The Monkey is a howling good time

Adaptations of Stephen King’s work have basically spawned its own genre at this stage.

Highpoints include the Shawshank Redemption, The Shining and Carrie as well as some utter dross like The Langoliers, The Tommyknockers and the 2022 Firestarter remake.

We are pleased to report that The Monkey is on the higher tier of the King adaptations.

Osgood Perkins, fresh from scaring the hell out of us with Longlegs (a movie that just narrowly missed our year-end top 10 list in December) continues his streak with his take on the Stephen King short story.

The premise is simple; a wind-up monkey brings death when it is played, and it doesn’t discriminate. 

The monkey doesn’t take requests, and it will kill people at random with no rhyme or reason attached.

A set-up that good screams film potential, but what is surprising is that Perkins leans into a black comedy element and spins it into gold.

Theo James stars in a duel role as twin brothers; one a more soft-spoken, divorced dad type, a stand-in for King, and the other a classic foul-mouthed King character who speaks like a cartoon villain.

Twin brothers Hal and Bill are left with the titular monkey by their absent father (as the film stresses, it’s not a toy) and they soon find that death follows in the wake of the monkey whenever it is wound up.

Perkins gets a lot of mileage out of the absurdity of death and the “shit happens” nature of the concept and that is the films strong suit.

There are comedy elements in King adaptations, but The Monkey is an outright comedy.

Like Heart Eyes, the same rules apply when you’re trying to scare an audience or tell a joke, it’s all in the build-up.

Perkins revels in the slow build-up and suspense and lets rip.

And somehow, it works every time.

Theo James has been stuck in the “pretty boy that Hollywood can’t figure out” zone for the best part of a decade now but The Monkey is a brilliant use of his talents.

Casting an actor in a dual role is always a gamble but James succeeds with flying colours here.

James is joined by a strong supporting cast such as Tatiana Maslany, Adam Scott in a blink and you’ll miss him role, Elijah Wood in a brief but memorable role and Schitt’s Creek’s Sarah Levy as someone who is the source of the film’s most shocking but hilarious scene.

The genius of The Monkey is how flippant and gauche the film is about death.

Death, we are told, is the one thing that happens to everyone with no exceptions.

It is the scariest thing in the world to a good majority of people, and for good reason, but Perkins relishes in treating death like a live-action cartoon.

There is a Final Destination quality to the deaths in The Monkey where your brain processes the shock factor of the death and then you burst out laughing at how absurd it is.

One memorable scene has a montage of the various freak deaths plaguing the Maine town where the film is set and it has the visual inventiveness of an Edgar Wright montage.

The Final Destination movies are the source of some of horror’s greatest moments over the last 25 years (the motorway scene in 2, the tanning bed and subsequent match cut in 3,) and Perkins plays with that visual shorthand in a really fun and clever way.

At about 100 minutes, The Monkey is a movie that leaves you wanting more and ultimately, that’s all we can ask for.

The Monkey is will worth seeking out if you like your comedy with a bit of blood and guts attached.