‘The Monkey’ Review: Osgood Perkins’ Energetic but Aggravating Mess of a ‘Longlegs’ Follow-Up
Imagine a live-action Looney Tunes in which the death and destruction are rendered in realistically gory fashion, and you have some idea of what Osgood Perkins is going for with his follow-up to last year’s smash hit Longlegs. Loosely (and I mean loosely) adapted from the 1980 Stephen King short story, The Monkey proves a major stylistic U-turn that will either strike horror fans as the coolest thing ever or just inanely silly. The film’s chief stylistic conceit is having its characters dispatched in the most gruesomely over-the-top ways possible, and it’s a joke that wears thin very quickly.
Harkening back to vintage EC Comics in its go-for-broke outlandishness, The Monkey, which would probably have worked better as an episode in George A. Romero and Stephen King’s anthology film Creepshow, establishes its wacky premise right at the beginning. A clearly terrified man covered in blood (Adam Scott in an amusing cameo) walks into an antique shop and attempts to sell a mechanical organ grinder’s monkey to the skeptical proprietor. The man’s fears are realized when the monkey suddenly begins banging his drum, with a Rube Goldberg-style series of events causing the proprietor to get graphically disemboweled.
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It turns out that the would-be seller was the father of twin sons, Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery), who discover the monkey after his death in a box labeled “Like Life.” Which turns out to be disturbingly prophetic, as the two brothers find that the demonic monkey seems to have the power to cause sudden violent deaths at will, demonstrated by an unfortunate visit to a hibachi-style restaurant with their ill-fated babysitter.
The story’s message about life inevitably ending is hammered home again and again, including by the boys’ mother (Tatiana Maslany), who soon falls victim to that reality herself. They wind up living with their aunt (Sarah Levy) and uncle (director Perkins, demonstrating he’s inherited his father Anthony’s acting flair), the latter of whom soon suffers a particularly gruesome death (let’s just say it will ruin your appetite for cherry pie). After learning that they can’t actually destroy the horrific toy, the boys attempt to rid themselves of it forever by dumping it down a well, which not even they believe is really going to work.
Cut to 25 years later, with the now grown Hal estranged from his brother (both played by Theo James), whom he hasn’t seen in years. He’s also the father of a teenage son (Colin O’Brien), whom he’s left in the care of his ex-wife and her boorish new husband (Elijah Wood, providing some horror-film bona fides) because he’s afraid that the monkey will come back and go after everyone he loves. Nonetheless, father and son go on a road trip together, just as a series of gruesome deaths afflicts the community.
You can feel Perkins’ obvious delight in staging the extravagantly elaborate, ultra-gory episodes that play like comedic versions of the ones in the Final Destination movies. The problem is that the deaths are so cartoonish that they become neither horrific nor funny, with the sometimes deliberately cheesy special effects no help. In the press notes, the filmmaker explains, “We really tried for an adorable horror movie.” It’s a dubious goal, especially when the results make the term feel too much like an oxymoron.
That’s not to say that The Monkey isn’t enjoyable at times, thanks to Perkins’ undeniable stylistic flair and the sheer exuberance with which he executes the silly material. If you can get on the film’s campily absurdist wavelength, you might have a good time, although it would have helped if James had gone with the film’s absurd flow rather than playing it deathly serious. There are times when an actor leaning into the role of straight man can make comedic material even funnier (Leslie Nielsen’s late career was entirely built on the premise), but this isn’t one of them.
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