Review: Monkey Boy (2009)

First I´d like to thank Marco M at EuroObscura for providing a screener.
A freak lived his entire lifetime closed down in a cellar far in the country. But one day the Monkey Boy (Andrea Melli), after the death of his "keeper", an old lonely woman, is forced to explore the world outside. The story is set during one night only, a short time to discover the world, but enough time to find Agata (Giovanna Gardelli), an autistic young girl, the only creature that seems to be able to communicate with him in that dark night full of weird lonely and unhappy characters called human beings. Monkey Boy is written by Chiara Parodi, Davide Zagnoli and Antonio Monti who also is the director. It´s a really good looking film, professionally shot and edited and the acting is good.The monkey boy make up-fx design is somewhat of a disappointment when shown in full light, it´s much more effective and looks much better when moving around in the darkness. With a slogan is "there are no bloodless fairy tales" you´d expect lots of blood and gore but the sad fact is that the film is severely lacking in the gore department. Fans of T & A won´t find anything in this.
This review is based upon a passwordprotected screener provided by EuroObscura., it´s uncut and has english subtitles.
Rating: 2½ out of 7. It didn´t live up to my expectations (yes, I know that expectations is dangerous as a reviewer) but I went into this expecting a horror fairy tale. It isn´t bad but I would hesitate to call it horror and instead call it dark fantasy.


/JL