Film Review - The Monkey

Images courtesy of Roadshow Films.

Osgood Perkins has delivered a delightfully twisted and surprisingly poignant adaptation of Stephen King’s The Monkey, teaming up with producer James Wan to prove that horror movies can still be a terrifyingly good time. Forget your preconceived notions of the slow-burn dread of Perkins’ previous films like Longlegs and The Blackcoat's Daughter; this film is a wild, exhilarating ride that keeps the laughs and the bloodshed coming.

From the very first act, Perkins sets the stage for the chaos that ensues. The film masterfully balances its tone by undercutting the unserious, dry, splatstick humor with an unsubtle but poignant rumination on the sudden and seemingly random nature of death, creating a unique and engaging experience. With the turn of a key, someone dies in a fucked up way, and that's life. The death scenes in particular are a masterclass in comedic overkill, turning its human characters into balloons of flesh ready to pop at a moment's notice. It's gruesomely creative, echoing the very best of the Final Destination franchise while expediting the lead-up, ensuring that everything happens suddenly and absurdly.

The cast does well, in particular both Christian Convery and Theo James in dual roles as the child and adult versions of twins Hal and Bill Shelburn, delivering on the deadpan, sarcastic style of writing that echoes Wes Anderson’s blunt dialogue. They perfectly capture the mix of shock and eventual disillusionment that would come from realising you've inherited a harbinger of death. The design of the toy monkey itself is a perfect blend of uncanniness and creepiness, and to be honest, I really want one of those popcorn buckets.

Not to dive into a director's personal business but considering he was quite candidly open about the influence of his parental relationships on Longlegs, the decision to immediately follow it up not even a year later with The Monkey makes a surreal amount of sense upon reading further into his family history. His father succumbed to HIV without telling the rest of the family he'd contracted it, and his mother later passed in the September 11 attacks. Without diving into armchair psychology, these make The Monkey’s floundering attempts at sincere emotional moments make a bit more sense, and while it's never polite to laugh at someone else's personal misfortune, Perkins ups the notch on the tonal dial all the way into tragi-comic absurdity.

Thanks to Oz’s decision to adhere surprisingly close to the tone of the source material, The Monkey is a weird and fundamentally unserious, yet somehow still kind of moving experience. The end result is an absolutely fantastic time at the movies, a testament to taking wild career swings and giving the audience the maximum bang for their buck in terms of entertainment value.

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The Monkey is screening in cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.