The Monkey (2025)

The Monkey was another of the Mystery Screenings that my local cinema has been putting on and this is one of the films I was looking forward to in 2025 and after enjoying Longlegs I wanted to see what Osgood Perkins was going to do. Sadly the signs were not great when I saw that Atomic Monster were involved and James Wan is involved so it's not going to be clever or atmospheric but instead it's going to appeal to the lowest common denominator whilst thinking it was being clever.

GOOD POINT 01 - THE KILLS WERE VERY GOOD

Considering this is a horror film, the kills are as good as they should be. Like Heart Eyes, the inventive kills happen very early on with the owner of a shop being the first victim after he is harpooned and then the harpoon is pulled out along with the owner's internal organ. Unlike Heart Eyes, the kills keep coming including the woman who explodes after diving into an electrified swimming pool or a guy who shoots a hornets nest through the car window and the hornets fly through the bullet hole and into the guy's mouth. The kills are very big highlight of this film

GOOD POINT 02 - THE MONKEY’S MOTIVE SEEM UNPREDICTABLE

Some people might see this as a problem but I think that it works in the films favour. Being unpredictable means that as a viewer, we can't really guess with any certainty what the Monkey would do. The film does a very good job of highlighting this when Lois dies after Hal asks the monkey to kill his brother Bill.  

GOOD POINT 03 - THEO JAMES AND TATIANA MASLANY ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS

Theo James is good as both Hal & Bill and enough was done to make them seem different and even when they eventually have a face to face towards the end of the film they look different and the versions are also different. Tatiana Maslany takes what is really a basic role and makes it much more. She brings some warmth to the family of the younger Hal & Bill and it's a shame when she gets killed off. 

BAD POINT 01 - THE MONKEY CAN TELEPORT

Ok I am willing to admit that I haven't read the story that this film is based on but I hope that it is explained why the monkey can teleport. Unless something was mentioned that I missed, there is no explanation given why the monkey can move. This is shown at the beginning when young Hal & Bill go to the restaurant and the monkey goes from being on the back seat to the front seat and you could argue that this was moved in a deleted scene but when it's thrown down the well and then disappears its just accepted that it can teleport instead of coming up with some reason like somebody came along through a tunnel and took it home. That would have worked better than a teleported monkey

BAD POINT 02 - THE BROTHER REUNITE AT THE END

This might seem harsh since Bill ends up with a squished head but the way that the reunion is done poorly. So they spend all the time leading up to the end with Bill blaming Hal for their mothers death and the following dialogue is said

Bill: You killed my mother.

Hal: She was my mother too.

Bill: Oh yeah, i never thought of it like that.

A moment later they shake hands. If you're going to have them reunite then do a better job that doesn't come across as lazy.

BAD POINT 03 - WASTING ELIJAH WOOD

I was quite excited when I saw that Elijah Wood was in this film. Sadly it's more of a cameo. He comes in early on as the new husband to Hal’s estranged wife and wanted to take sole custody of Hal’s son Petey and I thought that it would have led to more scenes with the former hobbit but sadly that's it. One scene that probably only lasts for 4-5 minutes and I think if you're going to feature Wood then it should have been in a better role or give him some more screentime.

OVERALL

This was a major disappointment. I thought that whilst the deaths were creative and the central performances were very good, the whole film felt like a major step down for Osgood Perkins. I think if you haven't seen any of Perkins’ other films then this film might not be the disappointment that I thought it was but after Longlegs, this film seemed like there was a creative battle between Perkins and James Wan. Perkins knows how to make creative horror and Wan has no interest in being creative. It feels like the kills were Perkins and everything around them was Wan. Not worth going to the cinema for but maybe when it appears on streaming around Halloween then……maybe.