Osgood Perkins delivers a gleefully gory horror-comedy fueled by a murderous toy ape.
By Dana Barbuto/Boston Movie News
“The Monkey,” Osgood Perkins’s adaptation of Stephen King’s short story, feels like what every “Simpsons Treehouse of Horror” episode strives to be: frightful vibes slathered in gore, guffaws, and gruesome deaths that are more silly than sinister.
In his last outing, the psychological serial killer thriller “Longlegs,” Perkins scared the pants off me with the film’s slow-burn terror despite its convoluted plot. The guy can do dread. “The Monkey” finds him in a much more playful mood. The film still boasts a high body count—so high that some of the kills happen off-screen—but the deaths, courtesy of a drum-playing toy ape, lean into darkly comedic absurdity. Between this film, the music biopic “Better Man,” and Dev Patel’s “Monkey Man,” simians are having a moment.
Perkins and his cheeky little murderous monkey—decked out in a cute red vest and a permanently unsettling grin—execute death scenes with hilarious Rube Goldbergian precision. The movie calls them “freak tragedies”: one character is set on fire, another is impaled, a golfer succumbs to a cobra bite, and a grocery store worker chokes on a vape. The poor babysitter loses her head at a hibachi restaurant. To give away more would spoil the fun. And “The Monkey” is, above all else, a blast. Perkins, son of “Psycho” star Anthony Perkins, crafts a grisly yet absurd dark comedy with minor musings on generational trauma. The emotional stakes may not be high, but there’s plenty of opportunity to laugh. Plus, Theo James (“White Lotus” and the ill-fated “Divergent” franchise) playing twins doubles the pleasure. Not even a mullet can ugly him up.
The movie opens with a prologue in which the boys’ father (Adam Scott) desperately tries to unload the bloodthirsty monkey onto an unsuspecting pawn shopkeeper—a transaction doomed from the start. The story then jumps to the boys’ middle school years, with Christian Convery (a terrific casting choice) playing the younger versions of Bill and Hal. Their dad has disappeared, leaving their mom, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), to raise them alone. Bill is the cool one, and Hal is the nerd. Bill delights in humiliating his brother, enlisting a pack of schoolgirls to steal his pants or smear him in bananas. When the twins stumble upon the mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Sent to live in Casco, Maine, they are raised by their eccentric, “childless swinger” relatives, Aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) and Uncle Chip (Perkins).
Determined to rid themselves of the cursed toy (except don’t call it a toy), they shackle it and toss it into a well. But like all good horror, what’s buried never stays buried. As adults, Bill and Hal are estranged—until the monkey mysteriously resurfaces and resumes its killing spree, forcing them to confront the horror they thought was long gone. What follows is a toy story gone terribly wrong, with the film indulging in one outrageous death after another. This time, Hal’s teenage son, Petey (Colin O’Brien), is in tow, providing a flimsy excuse for the film to dabble its deadbeat dad storyline.
The narrative moves briskly, with adult Hal’s voiceover conveniently tying together all the plot points to avoid confusion. Wash away the blood splatter, and “The Monkey” doesn’t have much to say beyond the inevitability of death—so you might as well go out spectacularly. If nothing else, consider the movie and its creatively gruesome deaths a cathartic way to process life’s heavier anxieties. And on that front, it certainly goes bananas.
‘The Monkey’
Rating: R for strong, bloody, violent content, gore, language throughout, and some sexual references.
Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Malsany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott and Elijah Wood.
Director/Writer: Osgood Perkins
Running time: 95 minutes
Where to watch: In theaters February 21
Grade: B+
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