The Monkey is tacky, tasteless, and a complete anomaly in Oz Perkins’ cinematic output so far – and it’s my favourite thing he’s ever made.
After last year’s turgid and overrated Longlegs, I can’t say I expected Oz Perkins’ next movie to come in the form of this super-gory, super-silly Stephen King adaptation, but God, I’m glad it did. The Monkey follows twins Bill and Hal (both played by Theo James) as they contend with the sinister influence an apparently-murderous monkey toy has over the fates of the people unlucky enough to be close to them.
And this is, straight-up, one of the most entertaining splatter movies to come out of the genre in the last twenty years. The Monkey wears its tacky, gory gross-out qualities on its sleeve, with a collection of kills as convoluted and outrageous as it can muster – people aren’t much more than lunchbags of viscera ready to get catapulted about the screen at the barest hint of an excuse. Like Final Destination (which definitely shares some overlap with the comedy-of-horrors on display in The Monkey), the rest of the film embraces this borderline-slapstick tone, the whole thing laced with an absurdist sense of humour that keeps you from having to take anything too seriously. If you don’t want to watch Tatania Maslanay telling her twin sons about the futility of mortality like a more-glamorous version of Tony Todd’s William Bludworth, I don’t know what to tell you.
Theo James, in his dual leading roles, really pulls the movie together in a way I don’t think I expected him to – his one-time status as a teen-franchise sex symbol never offered him the best chance to show off his talent, but here, he’s munching his way through the scenery with abject delight. Hal’s put-upon deadbeat dad is entertaining enough, but it’s where he slips into Bill, seeking revenge via The Monkey’s supernatural power as he cackles around his layer in a custom 90s-skater tuxedo ensemble, that he really comes into his own. Surrounded by a clearly-enthusiastic cast (Elijah Wood’s brief cameo is, without a doubt, a highlight) and a director who’s as committed to embracing the weird, half-comic tone of The Monkey, James shines, and I hope he finds more of a home in the horror genre in the years to come, if this is anything to go by.
And speaking of directing – yeah, there’s no doubt that Perkins knows his way around a camera by this point, but it’s enormously fun to see him turn his vision to something more pulpy. His previous work, even the great stuff, is very dour, and such a lightness of tone and touch is a genuinely impressive testament to his own range.
The Monkey is just a goddamn good time – a gory, grim, and gross slasher that leaves you picking bits of muscle tissue out of your hair for weeks to come. I would love to hear what you made of it in the comments – let me know your thoughts below!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via JustWatch)
No But Listen 