The Monkey's Paw (2013)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

One of my all time favorites.

From my favorite movies..

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The Monkey's Paw is updated to 2013 where a factory underling, Jake (CJ Thomason), accidentally costs a long-time employee, Gill (Daniel Hugh Kelly; Hardcastle and McCormick) his job. Gill received a monkey's paw as a kid after his father died, and he decides as revenge to give it to Jake, knowing that if wished upon bad things were most certain to happen. And they do.As the old story goes, Jake wishes for a nice ride, and a wreck caused by a gator in the road throws his bar/work buddy, Tony Cobb (Stephen Lang), through the windshield, killing him when he hit the ground. Unwisely making a second wish on the paw to resurrect Tony, what happens is he's brought back, but the soul is "poisoned" and he becomes a remorseless killer. Tony has an ex with a son who has a restraining order against him. Although he wants to "take his boy fishing", Tony isn't some father of the year: in fact the friendly, chatty Tony Jake became close to has returned cold and distanced. What Tony wants is to have his son and sees the monkey's paw as the means to do so. So unless Jake does as he wishes, people will die (a motorist he met at a bar is strangled by him through the use of her hoody)…and do.Two wishes and Tony wants Jake to make that third, being the kid belonging to him. That motivation will drive Tony to commit unspeakable acts, like murdering Jake's family (mother, brother, and brother's wife), a detective trying to help him (Charles Durning in a thankless part he still manages to bring depth to despite being given a few scenes with a manner of minutes), and Jake's employer (thinking that if the rival for the woman he loves is out of the way, Jake would be more apt to help him).Lang has cut his teeth on complex villains. He was at first an opinionated, assertive, but ultimately amusing blue collar forklift operator, only robbed of his humanity after Jake awakens him from the dead thanks to a monkey's paw with only bad intentions it offers. Lang offers a weapon cutting a swath through all that are close to Jake, wanting the kid, not fully realizing the cruelty of his actions. The black soul and how Lang posits a ruined character thanks to the paw is damned effective. He's shot well, too, to convey all that darkness. Thomason just wasn't particularly involved in his character and left me cold…we needed someone who could provoke a response not leave a feeling of apathy towards him. The paw dilemma isn't too badly executed. You see how the paw really takes Jake down a dark road: no good really comes of it. Kelly isn't available for the film much, but you can feel for him considering his firing left him in a difficult spot. That he is the catalyst for all the harm done, though, visits upon him karmic justice…he pays for not ridding himself and others of the paw. This is not a film which focuses on the grisly details, more or less suggesting the horrors caused by Lang. Heads don't fare well: one victim is crushed in a vice while another has his head split open with a blade; a third is twisted all the way around. This will perhaps be judged by Lang's mission of terror, because the paw story is old hat.

The Monkey's Paw was written in 1902 by W. W. Jacobs, but if you didn't know that and you read the message board for this film, you'd be tempted to think it was originally a Simpsons or Goosebumps episode.While so many iconic stories like the one Jacobs penned lend themselves to parody or adaptation, the writers of this version actually created something original - which is why, I would guess, the ratings here are so much lower than they should be.Instead of giving us one more pass through of the "be careful what you wish for" scenario, the filmmakers take us in a different direction. Saying much more would ruin the story, so I'll only point out that it's not only the protagonist who suffers for his choices.All aspects of this film are competent or better. The length is also very appropriate to the overall arc and pacing. I'll also mention that the connection to the original story is so subtle that many will miss it.

Remains true to the original story, which is truly horrific. It's an old idea, you get three wishes but the granting of those wishes makes you wish you were dead. The victim usually ends up wishing that his first two wishes be reversed. This film has a different twist at the end. What's also good about this version is the very realistic slice of life of some factory workers living somewhere near New Orleans. You feel that these are real people. To me this is better than a lot of special effects and some hard to believe monster. There is a nicely creepy aura to that part of the world. Anyway, this film keeps you going with action and surprise twists. In a word, it will haunt you.

I have to say that this movie did go further than I would have anticipated. Though it is flawed by the general clichés, I think there is actually a clever mini-plot behind it.Even though Voodoo is a religion that celebrates life and death and has very little to do with black magic and considering that you can't revive a dead guy even if you had a mountain of monkeys with 4 paws, the movie leaves an open alternative. And that is: that actually everything was a coincidence, but the paw played the part of not bringing luck. In the end, maybe Cobb didn't die in the crash (or maybe just clinically died for a brief moment) and just went insane from the head injuries and the car may have just been abandon by a run away guy. There is no clear evidence of magic but maybe just psychical influence.I liked how the story was twisted here and there, characters were OK developed and the action moved relatively fast paced with the events. I give it 7/10 cause with a better cast and more time to shape the plot better would have made this movie a great classic.