The Monkey Review

 

The Monkey is a horror-comedy movie based on Stephen King's short story of the same name. Production was done by Atomic Monster, Black Bear International, C2 Motion Picture Group, Range Media Partners, and The Safran Company, and distribution was handled by Neon. Osgood Perkins wrote and directed.

The story is, twin brothers Hal and Bill find an old vintage toy monkey. At first they naturally think it's just a toy, but when a string of bizarre deaths unfold around them, they find out it's all of the toy's doing and they discard it. Years later, the strange deaths start happening all over again. Now the brothers must reconcile, go searching for the toy, and put a stop to the curse once and for all.

Initial Reaction

Originally I had no intention of seeing this. Mainly because I had no idea it existed. That all changed when someone I follow on X (I'm not saying their name in case they want to be anonymous) reposted the trailer, and after watching it I was hooked. Even more so when I found out it was gonna have dark comedy elements.

Cons

I've got no real problems with this.

Middle Ground

The mix feelings come from the characters, more specifically how attached I became with them. At first, I really genuine feelings for them. I felt bad for them, some really pissed me off, and so forth. Then there's a twenty-five years later time skip. Now I still cared for the characters, especially Hal cause he's really trying in both trying to be a good dad and trying to stop more deaths from happening. But I don't know, for some reason while I still cared I wasn't as emotional connected as I was before, if that makes any sense.

Pros

First the pacing. While it's not an incredibly fast pace movie, it's also not by any means slow either. I think it was a good balance. Fast pace for chaos and just slow enough for character. I also want to praise Theo James' performance. The guy to a did a tremendous job as Hal and Bill. And made that even better was how those couldn't be anymore different, and Theo nails their personalities perfectly. Now to touch upon the thing that drew my attention, the dark comedy. That aspect of the movie delivered and I loved it. Sure there was some bits that weren't dark and they were kind of funny, but the real comedy does come from the darker stuff. The last thing I'll credit is the kills. A lot of them were pretty creative, and they also helped elevate the dark comedy as well. Especially when sometimes somebody doesn't simply die, they'll sometimes just full on explode.

Despite that one gray area, I had a lot of with The Monkey. So much so I might just by it on DVD or Blu-Ray. Especially since it's one of the better Stephen King adaptation.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for tonight. Come back on Monday, Feb 24th, where I'll return to the Road to Superman (2025) with my comic book review of Superman for All Seasons. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.