‘The Monkey’ Delivers Enormous Blast of Outrageous Kills
“The Monkey” shouldn’t work on any level.
The gimmick is simplistic to the point of ridicule. Most of the movie’s deaths are telegraphed a country mile away. You could jot the story down on a cocktail napkin with room left over for a stranger’s phone number.
Maybe two.
So why is it a cinch for the year’s Top 10 horror movie list? Writer/director Osgood Perkins, that’s why. The rising horror auteur (“Longlegs”) makes the most of the wafer-thin material, touching on family dysfunction in ways that give the story teeth.
Not the titular monkey’s teeth, mind you. They’re scary enough.
A ghoulish prologue, no spoilers here, announces the film’s gleefully dark tone.
Twin brothers Hal and Bill squabble endlessly, but they agree on one thing: They adore their single Mom (Tatiana Maslany, superb). She’s an odd duck but loving and sincere.
They’ll need that support when the boys discover an old toy left behind by their estranged Pappy. It’s a large, mechanical monkey with a snare drum.
Simple. Weird. Old school. It’s a curiosity they can’t resist.
Wind it up and, well, someone better call the funeral parlor. The toy haunts the lads’ childhood and, inexplicably, bonds with them.
Flash forward to the present. Mild-mannered Hal (Theo James, perfectly cast against type) never got over the monkey’s legacy or his bullying brother. Now, the twisted toy is back in his life, and it threatens not just him but his teen son, too (Colin O’Brien).
“The Monkey” is based on a Stephen King short story, and on the surface, there’s little “there” there beyond a cute horror ploy. Wind the Monkey up and watch what happens next.
Again, how pedestrian.
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Perkins develops the dysfunctional family with quick, assured strokes. Funny strokes, to be clear. You’ll laugh early and feel a tad guilty later. Black comedy has that effect.
The laughs flow from the maniacal kills and character reactions. Both prove irresistible and long-lasting, and the precise editing heightens the humor. Every gag cuts like the knives Idris Elba wants to ban.
James’ handsome visage should work against the character’s morose mood. Nothing doing. His Hal is a prime-time sad sack, and we feel for his attempts to do something fatherly at long last.
Horror mavens crave quality “kills,” deaths that are wild, inventive and fresh. It’s a ghastly part of the genre’s fan base. Few filmmakers have as much fun with the trope as Perkins’ “Monkey.”
Each death is a masterpiece of gore and mayhem, and we laugh partly out of discomfort and shame.
The third act puts a few pieces of the story in place, a process that isn’t as satisfying as needed. There’s still enough danger and creativity to power those final sequences.
Perkins drops by as the boys’ blissed-out uncle, a small role that lets us glimpse the fun he must have had on set.
We get it. We’re having a blast with his “Monkey,” too.
HiT or Miss: “The Monkey” sets the comedy-horror bar sky high, delighting in death while teasing darker truths about family dysfunction.
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