The early release of Osgood Perkins’ new film “The Monkey” is out, and it’s easily one of the most creative and campy horror movies of the last decade — maybe ever.
The film is based on the short story written by Stephen King.This is not your typical King horror movie like “It” or “The Shining;” instead, the movie feels like a nod to the Sam Rami’s Evil Dead franchise in the 80s with the gore and humor it brings to the table.
The film follows Hal, played by Theo James, as he discovers, runs away from and confronts a toy monkey that’s been responsible for all the death in his life. James also plays Bill, Hal’s estranged twin brother, who has embraced the evil of the monkey and creates tension between him and Hal.
After a series of gruesome deaths as children, Hal and Bill decide to lock the monkey away and end up going their separate ways as they grow apart as adults. This series of deaths makes Hal scared and isolated, devolving into an absent father.
In a last ditch effort to make time with his son all his fears return, making him question how far he can push childhood trauma down before it affects those he loves the most.
First off, the humor in this film is off the charts. I’m pretty confident that this is one of the funniest movies of the year. It’s not funny simply to be funny or to keep the audience engaged; the comedy is important to the story and is natural in the story’s dialogue.
The entire film is shot dark, making it obviously sad from the start. During the day it’s dim greys and at night it’s shot with hues of dark yellow street lamps or neon signs from buildings, and it doesn’t let up.
This dark tone makes the jokes refreshing, not tiring, which might be the best part about the movie. For a dark, gruesome, demonic, slasher movie, it allows the comedy in the dialogue to shine. It doesn’t try to be in your face, but the way it’s delivered and when it’s delivered make this movie so intriguing.
The film was written by Perkins and King and they did a fantastic job by building this world through death and unfortunate circumstances while relieving the audience with humor in 90 minutes.
The deaths in this movie are killer, literally. “The Monkey” has one of my favorite horror movie cold opens ever. It opens with a cameo from Adam Scott that sets the tone of the film with both the dialogue and the kind of kills that are in the movie.
Every kill is gruesome, bloody and violent, but are really carefully placed. Each death is cared for and means something in the story, it’s never violent for the sake of violence. It really does feel like a modern take on a King book.
This is Perkins’ second movie in the last year, following his commercial success “Longlegs” that was released in July of 2024. Despite the tonal shift between these two movies, Perkins has a strong voice in these horror movies. He relies more on the natural uneasiness of people rather than over-the-top fears or jump scares.
Perkins’ movies hold shots longer than what other directors would do, and it makes his movies very uncomfortable. Jumpscares are the easiest way to make a horror movie scary; they are an effective but overdone cliche that limits the creativity of a horror movie. It’s refreshing to see a lot of the tension stem from technique rather than tactics.
It’s really challenging to scare people in other ways, but I’d argue being deeply uncomfortable is really the most terrifying thing someone can experience on a daily basis.
“The Monkey” is an excellent example of taking horror movies seriously and just because a movie is gruesome doesn’t mean it can’t be cared for or have creativity. Easily an 8/10.