The Monkey – Review

Based on a short story by Stephen King, The Monkey is my least favorite of Osgood Perkins’ directed movies that I have seen at this point, and I think because I vibe with its humor only a touch. Twin kid bros Bill and Hal (both kids played by Christian Convery) live with their single mom Lois (Maslany). Their dad abandoned them while young and the two kids get on with life.

Hal is mostly okay while Bill is a total shit. Eventually, the kids discover a creepy ass monkey which used to belong to their father It plays a little drum set and as it does, this arbitrarily appears to kill people around in close proximity in a very violent and unexpected way. So, there’s that.

After Hal and Bill (both played by Theo James) age into adults, they expect to no longer have monkey problems. That’s not how horror movies work though, so why would they think that?

The Monkey is… fine. What it sets out to do is present a chaotic piece of funny frenetic horror energy. Does it succeed? For most viewers it seems to be split, and that is based on how well the humor works. If you like the dark edge, then yeah, you may enjoy this film quite a bit. If you only think this part is so-so at best, you may not wind up as satisfied. While I didn’t dig the humor all that much, there were a few dark comedy moments that did work and I could see people having quite a fun time if it all gels for you.

The story only goes so far as most of the “surprise” comes from the inventive nature of the death scenes. Similarly, characters only go so deep, and it is not an actor’s showcase, though both young and old twin actors do a good job. If you want something chaotic and bloody, you could do worse.