Title – The Monkey (2025)

Director – Osgood Perkins (Longlegs)

Cast – Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Adam Scott, Elijah Wood, Colin O’Brien

Plot – Twin brothers Bill and Hal (James) find their lives dictated by a mysterious “toy” monkey that has haunted them since they were children and has seemingly bought about a wave of gruesome deaths for those they know and love.  

“Everybody dies. Some of us peacefully and in our sleep, and some of us… horribly”

Review by Eddie on 05/06/2025

Following on from his breakout 2024 surprise hit Longlegs, writer/director Osgood Perkins has turned his attention to adapting Stephen King’s short story into a wild and savage comedic horror that is The Monkey.

Taking its leading man Theo James through it as he pulls duel role duties as twin brothers Bill and Hal, The Monkey focuses its attention on the blood brothers as they battle a lifetime of torment and grisly deaths all occurring at the hands of a mysterious toy monkey that acts as some type of demented bloodthirsty conduit to another realm with power to kill all those in its path.

Promoted early on as maybe a more straightforward piece of horror, The Monkey is absolutely not interested in being taken seriously in the slightest and it’s abundantly clear that Perkins is having a blast turning all his attention into wild kills and chaotic carnage, all the while bringing the same demented energy he gifted Longlegs for better and worse.

Anyone wanting a sensical or semi-plausible movie watching experience with The Monkey should run for the hills as from the moment Adam Scott waltzes onto screen for a memorable early film cameo through to the films buzzy finale, The Monkey rarely lets up on the weirdness and the bloody and there’s no doubt that the films godfather Stephen King and overseer James Wan would have been mightily proud of the demented offering Perkins has conjured up here.

Working from a lot of early momentum that starts off from an impressively energetic start and a bizarre sequence of situations that set the tone for the rest of the feature experience, The Monkey does start to run out of steam around the half-way mark and while Perkins should be commended for sticking to his guns, there’s only so many bloody deaths and deep looks into the glazed over eyes of a lifeless monkey that can keep us invested.

Throwing in some family drama and slight amounts of character growth and depth in amongst all the animalistic bloodshed, there’s arguments to be made that The Monkey has more going on than a collection of wild killings and utterly unserious happenings but it’s not at all a priority for Perkins who is just looking to have fun with his loose iteration of King’s work, ensuring this is a mindlessly OK genre mash-up that isn’t going to be remembered by many once the credits have finished rolling.

Final Say –

A wild and wacky next step following Longlegs worldwide success, The Monkey sees Osgood Perkins go all in on as he brings one of Stephen King’s lesser known works to light in a defiantly insane way.

2 1/2 bowling balls out of 5