The Monkey (2025)
Directed by: Osgood Perkins
Premise: Based on a story by Stephen King. Twin boys (Christian Convery) discover a toy monkey that causes fatal accidents when it is wound up. Year later, one of the twins (Theo James) searches for the toy with his son (Colin O’Brien).
What Works: The Monkey is a horror picture that’s distinguished by its absurdist tone and mordant sense of humor. The film has a bizarre pitch that suits the premise. The Monkey is about a supernatural toy that causes gory carnage in Final Destination style accidents. That kind of horror has an inherently absurd quality that’s not far off from a Road Runner cartoon. Filmmaker Osgood Perkins embraces that tone. The set pieces are elaborate and often gory but there is also a comedic element. The story focuses on Hal whose life is turned into a tragedy by this supernatural toy. People around him keep dying in fantastically gory ways. The strange scenarios and the extremity of the violence make the carnage humorous in a very specific way. The performances are consistent with The Monkey’s askew pitch. Christian Convery and Theo James play the young and adult versions of Hal and his twin brother Bill. Convery and James are convincing as younger and older versions of the same people and each of them makes Hal and Bill distinct characters. Tatiana Maslany plays their mother and she has some wacky dialogue that is in keeping with the tone of the movie. As off-beat as it is, The Monkey is also an effective metaphor of the way we lose people around us for seemingly random reasons. The horror is the chaos of life and our futile attempts to control that chaos.
What Doesn’t: Due to its singular tone, The Monkey will probably appeal to a specific audience. This picture is primed to become a cult title. As a supernatural horror film, the premise of The Monkey suffers from vague rules. Most supernatural stories adhere to an internal logic which guides the actions of the characters and how they confront the source of evil. The Monkey doesn’t have any controlling ideas. The horrific accidents are just random. The twins make multiple attempts to discard the windup monkey but it miraculously reappears every time. Hal and Bill appear to be cursed by their childhood interactions with the toy but there is nothing for them to do. Hal isolates himself to protect other people but because the events trigged by the toy are random it’s not clear how isolation is supposed to stop anything. Without a concrete goal or a clear path of action, a lot of the story comes across shapeless. The drama doesn’t feel as though it is working toward its climax.
Bottom Line: The Monkey is not a film for everyone but viewers who are attuned to its specific flavor will find it to be a riot. It is a flawed but distinct film and its eccentricities are key to its appeal.
Episode: #1037 (March 2, 2025)