Monk3ys

Mix one overbearing recovering alcoholic jerk, an active alcoholic, a repressed time-bomb twerp, mix in several bottles of whiskey & savor the delicious madness. Three incompetent, unbalanced psychologists select three combustible character types, under the pretense of a serious social experiment, to spend two unobserved days in a small room, while cameras record the proceedings. Needless to say, things go predictably bad before going terribly, terribly wrong. Appearing to be an unscripted, found footage film, "Monk3ys" is so brilliantly scripted & acted & edited, that it succeeds as one of the most convincing films of it's type. Although I found it under horror, it's really a thriller, but unlike any mainstream thriller ever made or likely to get made. Imagine raw footage for a super low budget reality show, like a poverty row "Big Brother," gone violently out of control. I found it compelling throughout, & for my patience, a nice payoff at the end. It is unquestionably independent & low budget & I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't appreciate anything but mainstream or commercial independent thriller/horror films. Up for something different? Sample the "Monk3ys."

This movie couldn't decide if it was comedy or horror. The problem for me is that it was neither. Its continual use of wacky camera angles and cut aways to annoying "viewers" of the allegedly "found footage" and other characters who seemed to have little or nothing to do with the movie, who did very un-informative things like in one case just stuck a finger at the camera up reeked of just trying to find things for characters to do rather than there being a plot. Oh yes plot, you could scribble that on the back of a cigarette packet. No tension no twist - unless I missed something, which would be easy as I was yawning so much. Filmed in Student-o-Rama vision it seemed. Only one person Johnny Hurn made any attempt at proper acting or creation of a half engaging character, but with no decent acting from anyone else it was just wasted. After that I have forgotten all the others characters immediately as they were that pointless. If you fancy a movie that is shot in one location that does little to hold your attention then this ones for you.