Can you get a laugh out of something like death? Humans love to be in control of things – even when it comes to our eventual expiration dates. We do exercise routines, diets, and all sorts of mitigation strategies to at least delay our inevitable ends. However, the randomness of death in which it operates and the bluntness in how its “orders” can be carried out is rather scary. That doesn’t mean we can’t get a kick out of the irony, right?
Oz Perkins’s life has been touched by losing people: his father, Anthony, passed away from an AIDS-related illness when he was young. Years later, Perkins’ mother, Berry Berenson, unfortunately died while being a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 terrorist attacks. These aspects are why his latest film, ‘The Monkey,’ adapted from a 1980 Stephen King short story by the same name, has a unique touch. The film is monotone and deadpan in delivering the dialogue and narration. In grabbing some cues from something like the ‘Final Destination’ series, the deaths and gore are plentiful and extravagant. (although there, the volume is turned up to 11).
While the film can feel it wants you to eagerly await the next violent shoe (or limb) to drop, ‘The Monkey’ speaks to generational trauma and parenting from a clever and also heavy-handed perspective that will not give you a Hallmark happy ending. If anything, the film depicts how swiftly the grim reaper’s scythe can render its judgment. You can waste time assembling the puzzle or going with the flow.
The Monkey / Courtesy of Neon Pictures
Twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) might as well not be siblings at all. Bill takes great pleasure in making Hal’s life miserable whenever he can. Their home lives are bookended by their pilot father (briefly played by Adam Scott), who leaves home for good, and a caring mother (Tatiana Maslany), trying to inject joy into their lives as much as possible. All of that cultivated tranquility would soon be upended by Hal and Bill’s discovery of a toy monkey within their father’s items he left behind. Then again, don’t call it a toy – instead, it’s a tool of malevolence. The rules are simple: you wind it up, and the menacing monkey plays a song and drums along with it. At it’s end, someone will die in a rather brutal fashion. You don’t get to choose; it’s a random game of chance. Kids are naturally curious, so they wind it up, and the body count starts piling up. It’s even to the effect of hitting people remarkably close to them. Naturally, the brothers get rid of the monkey and place it down a deep, dark well.
The Monkey / Photo Credit: Neon Pictures
Things are relatively quiet until twenty-five years later. Hal (Theo James) works at a grocery store, is estranged from Bill (also played by James), and is highly avoidant of being close to someone of the off-chance “the curse” can reach them. Because of this, he’s an absent father to his teenage son Petey (Colin O’Brien). When you thought it safe to go anywhere, the rather Wile E Coyote/Acme-like deaths start again. Bill calls Hal, hoping for a temporary alliance to end the toy’s reign of terror for good. While watching the film, I found the metaphor ‘The Monkey’ apparent and straightforward. Cinematographer Nico Aguilar films the doll in a menacing depiction despite its unhinged grin and diminutive stature. This simple figurine drives the characters within the film into a frenzy and puts them in situations where they opt to do the asinine to escape its grasp. It’s just like superstitions or rituals we indulge in to keep lousy juju away from us. The film makes the point bluntly repeatedly in ways that will draw some laughs out of you.
The punchlines involve various characters meeting their end in a bombastic fashion and the twins experiencing the uncertain world differently. James meets the challenge of playing twins relatively well. Hal is forever frozen in the state of his childhood and is trying to make some effort to connect with his son. The attachment (or fear) of family history renders him unable to do so. Bill is a jerk, but something happens to him and his brother, which changes how they see the world. As Hal is forever in flight mode, Bill is entranced by the darkness to try to understand its method. In between is a 95-frantic film, ‘The Monkey’ tends to lag when it jumps from causality to emotionality. The film becomes effective once it firmly plants its footing.
Like his previous projects, Perkins is working through his familiar history and how we arrive at the same conclusions about one of life’s only certainties besides taxes. The killing joke is that there is no figuring it out. I know that’s a bummer to hear. Funny enough, ‘The Monkey’s is one of two Stephen King adaptations in 2025 dealing with how to reason with “the big dirt nap.’ Death perhaps covers its eyes and points to random directors to which it can impart its decisions. We’re here to pick up the pieces, mourn, and move forward.
