Two little boys come into possession of a cursed little toy in The Monkey, a loose adaptation of a 1980 Stephen King tale. Written and directed by Longlegs‘ Osgood Perkins, this comedy-horror film turns King’s story of a demonic childhood artefact into an absurdist Final Destination.
Twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) come into ownership of the titular monkey when rooting around their absentee father’s things in the attic. It doesn’t take long before they realise that the toy’s tune spells death – when the drums strike, someone dies. Yuckily.
Years later, and the boys are now estranged. The monkey comes crashing back into their lives when Hal (now played by Theo James) learns that his aunt has died… under suspiciously macabre circumstances. Figuring that this can only be the work of the monkey, Hal returns to his childhood home to figure out where it is and whether it can once again be contained. To complicate matters, he has his own son (Petey, played by Colin O’Brien) in tow. Can Hal put a stop to the monkey’s cycle of terror before it claims someone else he loves?
As Perkins turned Longlegs from a Silence of the Lambs-esque procedural into a work of Nicolas Cage-raising shamanism, so The Monkey takes its own maximalist approach to genre. Compared to his previous work, it’s a deeply unserious horror film, prioritising big laughs over scares and splatstick humour above tension.
An opening sequence with Adam Scott makes clear that its stars are all very much in on the joke. Elsewhere, White Lotus star Theo James is cast as both the film’s straight man and its biggest weirdo (Osgood Perkins cameo aside), while She-Hulk‘s Tatiana Maslany steals the show as the boys’ mom, giving the film its most bananas monologue. Those hoping for something a little more traditionally scary may be put off by the Treehouse of Horror approach to tone, but the laughs come as thick and fast as the horrific death sequences.
If the novelty wears thin after the first couple of roof-raising kills, the tight pacing and short runtime ensure that the film never outstays its welcome. The Monkey is an uproariously bleak work of comedy horror, powered by two of the genre’s brightest – sorry, darkest – minds.
THE MONKEY is out now in cinemas now.
