THE MONKEY'S PAW is less an adaptation of the famous ghost story by British writer W.W. Jacobs and more a typical supernatural slasher flick with a generic Hollywood feel. It provides a role for the reliably evil Stephen Lang, whose appearance in AVATAR has made him extremely typecast in this genre, but other than that it's largely uninteresting. The story has been chopped and altered so that it's barely recognisable as an adaptation of the old story. The film itself has a dark, blue-tinted look and boring protagonists whose fate you never really care about. Inevitably there are some gruesome interludes but as a horror film, this one's a dud.

In New Orleans, Jake Tilton (C.J. Thomason) works in transportation business as assistant of the supervisor Gillespie (Daniel Hugh Kelly) with his friends Anthony "Tony" Cobb (Stephen Lang) and Catfish (Corbin Bleu). When the manager Kevin (Andy Favreau),who got married to Jake's former girlfriend Olivia Corbin (Michelle Pierce),fires Gillespie, Jake and Cobb meet him drinking in a bar and Gillespie gives a magical monkey's paw to Jake telling that it grants three wishes to the owner. Jake does not believe in his words but he wishes a nice car that is parked at the bar. Soon he and Cobb discover the keys inside the car and Jake drives the car. However he has a car accident and Cobb dies. Then he wishes that Cobb resurrects and his friend becomes a soulless undead. Cobb wishes that Jake uses his last wish to make his son to love him, but Jake has thrown the paw away. Cobb decides to kill everyone connected to Jake to force him to use the monkey's paw to grant his wish.

In 1902, in England, the writer W. W. Jacob published the supernatural short story "The Monkey Paw" where the owner of a monkey's paw is granted with three wishes with tragic consequences. In Tales from the Crypt (1972),there is a segment with the title "Wish you Were Here" based on this short story where a bankrupted businessman uses a statue with the legend that it could grant three wishes to the owner to make the wishes that lead him to eternal damnation.

"The Monkey's Paw" is a horror movie with a good version also based on this short story with the idea that you shall be careful with what you wish for. The creepy and gore story takes place in the mystical New Orleans and does not disappoint fans of horror. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on VHS / DVD / Blu-Ray

Gil (Daniel Hugh Kelly) gets the infamous Monkey's Paw passed on down to him. After he gets terminated from his job, he gives the paw to Jake (C.J. Thomason) an employee, who he in part blames for his termination. Jake uses the paw in W.W. Jacobs fashion and disrupts the lives of everyone he knows.

The film is fairly straight forward. It lingered for a long time on the second wish with the predictable ending. For those who are not familiar with the story, the movie might seem a little better than three stars.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs that I recall. Some adult language. Near sex, some minor grinding. no nudity.