The first thing on my mind upon glancing over Osgood Perkins’s The Monkey poster, which was revealed last October, I figured he was remaking the late George A. Romero’s Monkey Shines. Except that Romero’s underrated 1988 movie was about a service monkey who went amok while Perkins’s much-anticipated follow-up to Longlegs is a cursed toy monkey based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same name.
The Monkey opens promisingly with the introduction of Adam Scott’s memorable cameo appearance dressing in a pilot uniform showing up in a pawn shop with the eponymous toy monkey. The monkey looks creepy from the outset with its hollow, round eyes like they are staring straight into one’s soul. Then comes the circus-like music as the monkey’s hands start pounding the drum with a pair of sticks repeatedly. The next thing you know, bad things happen. Here, we have a rejuvenated Osgood Perkins emerging out of his comfort zone as he gives us an effectively macabre mix of over-the-top gore and violence and mean-spirited dark humor. Scott’s added performance is like a (bloodied) cherry on top.
The story then dives into the late 1990s era as we are introduced to a pair of twin boys Hal and Bill Shelburn (played by Christian Convery in a dual role). Hal is a shy and reserved bespectacled boy while Bill is a bully who simply enjoys picking on him. Their mom (Tatiana Maslany) single-handedly takes care of them. One day, Hal comes across a round box belonging to his late dad, which contains the same toy monkey from the opening scene. And so, bad things – freak accidents, to be exact – occur again after one of the boys winds up the key at the back of the monkey.
Perkins doesn’t shy away from the gleefully violent set pieces once the monkey is in action as it unleashes a deadly curse of sorts, causing the victims to die in bizarre and mysterious circumstances. Slit throat, decapitation, grisly aftermath of a stampeded body and more. At one point, Perkins manages to inject absurdist humor within one of these tragic moments (the scene revolving around a young priest giving eulogy during a funeral ceremony in a church comes to mind). Soon, the story jumps to 25 years later as the grown-up Hal (now played by Theo James) hasn’t been in touch with his twin brothers for years. He has already married and has an estranged teenage son (Colin O’Brien), where we learn he sees him once a year.
Even after decades have passed, the murky past is still looming large in Hal’s subconscious mind as he occasionally has nightmares. More bodies are piling up as Perkins assaults our senses with one gruesome set piece after another, often with a blend of sick sense of humor. There’s an elaborate moment that has a poor victim suffering from fire engulfed in the head, leading to a series of Rube Goldberg-like set pieces reminiscent of a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon, albeit in a hardcore R-rated mayhem. Perkins may have been venturing into a fresh territory but his signature visual stamp remains intact. This is especially true with his methodical and somber visual palette that complements well with Nico Aguilar’s atmospheric cinematography.
As much as I enjoyed Perkins’s no-holds-barred, pitch-black horror comedy approach, The Monkey isn’t as great as it touted to be. As the story progresses, I can’t help but notice the clunky dialogue and erratic pace even though it runs at 98 minutes keeps hindering the movie from reaching its fullest potential.
Perkins, who also adapted the screenplay, starts to lose his way of delving into the core of the storytelling beyond the curse of a mysterious toy monkey once it starts banging the drum. There’s no backstory here regarding the existence of the titular monkey other than whoever has it will have to deal with a series of unfortunate events. Even with the metaphorical context surrounding the recurring theme of everybody dies, where death is inevitable and everything happens for a reason no matter how absurd the situation is, is all stretched thin.
By the time Hal’s grown-up twin brother, Bill (also Theo James but with a distinctly different hairstyle) finally shows up and his motive is subsequently revealed, the movie barely recovers with the story increasingly lopsided by half-baked and even unrealized ideas. The movie is also noticeably lacking the much-needed emotional weight to make me care about the fate of the characters, notably Hal and his son Petey.
Looking at this as a straightforward genre fare, Perkins ticks all the right boxes in delivering the goods, evidently in the in-your-face gore and violence and black-comedy elements. But for all the arresting visuals and technical precision, The Monkey falters in its thinly-stretched storytelling and lackluster character development.
