Oz Perkins tells a gory cosmic joke with The Monkey

There have been funny moments in Oz Perkins’ previous movies, but you’d be forgiven if you forgot what they were. The director of The Blackcoat’s Daughter specializes in chilly atmosphere and oppressive dread—feelings so potent and pervasive, they can overshadow the actual substance of his movies. That being said, over his past couple of features, Perkins has been moving away from the vibes-based storytelling of his early work and into more accessible fare. The Monkey marks a new step in that evolution.

Like Perkins’ last movie, Longlegs, The Monkey is set—at least partially—in the ‘90s. And it does take inspiration from that era. But another influence is just as prominent, if more nebulous than the flame shirts and Goosebumps posters. The Monkey is based on a short story by Stephen King, which means that not only does it take place in Maine (it doesn’t start there, but doesn’t take long to get there, either), it also features some key King themes. Sensitive Hal is ruthlessly bullied by his twin brother Bill (both played by Christian Convery as children, and Theo James as adults), for example, as often happens in Stephen King stories. And childhood trauma? Boy, does this movie have some childhood trauma. 

Tatiana Maslany co-stars in the flashback scenes as Hal and Bill’s mom, whose monologue about death—“Everybody dies. That’s life,” she tells them after their babysitter is beheaded in front of them at a Benihana-type restaurant—epitomizes its ultra-black comedy. King isn’t necessarily known as a hilarious writer, but Perkins twists The Monkey into a sardonic middle finger. Part Gremlins and part Final Destination, it’s a vicious little horror-comedy whose punchline is that we’re all walking around with our heads in an invisible guillotine whose blade could fall at any moment. Probably while we’re doing something embarrassing. 

There’s a lot of Looney Tunes carnage in The Monkey, all of it revealed in shocking little bursts. One character gets her foot stuck in a milk jug, tripping and impaling herself on the stake of an old-fashioned wooden mailbox. (Oh, also her hair is on fire and her face is full of fishing lures.) Two others literally explode into wet goo and red mist as Hal looks on, horrified. But Perkins saves the best death for himself, casting himself as Hal and Bill’s swinger uncle who gets trampled by a herd of wild horses while on a camping trip. His fate is revealed by a smash cut to his funeral, as the film’s omnipotent narrator compares his mangled remains to the filling in a cherry pie.

The gore is explicit, but the film is never scary. And it’s not trying to be. The Monkey makes its farcical intentions clear from its opening scene, which takes place at a pawn shop full of treacherous-looking oddities—think antique spear guns and abandoned flamethrowers—and features Adam Scott in a cameo role as Hal and Bill’s philandering absentee airline-pilot father. He’s the one who unintentionally brings the titular freaky-looking wind-up toy into his sons’ lives, and an avalanche of comedic splatter along with it. 

The basic idea is that twisting the key in The Monkey’s back activates a cosmic series of events that inevitably ends with someone—you can’t control who—in your general vicinity dying in a cartoonishly violent manner. Hal finds this out when he innocently plays with the monkey after discovering it hidden in a closet, leading to the aforementioned babysitter incident. (Hal and Bill’s dad had fully abandoned the family at this point, leaving Hal to paw through his stuff searching for clues.) It takes a few bodies for the young brothers to recognize the pattern, but once they see it, their lives are changed forever. 

Fast-forward to adulthood, where a traumatized Hal is estranged not only from his brother, but also from his teenage son Petey (Colin O’Brien), who he keeps at arm’s length lest the monkey decide to cut off the family bloodline just for fun. Perkins also has fun with the very King-esque theme of deadbeat dads, having Hal add an “(s)” to a “Happy Belated Birthday” card and taunting him with the presence of his ex’s new husband Ted (Elijah Wood), an infuriatingly condescending man who writes parenting advice books with titles like Fatherhood VII and Jesus’ Dad.

Ted wants to formally adopt Petey, and offers to let Hal take his son on one last father-son road trip before he’s no longer legally entitled to time with the boy. Hal knows this is his final chance to be remembered as anything other than an irresponsible bastard by his only child, but there’s a problem: People around Hal have started randomly dropping dead in absurd ways again, after a couple of decades of quiet. So he reroutes the car to his aunt and uncle’s hometown in—you guessed it—small-town Maine, in an attempt to find an explanation for the inexplicable violence that’s ruined his life.

There is a little bit of meat on The Monkey, much of it coming from the tension between the human need to understand why bad things happen and the cruel indifference of the universe in general. There’s no logic behind the monkey’s curse, no justice or fairness; death is the only sure thing in life, and if God does exist, he has a sick sense of humor. This idea is reflected in the film’s fascination with freak accidents and Rube Goldberg devices, both of which broadly tie in to the idea of an invisible joke being played on humanity behind the scenes.

Beyond that, it’s probably best not to dig too deeply into it, and to just slip on the puddle of blood and giggle at the little cartoon monkeys that appear in front of your concussed eyes. The Monkey is at its weakest when it tries too hard to explain what’s happening, either on a plot or on a thematic level. (The narration can be especially detrimental in this way.) And it’s strongest when it abandons its search for meaning and does a silly dance in the face of Death itself. A dry, mocking one though it might be, The Monkey is ultimately just a laugh.

Director: Osgood Perkins

Writer: Osgood Perkins

Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell,

Sarah Levy

Release Date: February 21, 2025