Osgood Perkins’ version of Stephen King’s 1980 short story ‘The Monkey’ is a splatter comedy. The film should come with the warning, “Abandon subtext all ye who enter here,” with an addendum of, “Embrace metatext!” Perkins plays with the notion of Stephen King as a horror auteur by referencing his works and does so with a loving wink. Anyone expecting a deep dive into King’s story will be disappointed as The Monkey skirts around King’s themes to deliver a gore-soaked absurdist tale. “Everybody dies, and that sucks,” and fate doesn’t much care who. Fate in this case being a hideous wind up “Organ Grinder Monkey” toy that haunts the Shelburn family through three generations.
Perkins sets the scene with an uncredited Adam Scott playing Petey Shelburn Snr. dressed in a pilot’s uniform soaked with blood trying to return the monkey to an antiques store. The man at the counter points to a sign stating, ‘No returns on toys.’ It’s not a toy Petey states, don’t call it that. Also, don’t let the monkey bang the drum because if it does, everyone is “fucked.” Petey purchased it for his sons but has felt the impact of the uncanny machine. A very dead antiques dealer and a flamethrower aimed at the creature later, and the film kicks into Stand by Me mode with Hal Shelburn (Theo James) relating how the cursed object ended up taking everything from him.
It's 1995 and the Shelburn twins Hal and his brother Bill (Christian Convery) live with their mom, Lois (Tatiana Maslany) who says their father “Went out for a pack of smokes and never came back… made like an egg and scrambled.” Bill, who devoured most of Lois’ placenta is a typical King bully – he enjoys making the quieter and bespectacled Hal’s life hell. Hal fantasises about crushing his brother’s skull with Lois’ bowling ball and ending Bill’s reign of terror over him.
One day the twins go through the cupboard filled with Petey’s various souvenirs collected from his international flights (“Your inheritance,” Lois claims with wounded cynicism). The blue box containing the monkey – as new – proclaims it is “Like Life” and on the underside of the box is the command, “Turn the key and see what happens.” Hal is wary of the abjectly ugly toy with its shiny eyes and stained teeth, but as Petey’s “Next of skin” Bill ignores his “shithead” brother and winds it up. That act curses the brothers to a life of “WTF?” deaths – including that of their babysitter Annie Wilkes (Danica Dreyer) in a Hibachi restaurant accident. Hal realises there is something specific about the monkey and begs ownership of it from Bill who uses the request as another opportunity to humiliate him. The monkey transfers to Hal, who one day in frustration after being set upon by a group of Carrie like bullies at high school (encouraged by Bill) turns the key hoping it will take his brother – instead death being death, chooses another target. “Like life,” there is no controlling who death takes – “Everything is an accident, and nothing is accidental,” said Lois before her extremely rare death.
Perkins follows King’s story by relocating Hal and Bill to Casco, Maine (“The birthplace of locals”) where they are adopted by their Uncle Chip (Osgood Perkins) and Aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) who will “do their best to raise the twins, but their best probably won’t be very good.” Uncle Chip meets a gruesome fate and eventually Hal and Bill throw the monkey down a pit because destroying it is impossible.
Twenty-five years later and the adult Hal works in a supermarket avoiding spending time with his teen son Petey (Colin O’Brien). His once-a-year visitation is coming up and it turns out it will be the last time he will be able to spend time with Petey before his stepfather and fatherhood guru, Ted Hammerman files the adoption papers taking away Hal’s power. Hal wants to take Petey to a theme park, but the past has other ideas.
Perkins goes over the top with the bizarre and excessively violent deaths. The pantomime of perverse ends for people is played for laughs. Death by vape, exploding people into pink mists, death by hornet’s nest, crushing others into what looks like canned beans. The entirety of Casco, Maine turning into an apocalyptic frenzy that even death riding on his pale horse finds exhausting.
Perkins admittedly does skim the surface of some of King’s thematic concerns (bullying, wish fulfilment, father-son relationships, the uncanny aspect of twins, obsession) but he’s playing in King’s death-riddled sandpit with relish and fondness. The Monkey isn’t deep, it’s high camp with an extreme body count pushing the envelope of horror-comedy to its natural conclusion. Supernatural snuff spectacle has rarely been so much fun.
Director: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O'Brien
Writer: Osgood Perkins, (Based on the short story by Stephen King)
Producers: Dave Caplan, Chris Ferguson, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, James Wan
Music: Edo Van Breemen
Cinematography: Nico Aguilar
Editor: Graham Fortin, Greg Ng
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