‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
‘The Monkey’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters February 21st is ‘The Monkey,’ directed by Osgood Perkins and starring Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Elijah Wood, and Adam Scott.
Related Article: Osgood Perkins and Theo James Talk Stephen King Adaptation ‘The Monkey’
Initial Thoughts
Theo James in ‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
If you’re a Stephen King fan, put away any preconceptions about what ‘The Monkey’ is. While it’s based on a 1980 short story by the horror master (which can now be found in his 1985 collection, ‘Skeleton Crew’), this adaptation by writer-director Osgood Perkins takes only the bare bones of the plot and expands it from there in some decidedly different directions.
The tone of the film is also quite distinct from the story: while the latter plays the concept straight, Perkins has apparently ascertained that a straight horror movie about a toy monkey that kills people might not make the cut.
Instead, Perkins takes the monkey’s supernatural power and the havoc it wreaks to some truly bonkers extremes. While the movie’s ultimate theme dovetails with that of the story to a certain degree, it arrives there via a barrage of exceptionally, absurdly gruesome kills and set pieces that are often as hilarious as they are unsettling.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Theo James and director Osgood Perkins on the set of ‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
‘The Monkey’ starts with a prologue in which a pilot, Pete Shelburn (Adam Scott in a delightful cameo), visits a pawn shop to get rid of the toy monkey that he picked up somewhere in his travels. As we find out right away, every time the monkey gets wound up and bangs on its toy drum with the drumsticks clutched in its paws, somebody – or even multiple somebodies – dies, often in horrible ways.
Flash forward to meeting Pete’s young twin sons (both played by Christian Convery), who find the monkey stashed in a closet among their long-gone dad’s other possessions. The boys, who live with their sweet but slightly eccentric mom (Tatiana Maslany), are opposites: Hal is reserved, cerebral, and thoughtful, while Bill is outgoing, brash, and dedicated to humiliating his brother every chance he gets.
Hal and Bill quickly find out two dreadful things about the monkey: once it starts banging on its drum, the only person safe from harm is the person who winds it up…and no matter who you wish to die, the monkey ultimately picks its own victim or victims. This leads to an unfortunate turn of events that end with the two siblings throwing the thing down a well and assuming it’s gone for the next 20 years.
Nicco Del Rio as a pastor in ‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
But it’s not, of course. Now an adult (played by Theo James), Hal gets a call from his long-estranged brother (also played by James) telling him that the monkey has resurfaced and that Hal must go back to their hometown, find and destroy it. Hal himself is a failure, working at a convenience store and keeping himself largely distant from the teenage son he dearly loves in fear of the boy somehow coming into the orbit of the monkey – which is exactly what happens, as Hal gets the call from his brother right in the middle of his annual road trip with his distant, understandably hurt kid (Colin O’Brien).
It’s not too long before we understand that the monkey is a metaphor for death – in all its random, unexpected, abrupt, horrifying glory. And while this is a somber realization, it’s presented in terms that border on the surreal. People just don’t drop dead in ‘The Monkey’; they explode, are eviscerated, incinerated, perforated, and mutilated in the kind of bizarre “accidental” deaths that make the famous kills in movies like ‘The Omen’ and ‘Final Destination’ look like, well, child’s play.
The combination of existential dread, gallows humor, and almost cartoonish gore makes for a tricky tightrope for Perkins to walk, but he mostly handles it well. ‘The Monkey’ is short and feels a bit thin sometimes, but the director is willing to push himself in new directions after the mostly dead serious atmosphere of his earlier films (although ‘Longlegs’ began his experimentation with humor thanks to the usual unhinged greatness from Nicolas Cage). If the lesson that Hal learns in ‘The Monkey’ doesn’t resonate as forcefully as it could, with Perkins unable to resist one last bloody sight gag, the movie makes up for it by being a rollicking good time and that hardest of genre mashups to pull off: an effective horror-comedy.
The Cast
(L to R) Laura Mennell, Elijah Wood and Theo James in ‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
In a movie where a number of performances are intentionally exaggerated or campy, some of the individual work may seem too broad or fall a bit short. In other instances – like a subplot involving a local small-time crook (Rohan Campbell) whom Bill hires to steal the money – the script itself lets the actors down. That subplot actually adds little to the overall movie and, to some degree, drags it down for a stretch.
On the other hand, kudos must go to Theo James and Christian Convery for their excellent portrayal of the Shelburn twins as boys and men. The 15-year-old Convery is especially adept at encompassing the trauma and heartbreak that leads them to become two very damaged men, and James takes over from there with an equally well-rounded dual performance (the choice to differentiate the two by giving Bill a horrific haircut isn’t a good one, undermining the character a bit).
The movie’s scene-stealer, however, is Tatiana Maslany as their mother, Lois. Though only in a few scenes, Maslany exudes warmth, patience, wisdom, and love, with her own underlying layer of hurt and disappointment. She’s also frank with the boys, especially in a scene where they discuss the nature of death. The ‘She-Hulk’ star is always a welcome screen presence and we only wish we could see more of her in this film.
Final Thoughts
A scene from ‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
This is a new kind of film for Osgood Perkins, following the relatively somber atmosphere of films like ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’ and ‘Gretel and Hansel.’ He doesn’t always handle the balance of tone effectively, so while ‘The Monkey’ is a barrel of fun for much of its relatively brief running time, it’s a bit less memorable than some of the filmmaker’s earlier works.
It’s still a good time though, and he still manages to create some interesting characters and even give them some moments of profundity and empathy amid all the carnage and flying viscera. As far as Stephen King adaptations go, it’s a nice twist on a story that harkens, to some degree, back to the EC Comics that inspired the author when he was a kid. In the end, the message is a universal one: death comes for us all, banging its little drum to let us know our time is up.
“Everybody dies. And that’s fucked up.”
When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘The Monkey’?
After stumbling upon their father’s vintage toy monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery) witness a string of horrifying deaths unfolding around them. To leave the haunting behind, the brothers discard the monkey and pursue separate paths over time. However, when the inexplicable deaths resurface, the adult brothers (Theo James) are compelled to reconcile and embark on a mission to permanently eliminate the cursed toy.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Monkey’?
- Theo James as Hal and Bill Shelburn
- Christian Convery as young Hal and Bill
- Tatiana Maslany as Lois Shelburn
- Elijah Wood as Ted Hammerman
- Colin O’Brien as Petey
- Rohan Campbell as Ricky
- Sarah Levy as Ida
- Adam Scott as Capt. Petey Shelburn
‘The Monkey’. Photo: Neon.
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