By In the first five minutes of The Monkey, a toy monkey causes a man’s organs to be ripped from his stomach with a harpoon gun. This then leads to an airline pilot stealing a flamethrower and incinerating the monkey while laughing like a maniac.
I can safely say that Ozgood Perkins’ follow-up to Longlegs is nothing like his prior film. While Longlegs was a film dripping with tension and was designed to unnerve you from start to finish, The Monkey is the exact opposite. It’s in your face with how insane its premise is and wants you to laugh at the chaos it creates. There are horror comedies, and then there’s The Monkey. However, much like Longlegs, The Monkey is a film that isn’t for everyone and it will certainly leave audiences torn on whether or not it’s good simply because of how far it goes. If you’re able to understand its depraved logic and meet it on its terms, you’ll find a movie that’s impossible to get out of your head.
The Monkey
Director: Ozgood Perkins
Release Date: February 22, 2025 (Theatrical)
Rating: R
Adapted from a short story by Stephen King, The Monkey follows two twin brothers, both of which are played by Theo James as adults and Christian Convery as children. The older brother, Bill, is an arrogant jerk who takes advantage of the fact that he’s several minutes older than his meeker and bullied younger brother, Hal. However, as kids, they discover a wind-up monkey toy in their father’s closet and begin to play with it, slowly realizing that each time it’s wound up, it will kill a random person as horrifically as possible. They try to dispose of it, but 25 years later, Bill attempts to reconnect with Hal once it’s become clear that the Monkey is back and will continue to kill until it’s captured, with both brothers agreeing that the curse is their responsibility.
Given that this is a Stephen King story, there are certain elements that you would expect to be here solely because it’s a Stephen King story. There’s some weird unexplained supernatural phenomenon thanks to the Monkey, cartoonishly over-the-top bullies, and the Maine setting, and that’s just to name a few of his tropes that appear here. There are even a few direct similarities to other King works, most notably It, like how the film is broken into two distinct halves separating the childhood and adult portions of the film. Sure, some people may roll their eyes at seeing these tropes get trotted out, but the devil’s in the details.
The Monkey is absolutely bonkers. From the moment the film starts, it has no qualms about being as strange as possible from head to toe. The kills are so ludicrously excessive that you can’t help but burst out laughing. None of the characters act or behave like actual human beings, saying and doing things that will leave you questioning if somehow this movie was ghostwritten by M. Night Shyamalan. Even just the tiniest little details in the background are worth examining not because there’s some deeper meaning behind it, but because you’re going to legitimately wonder why there’s a group of cheerleaders following around all of the murder that the Monkey is causing or an army veteran that does absolutely nothing until someone asks for bullets, making him come alive with frightening glee.
Copyright: Neon
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves a bit. If I could make one direct comparison to The Monkey and another horror-adjacent series, it would be Twin Peaks. That series was defined by its surreality where yes, technically there was a logical series of events that were taking place that most viewers could follow, but they were presented in such an odd way with even odder explanations that the ultimate response from the audience was just to accept those elements as facts. Facts like the existence of the Black Lodge, Bob, and everyone’s subtle obsession with doughnuts are all just accepted as truth, as are the individual character turns that greatly influence future plot developments. The same goes for The Monkey. The Monkey can kill anyone it wants however it sees fit and motivations for characters may make no sense whatsoever, but that’s kind of the point.
This is best shown through Bill and Hal’s characters. While they’re presented as being fairly standard kids, once they become adults, their eccentricities make them compelling in such strange ways. Hal isolates himself from his divorced wife and son, though he wants to reconnect with them, and always dwells on the negative reasons as to why he can’t just be a normal person. And yes, it is because he’s afraid of a toy monkey. As for Bill, he’s even more of a strange character, as he’s introduced to us wearing his childhood funeral suit looking like a grown-up version of Isaac from Children of the Corn, and being even more unable to overcome the events of his childhood.
All of this would be completely ridiculous if it wasn’t for Theo James. He commits to his dual roles extremely well and performs each part with such a deadpan seriousness that you would expect him to be a contender for Best Actor at the Oscars. Except he isn’t. He’s screaming about scrambled eggs, talking to a toy monkey, and reminding himself that, as twins, both he and his brother have the same mother. It’s so bizarre, but there’s a matter-of-factness about it. One of the key quotes from the film is “Everybody dies. Some of us peacefully and in our sleep, and some of us… horribly. And that’s life.” I’ll admit, that quote is a bit funny in retrospect given that it’s said amidst a whole monologue about death to kids eating ice cream, but it embodies the central theme of the film. People die, that’s life, let’s move on. It’s just that the movie forgets all of the sheer insanity surrounding its story, making that quote all the more delightfully out of touch with the reality of the film.
Copyright: Neon
Because in The Monkey, people will die, and oh my GOD they die wonderfully. I mentioned the movie’s first kill, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a woman who gets shot and her entire body explodes. A man gets trampled by over 60 horses and we see in gory detail the aftermath of it. When The Monkey wants to remind you that it’s a horror movie, it does so with aplomb. You won’t forget the film’s violence simply because of how much dedication is put into making each kill as gnarly as possible.
If I were to criticize one thing about the film, I would say that the first third of the movie could have been a little bit quicker. Most of the really interesting material is when Hal and Bill are adults and Theo James is allowed to cut loose, making the childhood scenes somewhat slow in comparison. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any good moments during this part, like when a group of female bullies torments Hal with an absurd amount of bananas, but it takes just a smidge too long for The Moneky to cut loose. I understand the need for a movie to establish the stakes and the reality of its world, but when the intro clearly shows what the Monkey is capable of, we’re just waiting for the film to go back to what it does best, and that’s deliver bonkers kills with characters who belong in a schlocky B-grade horror movie.
Thankfully, The Monkey isn’t a B-grade horror movie. If Longlegs didn’t convince you of Ozgood Perkins’ chops as a horror director, then The Monkey certainly will. Again, it’s not a movie for everyone, as its aggressive strangeness can rub people the wrong way and it may be a bit too much for some. For those who just want to sit back and embrace an inherently goofy horror movie that never takes itself too seriously, then I couldn’t recommend The Monkey enough.
