The Monkey – Movie Review (4/5)

THE MONKEY (2025) is a gorgeously insane horror movie based on Stephen King’s short story. It’s a slasher comedy treat that should please most genre fans. Osgood Perkins delivers on fun and gore. Read our full The Monkey movie review here!

THE MONKEY (2025) is a new horror movie from Osgood Perkins (Longlegs) and while he wrote and directed it, the whole thing is based on a short story by horror master Stephen King. It turns out Perkins and King combined results in one deliciously crazy horror-comedy slasher hybrid.

The runtime is just 98 minutes, so it keeps the storytelling fairly tight while never compromising on fun moments or an extra edge in the slasher scenes. Not since Final Destination has the death scenes been quite as creative as we see here. I loved it!

Continue reading our The Monkey movie review below. Find it in US theaters from February 21, 2025.

Theo James and Christian Convery shine

In The Monkey, the title “character” is a toy we meet in the opening scene. The story, however, is all about how twin brothers Bill and Hal later find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic. The very same toy we witnessed the power of in that very bloody opening scene.

For quite some time, we see Bill and Hal – who are polar opposites of one another – as kids.  Sweet Tooth‘s Christian Convery (MOM) plays the twins as kids and does an amazing job. As adults, Theo James takes over – though he’s also narrating, so he’s involved from the very beginning.

PAY ATTENTION TO HORROR POP CULTURE REFERENCES

The Monkey is full of horror pop culture references – one example is Babysitter Annie who is later revealed to have the full name of “Annie Wilkes”. Yes, like in Stephen King’s Misery.

In any case, from Bill and Hal find the toy as kids, gruesome deaths start happening. The very creative kind of freak accidents we’ve come to know from Final Destination and Happy Death Day. The kind of unavoidable deaths that are brutal but in a slasher laugh-out-loud kind of way.

They manage to get rid of the toy, but it doesn’t last. 25 years later, it shows up again and the creative and gore-filled deaths begin once more. It’s extremely entertaining and gutsy – in every meaning of the word.

Admittedly, I haven’t always understood the fascination with Theo James, but I’m starting to now. He is funny and intense as the twins Hal and Bill in The Monkey. So is Tatiana Maslany as their mom, Lois. However, I’ve always adored Maslany, so that’s not surprising to me.

This toy has gone bananas

The jokes lining up in having a monkey toy as the portal for undiluted chaotic evil are many. And yes, using bananas is the most obvious one. However, while The Monkey does have a lot of comedy, it’s not directly related to this monkey toy – which, but the way, is definitely not a toy.

Instead, the comedy comes from the many wonderful and quirky characters often portrayed by equally lovable and genre-loved actors. We have Adam Scott (Severance) in the brutal and very bloody opening scene. Also, Elijah Wood (Come to Daddy) plays a small key role.

So does the writer-director of the film, Osgood Perkins, who gets to deliver some words of very honest comfort. Just don’t get too comfortable with any characters as many of them will die. This is the kind of movie where one minute they’re laughing, the next their head is gone.

Watch The Monkey in theaters now!

Osgood Perkins is the writer and director of The Monkey. His previous movie was Longlegs which was about a serial killer and also featured a supernatural element, but not like in this movie. Also, where Longlegs was brutal and dark, The Monkey is fun and bloody… and both extremely violent.

Having an inanimate object be pure evil reminded me of a few recent AI movies, but even more so, it reminded me of Annabelle from James Wan’s The Conjuring Universe. And yes, James Wan is a producer of this new movie, which bodes well for future projects from Wan. Fingers crossed.

Also, watching this latest Osgood Perkins horror movie makes me even more excited for his next movie due out in the Fall of 2025. It’s called Keeper and also stars Tatiana Maslany. Till it’s time for the second 2025 movie from Perkins, be sure to check out his current one in theaters.

Trust me, this is exactly the kind of horror movie you’ll want to watch in a movie theater with other genre movie fans. From the crazy slasher scenes to the brutally dark comedy, and on to the thriller mystery, The Monkey delivers. From start to finish!

The Monkey is out in theaters from February 21, 2025.

Details

In Theaters: February 21, 2025
Director: Oz Perkins
Writers: Stephen King, Oz Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Christian Convery, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Laura Mennell, Sarah Levy