The Monkey (USA, 2025)

I’ve been a big fan of Oz Perkins since The Blackcoat’s Daughter. Even when I don’t entirely like one of his films, as with Longlegs, I still find plenty to enjoy about them. He has a visual flair that makes him stand out, even in these days of more artistic horror films, and he has an admirable willingness to get weird. Hearing that The Monkey was comedy horror intrigued me, given that his previous work tended to be more serious and often dour.

The Monkey is based on a short story by Stephen King that I read back when ape men still roamed the Earth, so I remember nothing about it. Maybe I’ll revisit the story at some point and see if there’s anything to be said about how it was adapted, but for now I’ll just take the film on its own merits.

The Monkey is currently streaming on Prime Video in the UK.

Synopsis

After the sudden disappearance of their father, twin boys Hal and Bill go through his collection of curios picked up on travels around the world. They find a toy monkey with a drum that just radiates malevolence, and they wind the key in its back. As the boys discover, any time the monkey plays its drum, someone dies in a weird and grisly manner.

Hal is one of life’s losers, bullied by everyone around him — especially his brother. He decides to use the monkey to get rid of Bill, but ends up killing their mother instead. After the boys go to live with their aunt and uncle, the monkey mysteriously follows them and the deaths continue. Desperate, the boys box the monkey up and throw it in an old well.

25 years later, Hal is divorced and his relationship with his teenage son, Petey, is falling apart. Hal and Bill haven’t spoken in years, and Hal even lies to his son, saying he has no brother. The truth starts to come out, however, when Hal’s aunt dies and Petey insists on accompanying his father to clear out her house. Of course, this leads to the reappearance of the monkey and a whole new cycle of bizarre deaths.

But just what is going on with Bill? Where has this damnable monkey got to? And why do people keep thinking they can control who it kills?

General Thoughts

While I haven’t sought out other reviews of The Monkey yet, I can only assume that they all reference the Final Destination franchise. In many ways, this is a Final Destination film played for laughs. Instead of the lingering, unseen presence of death itself, however, we have the creepiest toy monkey ever made.

And that monkey is just so creepy. There’s a real sense of menace whenever it raises its drumstick. Even if we didn’t know this means someone is about to die, we’d probably still clench up. It is one of the most malevolent-looking cursed objects I can remember seeing on screen

Perhaps a less obvious comparison is to Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Lullaby, in which the protagonist learns a children’s song that can kill people and struggles to contain it after causing a number of unwanted deaths. Here, the struggle is more externalised between the two brothers, wrestling for control of the deadly monkey. What makes this different, however, is that there is no controlling who the monkey claims. Every time a character sets out to kill someone specific, it goes horribly wrong.

It’s good timing putting this review out on the same day as our podcast episode about gore. Our guest host, Jared Logan, even referenced The Monkey in our discussion, but was circumspect about details as neither Matt nor I had seen it then. The gore here is ludicrous, in a fun way, and never understated. Perkins finds all sorts of creative ways to dispatch those unfortunate enough to get the monkey’s attention. Most of the deaths are spectacular and gruesome, although there is a key scene involving wasps that is undermined by awful, unconvincing CGI.

Verdict

The Monkey is a real departure for Perkins. It is at least as beautiful to look at as his other films, but the story shows a playful side we haven’t really see until now. This is unashamedly a comedy horror, but of the variety that uses grand guignol bloodshed to make us laugh rather than sprinkling in a few jokes. It would be a pretty bleak film if presented differently, especially when it comes to the brutal darkness of the ending, but even the worst horrors are played for laughs.

So much of what makes The Monkey work is that sardonic tone. It hardly has a novel premise, but that’s not what we’re here to see. We want to watch a creepy monkey doll and some bloody, over-the-top deaths, and that’s just what we get.

As much fun as I had with The Monkey, it’s not without any flaws. The story loses a bit of momentum in the final act, although it does pick up again sharply for the final 10 minutes. I did enjoy the underlying story of sibling rivalry and revenge, but I felt like there was a bit too much of that at a time when we’d been sold on grue.

If you want some joyously gory and unpretentious fun this spooky season, The Monkey is a solid choice.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

Heretic (USA, 2024)
The Sadness (Taiwan, 2021)
The Uninvited (USA, 1944)
The Lodge (UK/USA, 2019)
WolfCop (Canada, 2014)
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970)
The Monkey (USA, 2025)
Sister Midnight (India/UK, 2024)
Roadgames (Australia, 1981)
Nightmare City (Italy, 1985)
Dangerous Animals (Australia, 2025)
Dead Talents Society (Taiwan, 2024)
Winterbeast (USA, 1992)
Byzantium (UK/Ireland, 2013)
The Ugly Stepsister (Norway, 2025)
A Page of Madness (Japan, 1926)
Heart Eyes (USA, 2025)
Grafted (New Zealand, 2024)
Arrebato (Spain, 1979)
Hatching (Finland, 2022)
Abigail (USA, 2024)
Ganja & Hess (USA, 1973)
The Devil’s Bath (Austria, 2025)
Pieces (Spain, 1982)
Infested (France, 2023)
Best Wishes to All (Japan, 2022)
A Cat in the Brain (Italy, 1990)
Enys Men (UK, 2022)
Creature From the Black Lagoon (USA, 1954)
Perewangan (Indonesia, 2024)
Bring Her Back (Australia, 2025)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.