The Monkey

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The Monkey
Directed by Osgood Perkins
USA/UK/Canada 2025
Atomic Monster
UK Cinema release print

Warning: Some spoilerage.

I’m not the most avid admirer of Osgood Perkins (son of the famous Anthony Perkins) but I’m definitely warming to him. I kinda liked (with reservations) his movie February aka The Blackcoat’s Daughter (I really should get around to putting up the review I wrote of it during Covid Lockdown sometime soon) but I really don’t think he lands his endings well. Longlegs (reviewed here), for example, was a great build up leading to a less than satisfying ending and, I think the same accusation could be levelled at February, to be sure.

The Monkey, though... The Monkey I really liked. Now this is based on and is an expansion of a short story I read by Stephen King back in 1985, of the same name and featured in that year’s collection Skeleton Crew. I don’t remember much about it other than the toy monkey in it was the old cymbal banging kind which, because of rights issues with Disney (which also has an irony to it, if you look at the origins of why Disney have the rights in the first place... I’ll let you follow that rabbit hole for yourselves), has been changed to a drumming monkey in this iteration of the story. For the better, I would say... much is made of the way the titular automaton starts up and preps for its drumrolls of death in little montages which build tension here.

The film tells the story of two twins, Hal and Bill, played by Christian Convery as their younger selves* and Theo James as the ‘grown up’ variants. The toy monkey in their life, which they can’t get rid of no matter how much they try to destroy it or bury it, kills people. Once you wind the key it plays a rendition of ‘I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’ while drumming away and, when the last drum beat falls, a chain reaction of unfortunate events leads to a bizarre and, certainly in the case of this film, gory death. Their mother, who meets her demise when they are just kids, is played by the brilliant Tatiana Maslany, who was wonderful as She Hulk - Attorney At Law (reviewed by me here).

Now, when one of the estranged brothers is trying to say goodbye to his estranged son (played by Colin O'Brien) in a road trip before he’s adopted by his mum’s latest boyfriend, the monkey is back in his life and he has to survive a wave of unlikely and, honestly, quite funny deaths while keeping his son safe somehow. It all leads back to his brother and, of course, that damned monkey.

And it’s so much fun. Honestly, it’s one of those films where the goriness of the grimness is so elabourate and over the top that you can’t help but laugh at it. And with the addition of Theo James’ deadpan reactions to the situations he finds himself in... it’s a pretty entertaining picture. For example, as he tries to warn a woman not to dive into a swimming pool which he’s just realised has been accidentally electrified by gazillions of volts, he has to dodge her severed leg as she completely explodes as she hits the water. So what I’m saying is that, although its dealing with death in some big, sweeping ways (such as taking out a whole town in one swoop), it’s doing it in a deliberately comic book fashion which is designed to help you see the funny side right away.

Now, being based on a Stephen King story, a lot of the film is set in Maine so, naturally, there are a few King references as you go through the movie... name drops and so on. Some people will probably like that although, the ones I spotted myself were maybe a little clumsy and I could have done without one of the characters being named after a much more famous character in King’s canon.

But that’s pretty much my only criticism of this one. I mean, I even loved the typography on the end credits which took me back to a 1950s/1960s vibe... I just loved it. Oh... and if you are thinking of staying in your seat for the credits, you will be rewarded with a post credit scene which is a first teaser trailer for Osgood Perkins next movie, Keeper, which is currently scheduled to release this year (I think). So yeah, that’s me done on The Monkey... a dripping slice of ‘splatter comedy’ which will have you laughing at the elabourate set ups for each gory demise. Absolutely brilliant. 

*A special mention goes to the set dressers for having a print of the Boris Vallejo cover art from the 1980 Ace Tempo paperback book Flash Gordon Book 3 - Crisis On Citadel II.