THE MONKEY: Gory, Gratuitous, Hilarious

When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree, forcing the estranged siblings to confront the cursed toy.

Osgood Perkins has been apart of the horror genre his whole life being the son of the legendary Anthony Perkins (aka Norman Bates from Psycho). He’s also made a name for himself within the horror genre having written and directed several niche films like The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and Gretel and Hansel. He finally made a bigger splash last year with the disturbingly eerie Longlegs which featured Nicolas Cage in a career best as the demented Longlegs killer. Osgood’s legendary filmography grows as he tackles the master of horror Stephen King’s short story The Monkey which was included in the book Skeleton Crew published in 1985. The results are so uproarious, I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing on the silver screen.

Let’s just say that I have never laughed this hard at gratuitous over-the-top gore since Final Destination 2! The movie’s entire marketing revolved around the promise of the most outrageous, gory deaths you’ll find in any film, and it delivered on that promise tenfold! I want you to imagine a film that combines the Rube Goldberg mechanics of the death scenes in any Final Destination film paired with a more disturbing iteration of Toy Story. That’s what you get with The Monkey. The film thrives in its absurdity and dives headfirst into the horror genre while treating death like some poorly timed joke at a funeral (which this film did). It’s never overtly scary to the point of having you jump out of your seat, but it gives you front row seating to deaths, some well-deserved, some not so well-deserved, and lets you witness the insanity this toy monkey unleashes on our poor victims. The swimming pool death scene was hilariously shocking to say the least.

You’ll find yourself equally shocked and laughing out loud at the carnage that unfolds on screen. The director has always held back with this kind of stuff in his movies before this, relying more on creepy ambience and unsettling imagery: this film is Osgood Perkins unleashed and every gorehound seeking their next fix and anyone seeking a disturbingly good time with death astride a pale horse will be entertained and satisfied with this delightfully brutal yet hilariously fun movie. This film is violently gratuitous, hilariously over-the-top, and unforgivingly gory which is why I give The Monkey:

4.5 Bowling Balls out of 5

The Monkey has been RATED R by the MPAA for Strong Bloody Violent Content, Gore, Language Throughout and Some Sexual References.