'The Monkey': Cheap Laughs for Sickos Like Me

Why yes, I will watch people die in gruesomely comic ways for 98 minutes.

Some may find a surprisingly wide gap between Osgood Perkins’ new movie, The Monkey, and his previous film, Longlegs. While both are horror films, Longlegs takes itself quite seriously as it feels designed to unnerve the audience from the outset. The Monkey, by comparison, is a dark comedy, setting up an elaborate kill in its prologue, and then offering different kinds of gruesome deaths throughout its runtime. While different in tone, they both highlight Perkins’ leaning for style over substance. The upside of The Monkey is that at least it’s funny if you’re a weirdo like me.

The premise is straightforward: there’s a toy monkey, and when you turn its key, it plays a little song. When the song finishes, someone dies horribly. The supposed tension comes from twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn (Theo James giving two terrific performances). Hal and Bill never got along with the rambunctious, extroverted Bill bullying the quiet and reserved Hal. When the brothers discover that The Monkey has the power to kill and after it tears through some of their loved ones, they decide it’s time to throw the toy down a well and never speak of it again. However, twenty-five years later, the killings start again, and Hal has to confront this dark totem before it claims the life of his estranged teenage son, Petey (Colin O’Brien).

Theo James as Hal Shelburn in The Monkey | Image via NEON

When The Monkey operates on its thin thread of, “What do we need to happen to show another shocking death?” it works. Perkins seems most at ease when the film is kind of weird and off-kilter, not only in the variety of slaying the characters (e.g. an electrified swimming pool, an unfortunate trip to a Benihana-like restaurant), but in bizarre little touches like a swearing priest at a funeral or young Hal being bullied by a group of teenage girls. As long as the film can operate on a comic wavelength, it works.

However, the film feels like it should be more than, “Look at all the silly deaths I came up with!” and yet that’s also where Perkins—adapting a short story from Stephen King—struggles. The plot elements imply a biblical struggle. This is Cain and Abel, and the notion of a random, dispassionate evil that can be set off by turning a key asks not only of these two characters but of the world, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The film observes death as random, chaotic, and cruel, and then asks why we would want to turn this evil on anyone.

And yet because Perkins is so tuned into his comic notes, he strains for any moment of pathos. There is a sense here that Perkins keeps getting in his own way, more eager for the next comic beat than hitting an emotional note that can sell a bigger theme. While there’s an interesting concept here about brothers whose enmity runs so deep they’ve not only isolated themselves but started harming those in their immediate orbit, Perkins can’t get there because you can see his true passion is bloody mayhem. In the same way that Longlegs’ style attempts to gloss over its puddle-deep dread, The Monkey has little to offer beyond its bizarre murders. It’s a Final Destination movie for people who wish Final Destination was slightly artier but still extremely silly.

I can’t complain too much because this kind of comedy is on my wavelength. I don’t think that makes The Monkey a great movie, but I still laughed a lot. Both Longlegs and The Monkey performed well at the box office for their distributor, NEON, so I imagine Perkins won’t have any trouble setting up his next project at the studio. I just hope that whatever it is, he finally manages to imbue it with as much substance as style.