The Monkey is a 2025
comedy horror film directed by
Osgood Perkins, and the cast includes
Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood
I heard someone describe the film as if Looney Tunes made a horror film, and it's quite accurate, and The Monkey is a film you won't want to take too seriously at all, as it's quite insane.
The film is adapted from one of Stephen King's short stories that was released in 1980 under the same name, and the man himself seems to be a big fan.
After the success of Longlegs, which is a film I liked but not as much as some as that second half lost me a bit, Perkins brings us a comedy horror film about a toy monkey that kills people, and I found it a lot of fun indeed in a very stupid way.
The film is about twin brothers, Hal and Bill, who come across a creepy old toy monkey that used to belong to their dad.
Every time it starts banging its drum, someone nearby dies in a brutal, over-the-top accident, why does this happen? We never find out. Who or what gives the monkey its power? No clue. The movie doesn’t care about answering these questions, it just runs with the chaos.
The monkey itself is surprisingly creepy, and its design is just right coming across as both realistic and strange, and every time it is on screen you feel tension wondering what is going to happen next and what the little bugger is going to do.
The movie is a dark comedy at its core, and it fully leans into the absurdity and Perkins never holds back, with every death on full display with plenty of blood being proudly shown as a badge of honor, and the film fully embraces this.
It has some Final Destination vibes, if Final Destination just went full on absurd, and if you’re the type who gets squeamish about blood, then buddy, you’re in the wrong theater, but if you love watching unreasonably gory, over-the-top deaths while giggling like an idiot, this movie is for you.
Theo James goes all in with his performances, and he plays two very different roles really well, and his performance is so insane it’s just hilarious, and Rohan Campbell, who plays one of the villains, is also pretty funny.
But the real MVP here is Tatiana Maslany, playing the twins’ mother, and she's the heart of the movie, with a dry, straight faced humor, and even though she’s not in it much, she’s both funny and emotional, and every time she’s on screen, she makes everything feel real, and I would have loved to have seen her used more.
The Monkey is a film that I hope people go in with the right expectations, and as I said above, it should not be taken seriously at all, you need to embrace the craziness and absurdity of it all, and if the humor lands for you, it's a crazy fun fueled ride.
But that's the key aspect too, if the humor lands, because if it doesn't, you will not enjoy this film much at all I think, but if it does, the film is just pure, ridiculous entertainment, but I definitely see this film splitting opinions a lot.
Overall, I had a blast watching The Monkey, I laughed a lot and loved some of the deaths, and I admire the fact Osgood Perkins did something so different, and I think he probably had a lot of fun making it too, and wants the audience to have a lot of fun as well.
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