Directed by: Osgood Perkins
Written by: Osgood Perkins
Run Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

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Barely giving audiences a chance to catch their breath after the especially chilling Longlegs (2024), director Oz Perkins is already back with another cinematic nightmare. This time round, he’s taken inspiration from an existing horror story, and it’s one by none other than genre legend Stephen King. Based on his 1980 short story, Perkins brings new life to The Monkey, but can he make King’s source material march to the beat of his own directorial drum?

The film centres around twin brothers Bill and Hal, who after discovering their father’s vintage wind-up toy monkey, witness a shocking sequence of violent deaths. Believing the monkey to be the cause of these “freak accidents” they attempt to contain its evil. However, years later when Bill and Hal are grown, another spate of horrifying deaths begin and somehow the monkey returns.

Despite this menacing premise, The Monkey marks a distinct departure in tone from Longlegs. Perhaps already apparent from its pesky primate antagonist, Perkins’ latest film is more of a horror-comedy than a straight-faced genre piece. This is realised most vividly by way of its elaborate and graphic death sequences, which in turn leave it wide open to unfavourable Final Destination comparisons, a series that does this kind of thing much better. Admittedly, there is some fun to be had with these moments – even if most are spoiled in the trailer – but beyond this, The Monkey is all bang and no wallop.

Yet, there’s no monkeying around from leading man Theo James. He finds himself working twice as hard as everyone else, playing both of the grown-up brothers. He too narrates much of the film’s first act which follows the twins as kids. His facetious line delivery helps to establish the film’s playful tone while his undeniable screen presence is later put to good use, twofold. After all, he is a very watchable leading man and confirms here that he suits the genre rather well. His amusing reactions to the story’s various horrors proves one of the film’s most entertaining elements. It’s a shame then that his performance is at the forefront of an otherwise empty and forgettable script.

There’s plenty of ideas in Perkin’s adaptation, but despite the abundance of blood and guts, they’re just not fleshed out enough. The brothers essentially inherit the monkey from their absentee father, briefly portrayed by Adam Scott in the film’s opening scene. And between his encounter with the murderous monkey and the boys’ own experiences with death from such a young age, there’s themes of generational trauma, grief, and the lack of control over life and death naturally woven throughout the fabric of the film – but Perkins never does anything particularly interesting with them.

Instead, he takes three acts to reach the very same conclusion that the twins’ mother (Tatiana Maslany) comes to in the first: everybody dies, so you might as well just dance. She’s not wrong, but it’s a revelation that arrives far too early to offer any kind of substance to the mindless murder marathon that’s already unfolding. So while certainly capable of grabbing audience attention, for all its theatrics and volume The Monkey has hardly anything to say.

But maybe The Monkey doesn’t have to be anything more than a brainless blast of brutal butchery? It’s absolutely not that serious, but even at this most basic level of horror-comedy, it’s just like the titular toy’s main mechanism: a repetitive beat played over and over again. Would it be too much to ask for a change of tune?

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Star Rating: ★ ★

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