[FILM REVIEW] THE MONKEY Review (2025)

Summary: When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.

Year: 2025

Cinema Release Dates:  20th February 2025 (Australia), 27th February 2025 (Thailand), 21st February 2025 (UK), 21st February 2025 (USA)

VOD Release Dates: TBA

Country: USA, UK,Canada

Director: Osgood Perkins

Screenwriter: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Rohan Campbell (Thrasher/Ricky), Kingston Chan (Lt. Pepper), Christian Convery (Young Hal/Young Bill), Jeremy Cox (Beauchamps), Tess Degenstein (Barbara), Danica Dreyer (Babysitter Annie), Theo James (Hal/Bill), Sarah Levy (Aunt Ida), Tatiana Maslany (Lois), Zia Newton (Dwayne), Scott Nicholson (Burt Burgerson), Colin O’Brien (Petey), Beatrix Perkins (Florence), Osgood Perkins (Uncle Chip), Adam Scott (Captain Petey Shellborn), Katie Stuart (Nancy Rizzoli), Elijah Wood (Ted)

Running Time: 98 minutes

Classification: MA15+ (Australia), 18 (Thailand), 15 (UK), R (USA)

OUR THE MONKEY REVIEWS

David Griffiths’s The Monkey Review

Mixing comedy and horror together is always a risky venture for a filmmaker. Get it right and you end up with a classic movie like Scary Movie or Werewolves Within, get it wrong and you get a film that is dangerously likely to pick up a Razzie or two.

Sadly for brand new horror-comedy The Monkey the film is very much in the latter as the film goes so hard to get a laugh that it seems to forget that when it comes to horror you need some kind of lore when it comes to the horror itself.

Directed and written by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), while based on a short story by the legendary Stephen King, The Monkey tells the story of what happens when twins Hal and Bill (both played by  Christian Convery (Cocaine Bear) find a toy wind-up monkey that their father collected on his travels as an airline pilot.

Since his disappearance playing with his belongings are the only connection that the twins have to their father and while most of the games they play are innocent the wind-up monkey seems to come with some danger. Whenever he is wound up and plays his drums someone dies – including the twins’ babysitter Annie (Danica Dreyer – Silk Road 2).

Things then get worse when the hatred between the twins gets to the point where Hal decides to use the monkey curse to kill Bill… which has catastrophic results.

Move forward 25 years and Hal (Theo James – Divergent) is still haunted by the monkey. He has spoken to Bill (also played by Theo James) for years but when unexpected deaths begin again Hal realises that perhaps it is time to say goodbye to his son, Petey (Colin O’Brien – Wonka), and disappear in a bid to protect from the curse. When his Aunt Ida (Sarah Levy – Schitt’s Creek) is killed though he decided to take Petey for one last road trip… a foolish decision that soon puts their lives on the line.

To be honest there isn’t a hell of a lot of The Monkey that works at all. Early on the film works as the audience is drawn into the mystery of this monkey and its powers – while the family dynamic between Hal, Bill and their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany – Stronger) is an interesting one that borders on Little Miss Sunshine territory. But from there the film goes downhill.

For a horror film to have full affect the actual horror, how it works – its motivations etc – needs to be revealed at sometime during the film. It is okay to keep the audience guessing or in suspense for part of the movie but if it gets to the closing credits and they are still wondering what the hell was happening with the horror elements then the screenplay itself has failed miserably.

With the horror side of the film not really working you would hope that perhaps the comedy element of The Monkey would work a little better, but alas that isn’t on song either. Yes, you will laugh occasionally at the odd funny one liner but really the only reaction that this fil will really get from the audience is the odd laugh and gasp from the some of the kill scenes here.

Yes, while a majority of the film doesn’t work the deaths themselves do. From some particularly nasty death, that you would normally expect to see in a schlock horror, through to some that are just down right funny they really are the best part of this film.

The other positive from The Monkey are the acting performances of both Christian Convery and Theo James. Both actors excel at playing characters that are completely different to each other and often share scenes together. James does it brilliantly but of course has a lot more experience than Convery who has to act well and truly above his age and experience in order to pull off his more intense and difficult scenes successfully.

It is really their acting performances that in a way save this film because despite their obvious talents even the more experienced cast members, like Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings), can’t save this film because they are given nothing decent to work with.

The Monkey really is a bit of a failure of the film. Its talented cast are powerless to save this film because the horror elements of the film are never fully explored while the screenplay often contradicts itself – ie Hal deciding he needs to separate himself from Petey for Petey’s safety but then taking him a road trip that takes him into danger. As a filmmaker Osgood Perkins showed some talent with Longlegs but The Monkey is a real letdown.

Daves rating Out Of 5

Alex First’s The Monkey Review

This is a film with heaps of dastardly monkeying about.

Over the top. You betcha. It revels in beheadings, spearing, disembowelment and explosions. Human splatter is everywhere.

No, I am not trying to turn you off, for this is a pitch-black comedy, based on a 1980 short story by Stephen King, written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs).

The Monkey follows a man named Hal Shelburn, who is terrorised by a drum-banging toy primate that heaps misfortune on whoever possesses it.

We follow Hal and his minutes older twin brother Bill, who treats Hal shamefully.

It covers two timeframes – 1999 and the present day.

The boys were raised by their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany).

That was because one day their father Shelburn (Adam Scott) – a pilot – went out to buy a packet of cigarettes and never returned home.

Hal first comes across the monkey among his dad’s belongings in a storage closet.

As Shelburn travelled, he collected keepsakes for the boys.

Be that as it may, the simian is a portent of doom.

Bug eyed, once the key on the back of the animal is turned, all hell breaks loose.

When the monkey bangs his drum people die – always.

After their beloved, quirky and caring mum croaks it, the youngsters are brought up by their aunt and uncle.

And you can guess what happens to them.

It is not if they are knocked off, but how.

The boys try to eliminate the chimp by chopping it up and throwing it down a dry well, but it always finds a way to return and wreak more havoc.

A quarter of a century later, its mercilessness shows no signs of abating, even though the brothers have been estranged for years.

Now Hal, a single, separated father, is trying to save his own son the emotional turmoil he faced by seeing him only very sparingly.

But the truth will out, as Bill comes back into the picture.

Incidentally, the only time we see the boys’ father is at the start of the film.

Dressed in bloodied pilot’s uniform he is trying to pawn the monkey, with disastrous consequences.

It simply sets the scene for what is to follow.

Osgood Perkins has taken liberties with the Stephen King story.

In short, he has personalised it.

The most significant change is the addition of a twin. Perkins wanted that brotherly dynamic – toxic though it is – because that is how he grew up.

To say that The Monkey is a wild ride it a gross understatement.

It is horror mixed with humour.

Distasteful and over the top though some will regard it, others will wholeheartedly embrace it.

It is such an extreme movie that capitalises on excess.

A line in the film references the fact that everyone will die sometime.

I appreciated the representation of the opposite good and bad twins by Christian Convery as children and by Theo James as adults.

Tatiana Maslany’s laid-back attitude as their mum also strikes a chord.

Osgood Perkins has embraced the grizzly and the absurd. 

As a result, The Monkey is the sort of film where you must suspend belief and simply run with it to appreciate it. Don’t dig too deeply into the plot.

Among the most memorable scenes is one early on where a priest delivers a matter-of-fact eulogy.

And then there is imagery of the less than conventional ways to cark it, some of which will remain with me for a long time.

One thing is certain, The Monkey is a killer all right.

Alex’s rating Out Of 5

Average Subculture rating Out Of 5

Other Subculture Entertainment The Monkey Reviews

You can read our The Monkey review which was published in The Phuket News right here – https://www.thephuketnews.com/monkey-business-that-fails-to-impress-95475.php

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