On Jan. 25, famed horror author Stephen King posted on Threads, “You’ve never seen anything like THE MONKEY. It’s batshit insane. As someone who has indulged in batshittery from time to time, I say that with admiration.”
“The Monkey” was released in theaters Friday, and King may have been correct. The horror-comedy, directed by Osgood Perkins, shows Perkins’ Monty Python-esque comedic timing much better than his 2024 directorial debut, “Longlegs.”
Thankfully, he left King’s racism out of the script.
Part horror movie, part Tim Robinson sketch, “The Monkey” is a bizarrely funny adaptation of King’s eponymous 1980 short story about a cursed percussion-playing monkey toy who haunts a family in King’s homeland of Maine.
The film follows a boy named Hal who, along with his identical twin brother Bill, inherits a monkey toy from their absentee father. The boys turn the key on the monkey’s back, and the toy’s arms move, stopping before it bangs its drum and begins playing music.
Later that night, while the boys are at a hibachi grill with their babysitter Annie, the monkey starts playing, and Annie is decapitated in a freak hibachi accident.
The cursed monkey continues to haunt the boys into their adulthood, randomly causing those around them to die horrifically over-the-top deaths every time it plays, like being trampled in a sleeping bag by a stampede of 67 wild horses.
“The Monkey” is full of elaborately gruesome set pieces where characters are electrocuted, burned, blown to bits and more, all to the whimsical tune of the toy monkey. Its surreal tone and strange characters make its scenes feel more like comedy sketches than horror movie sequences.
Theo James plays the twins as adults, and Christian Convery plays them as children. While Hal is a more typical reserved and intelligent Stephen King protagonist, Bill is made to be a cartoonish bully, constantly swearing, insulting his brother and threatening to beat him up and “eat his placenta.”
Convery’s performance hilariously contrasts the two characters, while James brought a quirky man-child charm to his portrayal of the two as adults.
Every side character seemed straight from an SNL sketch, with actors like Elijah Wood and Adam Scott making memorable cameos to deliver exposition. This sort of character comedy is clearly Perkins’ strength, and some of the film’s brightest moments felt more like “Portlandia” than “Pet Sematary.”
While the movie’s fun, hyper-stylized and anachronistic vision makes for great bits, the plot itself is pretty lackluster. The story of Hal and Bill is pretty thin, much of it given through narration.
Hal’s son Petey is also given little depth despite a solid performance by Colin O’Brien. It felt like Petey was too normal to be in this movie, overshadowed by the film’s eccentric cast of side characters.
The final act of “The Monkey” is rushed and anti-climatic, but this movie is about style, not substance. The film has a darkly surreal, almost neo-noir, tone blending eye-catching characters and colorful settings with shots seemingly inspired by filmmakers like Wes Anderson and David Lynch.
“The Monkey” is a great movie for anyone willing to ignore all those boring plot details and just enjoy all the weird horror humor and character bits. I sure did.
“The Monkey” is now showing at the Main Cinema. You can view showtimes and purchase tickets here.
