The Monkey

Director Osgood Perkins gained popularity with the horror movie Longlegs (2024). It was a scary and intense experience, which managed to maintain that all the way through. That's why I was very eager to see Perkins' next work The Monkey. Unfortunately, the director chose a different path this time around, of which I didn't personally enjoy that much.

The Monkey is based on a short story written by Stephen King, and just like we usually see in King's stories, the core idea is simple. Among abandoned items, a toy monkey is found. When you turn the key on its back, the monkey hits a drum with sticks, and then someone nearby dies... Not the person who turned the key, but someone else.

And just as usual with King's stories, this simple premise grows and grows. We get to see competition between siblings, a relationship between a parent and child, death as a necessary part of life, and the long-term effects of choices. In other words, there are all the pieces in place to make a serious, thought-provoking horror movie (just like Longlegs was), but Perkins has chosen to make horror comedy instead.

This comedy is not apparent right away, because none of the characters themselves see these events as funny. Comedy becomes more visible in how the characters react to what's happening around them, where some viewers in the cinema experienced decent laughs, but I didn't. The problem is that these comedic elements completely destroy the serious and thought-provoking atmosphere that the movie spent the last 10 or 15 minutes to put in place. This same duality continues until the very end of the movie. I feel like the director now knows that he is a good horror director, so he wanted to add some comedy in the mix as well. The end result is a well-told story, which doesn't seem to know what it wants to be: something serious or a comedy?

On a technical level, The Monkey is solid work. There is plenty of violence and blood, but even these sections are pretty short. The focus is clearly on the characters and how they interact with each other. The pacing is good too, since the story is told in a steady manner from beginning to end. The movie takes place in a single town, but the viewer doesn't experience a sense of place. Sure, some scenes happen in church, others at home, some while doing grocery shopping and so on, but there is never a clear sense of place: just a collection of isolated environments.

The Monkey has several good things in it, and it's a movie made with care by professionals. The director has made certain artistic choices, and then followed those choices until the end. This way we get a competent horror movie that isn't for everybody. Unfortunately, I clearly had the wrong expectations after hearing "Longlegs" and "Stephen King" mentioned in the trailer.