This is a film with heaps of dastardly monkeying about. Over the top. You betcha. It revels in beheadings, spearing, disembowelment and explosions. Human splatter is everywhere. No, I am not trying to turn you off, for this is a pitch-black comedy, based on a 1980 short story by Stephen King, written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs).
The Monkey follows a man named Hal Shelburn, who is terrorised by a drum-banging toy primate that heaps misfortune on whoever possesses it. We trail Hal and his minutes older twin brother Bill, who treats Hal shamefully. It covers two timeframes – 1999 and the present day.
The boys were raised by their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany). That was because one day their father Shelburn (Adam Scott) – a pilot – went out to buy a packet of cigarettes and never returned home. Hal first comes across the monkey among his dad’s belongings in a storage closet. As Shelburn travelled, he collected keepsakes for the boys.
Be that as it may, the simian is a portent of doom. Bug eyed, once the key on the back of the animal is turned, all hell breaks loose. When the monkey bangs his drum people die – always. After their beloved, quirky and caring mum croaks it, the youngsters are brought up by their aunt and uncle. And you can guess what happens to them. It is not if they are knocked off, but how.
The boys try to eliminate the chimp by chopping it up and throwing it down a dry well, but it always finds a way to return and wreak more havoc. A quarter of a century later, its mercilessness shows no signs of abating, even though the brothers have been estranged for years. Now Hal, a single, separated father, is trying to save his own son the emotional turmoil he faced by seeing him only very sparingly. But the truth will out, as Bill comes back into the picture.
Incidentally, the only time we see the boys’ father is at the start of the film. Dressed in bloodied pilot’s uniform he is trying to pawn the monkey, with disastrous consequences. It simply sets the scene for what is to follow.
Osgood Perkins has taken liberties with the Stephen King story. In short, he has personalised it. The most significant change is the addition of a twin. Perkins wanted that brotherly dynamic – toxic though it is – because that is how he grew up.
To say that The Monkey is a wild ride it a gross understatement. It is horror mixed with humour. Distasteful and over the top though some will regard it, others will wholeheartedly embrace it. It is such an extreme movie that capitalises on excess. A line in the film references the fact that everyone will die sometime.
I appreciated the representation of the opposite good and bad twins by Christian Convery as children and by Theo James as adults. Tatiana Maslany’s laid-back attitude as their mum also strikes a chord. Osgood Perkins has embraced the grizzly and the absurd. As a result, The Monkey is the sort of film where you must suspend belief and simply run with it to appreciate it. Don’t dig too deeply into the plot.
Among the most memorable scenes is one early on where a priest delivers a matter-of-fact eulogy. And then there is imagery of the less than conventional ways to cark it, some of which will remain with me for a long time. One thing is certain, The Monkey is a killer all right.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Alex First
Here are Greg King’s thoughts about the film:
This blackly comic splatter horror film is another featuring a killer toy. It is part of a subgenre that has included movies such as Child’s Play and Megan. It is adapted from a short story written by the prolific Stephen King, firstly for a magazine in 1980 and then updated and featured in his 1985 anthology Skeleton Crew.
Writer/director Osgood Perkins, who last year gave us the quirky serial killer thriller Longlegs, has taken some liberties with the source material, but remains faithful to its themes of father-son relationships, guilt, childhood trauma, bullying and being careful about what you wish for.
Many of the gloriously bloody deaths here are quite gory, but they are also played for uncomfortable laughs. The sometimes elaborate build up to a number of deaths is reminiscent of the Final Destination series.
Theo James beautifully crafts the different personalities for the twins, creating two distinctly different characters. And there is a brief, but funny cameo from Elijah Wood, who plays a “fatherhood guru”.
The Monkey is one for those who love their horror gory and bizarre and bloody.
Score: 6 out of 10.
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Alex First is the editor of The Blurb. Alex is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He also contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.
