902. The story is based on the well-known 3 wishes which are granted to someone. In this movie the paw of a dead monkey can achieve this. However, there is a snag. The wishes are carried out but you have to pay an extremely heavy price because you are tampering with fate.

The basis of the original story is mostly retained in this film. Only the end has a different turn. The final message behind the whole story is in the description of the leg. "There was a spell written by a fakir. He was a very holy man. He wanted to show that life depends on fate, and those who are interfering with it won't do this without any sorrow.” Actually, it is a perfect story with the right atmosphere for an episode of "Tales from the crypt" or "Creepshow”. Also there's a comic of "The Monkey's paw" and even a radio show. It actually sounds a bit corny and feels like an old-fashioned ghost story to read to children at Halloween.

Despite the fact that I didn't expect much of it, the movie was still reasonable. You should forget about the overused banality, such as a phone ringing at the wrong time. Ultimately, it's an ordinary creepy story with a bit of voodoo and a zombie section. The feeling and atmosphere of "Pet Sematary" leans close to it, but nevertheless, this movie has its own personality.

The acting is reasonably well . You do have the feeling that you are watching a TV episode. I don't think it's screened a lot in the cinemas. It appears also that the protagonist C.J. Thomason has quite some experience in the world of television. Generally he played his part convincingly. However, his actions weren't always logical. Jake didn't have a easy life thus far. His mother is in the hospital and is suffering from cancer . He has a bland, probably poorly paid job with a gland of a boss, who's also married to his ex-girlfriend he apparently still has feelings for. A reasonable person would immediately think of his mother at the first wish. Nope. The first thing he wishes is to become the owner of a glitzy sports car parked in front of the pub. You can bring up the arguments about his drunken state and his skeptical attitude towards the so called wishes. But still !

Stephen Lang looked familiar, but I couldn't place him immediately. Compared with Jake he's a more colorful figure. In the beginning he played an ordinary fellow who apparently can handle his liquor. The changing into a blood-drooling murderous zombie who kills anything that stands in his way of fulfilling his only desire by a wish, is rather successful. So we get a soft-slasher zombie movie where the massacres are not visualized too gross. The most original was the part with the machine working on air pressure.

A typical horror story and an enjoyable entertaining movie. Don't expect more. One thing always amazes me. Am I the only one whose first wish would spontaneously be to ask for a 1000 wishes more ?