THE MONKEY (2025)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Elijah Wood, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell, Tatiana Maslany, Sarah Levy, Osgood Perkins
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Gore)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 20 February 2025

Synopsis: Based on the Stephen King short story, and produced by James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw), The Monkey is a new trip from Longlegs writer/director, Osgood Perkins. When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.

Movie Review:

A toy monkey that causes gruesome deaths every time it bangs its drum. That’s it. That’s the premise of this horror movie (some question whether it can be regarded as a comedy) directed by Osgood Perkins. This time round, he has adapted a 1980 short story by Stephen King.

The American author known as the “King of Horror” has reportedly given his stamp of approval for Perkin’s adaptation, even calling it "batsh-t insane" and "admirable". This is enough to get fans of the horror genre flocking into the cinema to get scared sh-tless.

Perkins kept the basic premise of the original with the creepy toy, and made quite a bit of changes to his version. After a quick introduction to the kind of power the toy monkey holds, we see a young Hal (Christian Convery) and his twin brother Bill (also Convery) growing up in what seems like a normal household. The cursed toy belongs to the boys’ deceased father. We also learn that Hal is shy and timid, while Bill is loud and vicious. And this will eventually lead to the tragic death of their loving mother (Tatiana Maslany), no thanks to the toy monkey.

Then we follow an adult Hal (Theo James), who looks rather miserable. Life hasn’t been kind to him. He no longer keeps in touch with Bill (also James) and is also estranged from his own son Petey. His ex-wife and her new husband are planning to adopt Petey fully, and things are not looking good at all. Cue the return of the toy monkey, which was supposedly disposed by Hal and Bill while they were still kids. And expectedly, more bloody deaths happen.

Perkins has shown us how slow-burning movies can be terrifying as well with Longlegs (2024), which left viewers in chills long after the credits rolled. He does it again in his latest work. The movie doesn’t deliver scares like a typical horror flick. There is something offbeat with how the deaths happen on screen. As a viewer, you know something is going to happen whenever the evil toy starts drumming. The victim is killed in the most morbid manner, but yet it doesn’t feel exploitative. Someone is killed by a harpoon, another is lit on fire, while a poor girl is decapitated. There is something funny about these sequences, and you can hear nervous sniggers and chuckles in the theatre. It takes a filmmaker who has a somewhat sick sense of humour to do this.

With an agreeable 95-minute runtime, Perkins manages to pace the plot development well. Things get really out of control as the movie progresses. As Hal and Bill come face to face in the latter’s hideout, truths are revealed while the monkey is causing countless deaths happening outside – this is when Perkins has gone all out with disgusting and gory deaths that almost wipes out an entire town. What’s also surprisingly affecting is how he also gets his characters to embrace closure with an odd but satisfying ending, which you will think about after the credits roll.

Movie Rating:

(Osgood Perkins delivers another offbeat horror flick that will have you squirming and chuckling at the same time)

Review by John Li