The Monkey – REVIEW

Still from The Monkey


It’s pretty fascinating to see how popular Osgood Perkins has become. I’ve really seen all except for one of his films, and I’ve enjoyed all of them. Both The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel almost feel gothic in how dour they both are, but I think if you’re into movies at all, you know that one of the biggest horror movies of last year was Longlegs, an almost-throwback to FBI serial killer thrillers like The Silence of the Lambs. While I didn’t fully love the movie, there’s so much in Longlegs that works in its favor: The atmospheric dread that tinges even the very small comedic elements; the performances from Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, and a delightful Nicolas Cage; even down to the oversized presidential portrait of Bill Clinton. Outside of the main reveal of what was actually happening, I really dug Longlegs, and his next film is already here, which ended up being a massive horror team-up: Perkins directing and adapting a Stephen King short story, with James Wan producing. If you don’t know, Wan is the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises, as well as being the creator of The Conjuring. Wan’s essentially a horror legend, and The Monkey should honestly be a slam dunk for both Perkins and Wan. The premise is also pretty simple: Two twin brothers find a wind-up toy monkey with a drum, and whenever it drums, someone around them dies. They bury it after they discover what it can do, but as they become adults, it comes back. As the trailer puts it, “the monkey that likes killing our family” is back. Unfortunately, The Monkey is far from a slam dunk, and I know exactly why I didn't like it: This doesn’t have any heart or any sense of hope, and any sense of humanity just feels very hamfisted. That’s the reason why I can’t watch something like The Boys series, which I feel is a good comp. The gory stuff is honestly pretty entertaining. They take a more comedic route in the way that people literally explode from the smallest things, and in a twisted sort of way, I appreciate those attempts. However, I feel you have to balance that out with a character, a plot point, or even just a few moments that things will eventually be okay, even if it’s not now. I could only get through the first season of The Boys before calling it quits, so I’m thankful that The Monkey is only just under 100 minutes. Hearing that Perkins’s parents both died from very tragic events and reportedly wanting to rewrite the script to have a more personal story gave The Monkey a lot of potential to be something special. However, the more personal touches feel like they’re in the right place, coming from a human being that shows empathy for people (unlike some out there), but the one-two punch of bad dialogue and some very… strange acting choices makes all of that humanity that The Monkey desperately needs feel buried. However, I can’t lie and say that my thoughts could change on this. I’ve seen a lot of stuff online saying how this has really stuck with them, so if my thoughts on this change drastically, I may have to at least consider doing a little redux review. Either way, though, keep banging on that drum.


Ryan’s Grade: C+