The Monkey
That's some dumbshit. But it kinda works.
Stephen King's stories have been adapted into films countless times, with varying degrees of success. The Monkey, based on King's 1980 short story of the same name, takes some significant liberties with the source material, introducing new plot twists and expanding the narrative far beyond the original. The result? A film that is absurd, messy, and, somehow, still entertaining.
The story follows twin brothers who discover a creepy wind-up monkey among their missing father’s belongings. Once the toy is wound up, it inexplicably chooses a victim and orchestrates their death—often in outlandishly gruesome ways. The premise remains somewhat faithful to King’s original concept, but the film soon veers into reimagining territory, expanding the plot to sustain a full-length movie rather than a short story adaptation. I'll leave the rest for you to discover on screen.
One major thing to clarify: The Monkey is marketed as a horror film, but it's not. It works much better as a black comedy or a slasher, with an almost Final Destination-style approach to its death scenes. (Although, to be fair, King's short story predates Final Destination by decades—so maybe that franchise took inspiration from The Monkey rather than the other way around. Who knows?) Either way, don’t go in expecting a terrifying horror experience. At the press screening I attended, journalists were laughing out loud—and for good reason. Or maybe five.
Visually, the movie is bold and, at times, pretentious—especially in the second half. It juggles multiple themes, including outsider struggles, fatherly failure, sibling rivalry, and childhood trauma—all embodied by Theo James, who plays both twins in adulthood. The young actors, Colin O'Brien and Christian Convery, also deserve credit, managing to be both campy and genuinely compelling in their roles.
Ultimately, The Monkey is a film built on an interesting foundation, but director Osgood Perkins takes it in a kinda unpredictable direction. The themes of grief, vengeance, and the inevitability of death are all there, yet the film morphs into a dark comedy with a particularly ridiculous ending (and when I say ridiculous, I mean it). And I get his idea—turning everything into a parade of freaks and unhinged characters, almost distancing us from the story of the supernatural monkey itself.
It’s flawed, it’s fun, it’s stylish. And against all odds, it somehow works.
6/10
The Monkey is coming to your cinemas this week or at the beginning of March.