A man comes to the Trelawne shop to obtain a painting and one of the items he offers in the trade is a severed monkey's paw. One worker, a dishonest sort named Kelly, at the shop knows the secret of the monkey's paw, that it will grant three wishes for its owner, but the wishes will only bring tragedy for the owner. Trelawne later trades the painting for the paw. He later finds out that he owns 200 pounds to his bookmaker and as a last resort uses the paw to wish for the money. He gets the money but at cost of his son's life when he was killed in a motorcycle race and was given the 200 pounds, the purse for the race. The Trelawnes feel the guilt over the loss of their son, but Mrs. Trelawne knows there are two wishes left, and uses one to wish they here son returns from his grave. Despite the obvious low budget, this film succeeds in telling the story with excellent atmosphere, cinematography, acting, & directing. It does start off slow with establishing characters and settings, but after Kelly tells the story of the paw, it is able to flow better in its story telling. The ending of the film where Mrs. Trelawne uses her wish is amazing to look at despite sounding stagey. Thankfully the film doesn't settle into the obvious generic answer to the story. Rating, 7 out of 10.
Review of The Monkey's Paw
