The Monkey's Paw

The bottom line: don't waste your time. This should not be called "The Monkey's Paw." This has nothing to do with the original story. I am so very disappointed! I was hoping that the story was brought to the big screen. I could not be any more wrong. I highly suggest for viewers who like the original story NOT to view the movie. However, if you have never read the original story or do not like the original story, watch the movie an decide for yourself how bad the movie REALLY is. Truly, it id REALLY bad. If you decide to waste your time with this movie, I hope you have the chance to do something else constructive in parallel. I hope somebody decides to remake this movie the way it is supposed to be.

I had never heard of the story before, so I didn't have any preconceptions. It's not too bad, but it switched back and forth between dead serious and camp and not very effectively.

Thomason and Lang both do a job, but Thomason plays it completely seriously while Lang plays it like a Freddy Krueger.

There's also a hint of a subplot that goes nowhere, where the cops and others suspect Thomason's character is doing the murders. Not the newest plot and it would take it in a Hitcher direction, but it could have worked here. The cops SHOULD have suspected him.

Too many 'plot devices' by the writer/director in place of coherent storytelling.

What could have been an intriguing story about the paw was turned into a murder/slasher movie, which would not have been terrible if the murders made sense.

1. The villain has Flash-like abilities, no not really fast, but somehow appears wherever he needs to be in a few minutes (plot convenience). 2. The protagonist has the ability to warn people but instead talks in vague circles so the people in danger do not react (plot convenience). 3. Dumbest police ever (again). 4. The movie is about the paw, which is rarely seen. It is almost like they created a slasher movie first then added the paw element as an added twist so that is does not appear like a generic slasher movie (but it is). 5. The person with most screen time is the worst actor in movie. He never exudes any real emotion regardless of situation. 6. Charles S Dutton as the cop was wasted opportunity.

Positive? Stephen Lang plays his part very well.

If "Heart-Shaped Box", ever gets made into a movie, I would like it to have a little bit of the feeling I got from "The Monkey's Paw", that without being a great accomplishment, delivers with a little twist; making it as one wanted sequel for the original story of W. W. Jacobs and this time unleashing the evil we don't get to read on the original story.

I kind of venture to say, that some may want to compare it with Stephen king's "Pet cemetery", or "The Serpent and the Rainbow" but, at least on my case I wouldn't dare to. Even though this is not a for the big screen of a movie theater, the film stands on its own, giving the obvious answer of what it would have happened after the mother opens to his dead son? Would he be like "I am alive again and I am better than before"? Definitely, the answer is no. Among the advantages of the story is that it doesn't play the main character as a dumb guy, just, naive and ingenuous man that unfortunately under the influence of alcohol and not having a good life, makes the wrong choices.

Unlike other horror, slasher movies, the cliché, (like the phone ringing at the most inopportune moment) becomes a necessary element. Why? Because we feel like it shouldn't have happened to them, meaning that we get to care for the characters, regardless of them being of secondary importance on the story, I would say that at this point is about "family" it gets way more personal. A little weird? … after the Mom's death… dealing with this pseudo – zombie? Also I really liked the use of the street cars, and the location of New Orleans, it gave the little touch for a little "Vodou".

The acting is fairly good, the ambiance, music and camera work let you appreciate the effort of the filmmakers,regardless of being a little slow between some of the scenes,and the appearances of the always welcome Charles S. Dutton, Daniel Hugh-Kelly (Cujo) and Stephen Lang (avatar), gives the necessary strength for the rest of the cast and the flaws you may encounter. Without being overexcited, I would recommend it much more than movies like insidious 2.

I don't know how many of these movies I've seen, that take an interesting premise (albeit one that follows the monkey's paw trope... a story dating back more than a century), and completely falls apart in the final act. I mean, practically everything out of Hollywood does that, but this is a low budget indie horror film shot in Louisiana.

Ok, Jake's former boss, who he may or may not have gotten fired, gives him a monkey's paw... with vindictive undertones. I really enjoyed how the first wish led to trouble (namely, the death of Jake's co-worker, Cobb), which leads to more trouble, the second wish, to bring Cobb back to life. Which, well you get the idea. If you've seen Pet Sematary (and the like), you know how this re-animation stuff goes. Some of Cobb's killings even made sense within the scope of this story, but what we ultimately get in the end, is a psycho killer on-the-loose, killing everything in his path. *Yawn*

And the end result of the final wish? WTF. The writers definitely ran into a brick wall around the 55-minute mark of this one. If you have a craving for this sort of story (in movie form, that is), check out the Wishmaster series, especially its off-the-rails 3rd sequel, Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled. Watch out for some crazy gore, which this film was severely lacking. Hell, watch the Monkey's Paw segment in Treehouse of Horror from The Simpsons, for a genius take.