The Monkey, 2025.
Written and Directed by Osgood Perkins.
Starring Theo James, Elijah Wood, Tatiana Maslany, Rohan Campbell, Christian Convery, Adam Scott, Sarah Levy, Colin O’Brien, Zia Newton, Kingston Chan, Osgood Perkins, Laura Mennell, Corin Clark, Danica Dreyer, Dianne Greenwood, and Beatrix Perkins.
SYNOPSIS:
When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.
Death comes for us all, and it’s reasonable to have that fear, doubly so when a windup, drumming (that speeds up into a menacing rhythm), evil-grinning toy monkey has taken joy in traumatizing someone by repeatedly murdering members of their family by manipulating the environment to cause freak accidents. From writer/director Osgood Perkins and based on the short story by Stephen King, The Monkey isn’t just about that generational trauma but an overwhelming fear of death itself that one cuts themselves off from the rest of the family to ensure everyone’s safety and that they are not responsible if the dispatched, teleporting toy monkey returns to trim the family tree further.
Of course, Hal (Theo James) can’t mention this outright to his wife or young child Petey (Colin O’Brien), lest he be justifiably accused of insanity and tossed into a psych ward. There is a lengthy flashback prologue to him as a child alongside his identical twin brother Bill (both played by Christian Convery in 1999 and Theo James in the present day, each outstanding in dual roles playing polar opposite personalities of mannered and confrontational, polite and vulgar, introverted and extroverted) depicting family issues involving a runaway father, sibling strife, and schoolyard bullying while also setting the stage for what the titular toy monkey can do and where it comes from.
This, including the kills, which have less fanfare buildup than something like Final Destination and are more about the suddenness of death alongside the gleefully deranged ideas themselves, plays out as a dry, twisted comedy teaching the twins about the cruel nature of death at a young age; everyone dies, and that’s f***** up, as their mother (played by Tatiana Maslany) puts it. Death becomes so common that, at one point, Osgood Perkins smash cuts to yet another funeral as a hilarious gag. Of course, the film then doubles back to showcase another bizarre fatal accident. Still, one wishes there was a bit more suspense leading up to some of the kills, especially within a series grouped inside of an admittedly funny montage.
The Monkey takes the above and mines it for “whelp, that’s life” humor. The most recent poster for it states that the film “is about twin brothers who discover a toy monkey that likes killing their family. There is outrageous violence, shocking gore, and unspeakable tragedies”. It then delivers a kicker that, for Osgood Perkins, “it’s pretty f***** funny.” No lies detected. The Longlegs filmmaker is subverting what one would expect from a Stephen King adaptation (trading pure, heart-racing horror for something droll and almost defeatist in attitude while using the kills themselves as perfectly gratuitous punchlines) and his usual slow-burn pacing, with such a firm handle on this deadpan tone that he also knows how to weave in some unexpectedly moving pathos.
When Hal is telling a checked-out co-worker that he has taken time off work so that he can spend time with his previously mentioned son Petey, whom he willingly chooses only to see once a year, also explaining that this is not his wife’s doing or the dynamic of a marriage plummeting south into nonspeaking terms, it’s amusing due to the absurd nature of the conversation, but also sad considering the circumstances behind the situation. Then, when Hal is with Petey, that repressed love is unmistakably within, terrified to express it due to what would happen if the toy monkey from his childhood returned. To make those emotional underpinnings resonate in what is essentially a series of pleasantly demented kills that are either creative (even golf courses are not safe) or overcome a sense of the familiar through exaggerated bloodshed and gore (hilarious death by electricity) is admirable, showcasing that as sickly entertaining as death is here, there is more on the film’s mind.
Some of that is messily tied together, working with running themes of deadbeat fathers, grief, family turmoil, and, of course, the overbearing inevitability of death scaring one away from living life. The characters in the know can technically breathe a small sigh of relief, knowing that the monkey will not choose someone at random to kill (it also doesn’t grant wishes) unless it is wound up. While the monkey causes the inexplicable freak accidents, some characters wind each other up before it unleashes death. To be fair, this film also comfortably beats one over the head with its metaphors and messages, which can be a bit bothersome but doesn’t necessarily negate the cruelly fascinating allure.
The Monkey is a bonkers black comedy with a black heart; it is more moving than it has any right to be, yet fittingly fueled by rapturously refreshing deaths that illustrate a depressing, unavailable reality of existence.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
