The Monkey (2025)

Director: Osgood Perkins

Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery

When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.

‘The Monkey’ was my most anticipated movie of the year so far, and also one of the biggest disappointments (for me). I don’t know why; I guess I expected a creepy horror in the vein of the James Wan’s ‘Dead Silence’ (2007), and not a comedy.

I was hoping to be scared, but instead I often shook my head in disbelief at how goofy the movie was at times. (The idiotic, blasphemous priest comes to mind, as well as cheerleaders cheering when a body was removed from a crime scene, and a young Hal ranting in church at his mother’s funeral.) Some of the humour was funny, but mostly it was downright silly and out of place. I felt like I could easily have stopped watching at any minute, which by the way happened quite often.

So, what’s the movie about? Well, twins Bill and Hal found a musical monkey among their dad’s stuff, after he simply left them without saying goodbye. It is a really bad monkey, and even referred to as the Devil himself. You turn the key and the drumsticks go up. They come down again when it chooses who it wants to kill next. It doesn’t take requests. It kills who it wants when it feels like it.

When people close to them start dying in freak accidents, Bill and Hal throws it down a well hoping to contain it, since it can’t be destroyed. 25 Years later, the monkey resurfaces and people start dying again. The film feels like Final Destination with a twist. Final Destination monkey style! The kill scenes are the best part about the movie. They are unexpected and really well done. Oh, this film would have been so much better as a horror and not a comedy (horror)!!

‘The Monkey’ is also the story of a father and son connecting – or should that be disconnecting? Hal only sees his son Petey once a year. Petey doesn’t understand his dad does this to protect him, and instead feels he is being pushed away. I enjoyed this aspect of the movie, and I also thought Theo James was excellent (in the duel role of Hal and Bill).

‘The Monkey’ was a box office success, earning nearly $62 million on a budget of $10 million. Sequel in the making, no doubt!

Would I watch it again? No.