THE MONKEY

As tonally awkward a film as I have seen in a very, very long time, this splatter-happy adaptation of a Stephen King short story would probably have worked a lot better as a Twilight Zone episode.

In last year’s Longlegs director Oz Perkins proved that he has cinematic creepiness down pat, and certainly in the opening reels of The Monkey he taps into a similar vibe. It doesn’t take long however for the movie to become an altogether weirder mix between unease, grand guignol and broad comedy that kinda works until in its third act it spectacularly implodes.

The Monkey sees teen twin brothers gain possession of a creepy toy monkey that randomly kills off family and friends in ever more elaborate ways at the beat of a drum. After disposing of the monkey, life returns pretty much to normal for 25 years, when an influx of odd deaths raise suspicions the murderous toy is back.

Perkins borrows not much more than the basic premise from Stephen King’s 1980 short but his expansions of and alterations to the story are a mixed bag. The twin element has its merits – despite a rather disjointed acting approach by Theo James – as does the comedic touch, yet even at a brisk hour and a half The Monkey feels stretched way beyond what its premise can carry and the characters are all grotesque, cartoonish, often emotionless caricatures.

What ultimately lets down the picture the most however, are the ever more gory deaths, which position the film as a very close cousin of the silliest entries in the Final Destination franchise. These scenes entertain, certainly, yet they are played for such broad, ridiculous laughs that the edgy, balanced awkwardness and suspense of the first ten minutes seem to belong to another movie altogether.

So while The Monkey is laudably specific in the tone it wants to strike, the effectiveness of this approach dilutes quickly and leads up to a final act that only works if you pretend it’s a lampoon of the genre, and not a very good one at that.

release: 2025

director: Oz Perkins

starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell