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A man confronts his past, via his estranged and a murderous toy monkey, in Osgood Perkins’s bloody horror comedy based on a Stephen King story.
It’s nearly always a good sign the audience is in for a good time when a movie starts with a character drenched in blood. Here, the character, pilot father to our lead, is played by Adam Scott of Hellraiser: Bloodline (aka Pinhead in Space) fame. Especially if said scene ends with a freeze-frame of Scott with even more blood and now some intestines (his or someone else’s? I won’t spoil) maniacally wielding a flamethrower on our titular monkey toy. The energetic, manic sequence sets the tone for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, a bizarre little horror-comedy of frenzied mayhem; one that will have just about every other character drenched in blood by the time the credits roll.
Perkins has been on a tear through the horror genre, establishing himself as not only an heir to his father, Anthony (of Psycho, which remains perfect and effective 65 years later) but a worthy successor of a great new horror writer-director. Now, he’s the latest to adapt the literary Master of Horror, Stephen King. “The Monkey” first appeared as a short story in skinmag The Gallery in 1980, and then as part of the 1985 Skeleton Crew collection, which also brought us Frank Darabont’s The Mist. Perkins’s earlier films: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel, and last year’s surprise hit Longlegs, have oozed unease and tension, but generally have been deadly serious. With The Monkey, Perkins adds a level of devilish comedy to his filmmaking style, without losing the effectiveness of the cinematic nightmares he has previously shared with us.
The side-step into horror-comedy is effective, given the admittedly silly premise. Twins Hal and Bill, played by Christian Convery as kids and Theo James as adults, have long dealt with the terror of a stereotype horror toy: overlarge, already creepy-looking, and capable of murder. How they are affected, try to survive, and get other people to believe them is the driving force of the story. Their tale of family trauma, of how bad experiences as a child – bullies, parental abandonment, sibling rivalry, the so light I question mentioning it but still applicable series of unexpected, brutal, and bloody deaths attributed to a drumming monkey toy, affects everyone involved is fused to the over-the-top goings on to give an emotion base to the carnage.
The Monkey brings that carnage in fun, crowd-pleasing ways. There’s a sardonic glee when the Monkey’s music box begins to play and the malevolent automaton drums out a haunting tune. We know a Final Destination-like sequence is about to play out (there are several quick shock deaths too). The Monkey is the deadliest toy since Chucky, with a body count to match. The large body count is extraordinarily bloody to boot. The Monkey is the type of film where we’re all giant bags of blood and viscera ready to cartoonishly explode if our stomach hits a safety pin in the wrong way. I do wish CGI was used more sparingly in said bodily destruction, some of it wasn’t up to snuff. But I get it, small budget and all.
It’s a deeply funny film, not just in how the increasingly bizarre death sequences play out, but in how Perkins puts it all together on a technical level. The edit through smash cuts and well-chosen design, and the look via the cinematography (via Nico Aguilar) build the humor. Perkins also allows a sense of the bizarre to pervade, with some weird but fitting choices. We can take from his previous films that Perkins is an odd fellow (and plays one in Legally Blonde!), working out parental issues, and I applaud Neon for allowing his oddity and personal psychology to play out in these weird films.
The cast is fully on board, playing the oddity just right. For our leads, James and Convery are fantastic in playing both twins. While James is unmistakable as both, there were times I wasn’t sure if both young versions were Convery or two kids who looked alike. Tatiana Maslany brings a pathos, but also her own strangeness, as their mother. Smaller roles by Sarah Levy , the previously mentioned Adam Scott, Elijah Wood, Rohan Campbell, and even Osgood Perkins himself lend a weird hand.
Perkins builds a tight script, in and out in a little over 90, setting up developed enough characters, delivering on the promises of goofy gore without anything unnecessary (Elijah Wood chews it up for a single scene, a weaker film might have revisited his character just for laughs). I applaud not trying to explain The Monkey away. No celebrity cameo to explain where it came from, no random library or off-brand search engines to fill in a back story, and how to destroy it. The Monkey is here. The Monkey is evil. The Monkey will kill whoever it wants, however it wants. Deal with it. Or don’t.
Some character and more carnage.
Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey is a wonderful, bloody, hilarious, and strange picture. It’s devilishly entertaining, bringing a maniacal wit to Stephen King’s short story. Fully recommended for those into comic carnage.