‘The Monkey’: An Entertaining, Self-Aware Horror-Comedy

“The monkey that likes killing our family… it’s back,” says Theo James as one of two twin brothers in trailer for The Monkey, the latest film from Osgood Perkins that’s based on the Stephen King short story of the same name. So rarely has a single line of dialogue so efficiently declared the modus operandi of a film – indeed, this is a film about a toy monkey that kills people. That might be enough for you to buy a ticket!

But like its titular mechanical primate, there’s a bit more to The Monkey than meets the eye. Though it could easily coast along on its premise, which is basically “What if there was an evil drumming monkey that made people die in accidents”, Perkins and co. manage to make much more out of this crazy premise than you’d expect, imbuing it with expected hilarity and surprising thematic heft. 

The film follows twins Hal and Bill Shelburn, played by Theo James as adults and Christian Convery as kids, who discover a wind-up drumming monkey that previously belonged to their deadbeat father. They soon discover that once the key is turned in its back, it chooses someone to die; one of these victims is their mother (Tatiana Maslany).

Years later, Hal and Bill are totally estranged from each other. When Hal is set to spend a week with his son Petey (Colin O’Brien), people mysteriously start dying again. After a call from Bill, the two can only infer one thing from recent events… the monkey that likes killing their family is, indeed, back. 

A campy horror ride

Theo James portrays both twins excellently in this film, and it’s clear that he’s clued into both the campy goodness and surprisingly robust thematic framework of the film. He shines especially whenever he’s his own scene partner. An actor playing twins is almost always impressive, and James continues proving his acting chops here in The Monkey.

Director Perkins is clearly having a lot of fun with this film, too. Compared to his previous film Longlegs, a seriously bleak serial killer story, The Monkey is delightfully campy and often quite funny. Furthermore, its horror is far more pulpy than Longlegs – he’s clearly taking cues from Final Destination for this film, delivering a number of deviously-realised deaths that are equal parts gory and goofy – though some occasionally spotty CGI can take away from the fun.  

But perhaps most surprisingly, The Monkey does actually have a number of key themes. Most notably, it delves into the cycle of neglect that comes from fathers abandoning their children. Just as Hal and Bill’s father was absent from their life, Hal is largely absent from Petey’s under the guise of protecting his son from the malevolent force of the monkey. 

It’s not something Hal chose, but it happens nonetheless. This ties into another theme of the film; the inevitability of death. Granted, most people won’t die because of an evil toy monkey, but as the film often likes to remind you, “That’s life!” Despite its prevalence, I don’t really think The Monkey does many interesting things with this idea, but it does give it a very darkly dry sense of humour.

The Monkey is appropriately self-aware

But even if not every element of The Monkey sticks, it’s easy to enjoy it for the gleefully unhinged horror film that it is. Thanks to a strong double performance by Theo James and director Osgood Perkins having a splendid time behind the camera, it’s always entertaining to see just what’ll happen when that wretched primate brings stick to drum. 

★★★

The Monkey is in cinemas now.