“Everybody dies and that’s life” is a line repeated throughout Osgood Perkins latest feature, The Monkey. When it comes to the topic of death, many would wish to avoid it due to either fear or existentialism. Even though it is the one thing that is shared between all of humanity. Some are taken too soon while others are taken brutally, but death is coming for us all and typically comes when we least expect it. Most of the time, we grieve over the death of ourselves and our loved ones, but Perkins laughs at the face of death as he explores it in some of the most fucked up ways imaginable as he embraces the absurdity of death.
Adapted from the Stephen King short story of the same name, The Monkey follows twin brothers, Hal and Bill and their quest to destroy their wined-up toy monkey that with a turn of a key, kills off their loved ones in really fucked up, yet cartoonish ways. However, destroying this monkey is no simple task as it keeps coming back as it has latched onto this family. We open with Hal and Bill’s absent father (Adam Scott) trying to get rid of the monkey to protect his boys. However, it doesn’t go to plan and soon the boys (both played by Christian Convery) find the monkey and it doesn’t take them long to figure out how the monkey works as strange deaths begin to surround them. Their cynical mother (Tatiana Maslany) tells them “Everybody dies and that’s life”, but so much death has inflicted a permanent trauma on them. 25-years-later that trauma still haunts them as Hal (Theo James) faces the monkey with his son Petey (Colin O’Brien) one last time before it wreaks havoc on all of humanity.
If you are expecting this adaptation to stick to the source material, then I am afraid you may be disappointed. Stephen King has a wide range of diversity amongst his stories. Many of them are terrifying horror, while others are more heartwarming or comedic. Taking inspiration from King’s early works, Perkins decided to take a more comedic take on The Monkey. Embracing the surreal absurdity of this tale, Perkins creates a hysterically dark comedy that embraces the gore of the grindhouse B-horror films from the 1980s. The Monkey is strongest when it fully embraces the absurd, over-the-top kills caused by the toy monkey whose kills splatter the silver screen in blood. The kills are creatively-cartoonish, similar to a Rube-Goldberg machine, where we see every little foreshadowed detail leading up to the untimely death. And the kills are filled with all the explosive blood and guts that you can imagine.
Furthermore, you can tell the entire ensemble is having a blast making this film as they find a perfect balance between deadpan and over-the-top acting. Led by Theo James, who not only does a remarkable job differentiating Hal and Bill from each other as both processed their grief and trauma differently, but perfects deadpan comedy as everyone around him dies from terrible deaths. His younger counterpart, Christian Convery, does the same as the young angsty tweens. Tatiana Maslany also perfects the deadpan humor with her cynical nature. The over-the-top cameo performances from Adam Scott, Elijah Wood, and even Osgood Perkins himself prove that you don’t need a lot of screen time to make a memorable mark on the film.
However, when The Monkey shifts away from the splatter deaths and dives into the more serious tone of the film, the film starts to crumble, especially during the final act. The cinematic metaphor of the monkey symbolizes generation trauma passed from father to son, falls woefully flat. The message is by no means subtle and feels ham-fisted into this story as it sticks out like a sore thumb. When it was treated as a joke, especially during the first two acts, it worked perfectly, but when the film took it seriously, it simply didn’t work. Then when this clumsy attempt at elevated horror is paired with a paper-thin antagonist, you get an anticlimactic and abrupt finale. If The Monkey just focused on the splatter horror and the “daddy issues” theme was kept as a joke, The Monkey would have been grindhouse, B-movie perfection.
Overall, The Monkey marches to the beat of its own bloodstain drum as it embraces the absurdity of its own tale as it laughs at the face of death. Balancing horror and comedy, Osgood Perkins makes a film for all the sickos. It does lose its pacing in the final act, but it is still a fun ride for those who love this genre.
My Rating: B+
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