The Monkey

 

This review may contain spoilers!

The Monkey is an adaptation of Stephen King's short story of the same name. It centres on a toy monkey that can randomly kill an individual every time it plays its drum. The film follows twin brothers Hal and Bill, who inherit the monkey and explore how they use it.

I enjoyed the concept behind The Monkey, which explored the theme of intergenerational trauma. It is interesting to explore something that hovers over a family, can't be gotten rid of, persists no matter how ignored, and ultimately must be acknowledged and embraced.

The one thing I have to praise about an Osgood Perkins film is how visually well-designed they are. The shots in this one all have a real emphasis on framing, pulling you to the centre so you cannot look away from the horror of it all. It also toys with the fringes really well, sometimes holding something malicious just on the edge. The soundtrack is admittedly quite lively and places us neatly in the earlier time period at the beginning of the feature.

Theo James, who played Hal and Bill, is not in his best role here but manages to competently lead the feature; James' work as the more meek and misguided Hal is what really leaves a strong impression watching this work. Zia Newton, who played Dwayne, is a surprisingly good bit of comedy; his part as the stoned out Gen Z store manager having an awkward emotional conversation with James really lands.

However, the best performance came from Elijah Wood, who played Ted. I enjoy some of the absolutely bananas roles Wood has found himself in since his time as Frodo Baggins. Nothing could have equipped me for the semi-macho, semi-fatherhood guru role that Wood embodies here. We get this caricature of a parenthood celebrity, the type of author or speaker who advises other poor parents exactly how to do it. Wood commands the screen and the other actors, lording himself as the father supreme of young Petey. As conflict starts to erupt between Wood and James's characters Wood starts leaning into the macho, domineering father role. His attempts to convince James to arm wrestle him are quite hilarious. The only complaint I have about the performance is that there wasn't more of it.

The Monkey feels like an absurd work of horror from the very first scene. At all turns it wants to be scary, but struggles to be more than cruel and gory, and at others, it wants to be darkly comedic but fails to elicit a laugh. The movie seems very confused about what it wants to be, often dabbling into different genres at extremely offbeat and ill-considered moments. The main storyline around one twin accidentally killing his mother leaving the other brother to desire years for many years could have worked, if everyone involved wasn't so darn deplorable. You would be hard-pressed to find a character worth the audience getting invested in amongst the main cast. I also found the core conflict to be relatively shaky as a premise, there's a clear resolution and it cartoonishly struggles to get there. As a film, the struggle seems to stem from adaptation, how to stretch a light work into a feature film. Osgood Perkins answers that question by delivering a film that feels more like a montage of death sequences rather than a narrative vehicle.

The editing is very inconsistent, it almost seems to liven for a big death scene and then move to a sluggish pace in terms of cutting outside of that. I felt very little about the score, it seemed barely present and struggled to set a unique tone or put me on edge. 

Tatiana Maslany, who played Lois, feels like a really warped and impossible-to-pin-down depiction of a mother role; there was no character here but rather a blunt instrument. Christian Convery, who played Young Hal and Young Bill, has the opposite problem of James; Convery's Hal is hard to buy into while his Bill is decent if not unfocused. Colin O'Brien, who played Petey, is pretty insufferable as James' onscreen son; O'Brien constantly seems capable of portraying this one disappointed and mildly depressed state of being. Rohan Campbell, who played Thrasher, is an odd side character in all this; at best an unusual lackey and at worst a ridiculous death scene. Sarah Levy and Osgood Perkins, who played Aunt Ida and Uncle Chip respectively, just feel entirely separate and awkwardly included as more of the Shelborn family; Perkins is only really here to do a hash job as a comedic presence. Tess Degenstein, who played Barbara, holds a lot of potential here but isn't really allowed to grow out of being a caricature; Degenstein's role being a parody of an overly exuberant real estate agent is transparent and limiting. Danica Dreyer, who played Babysitter Annie, isn't here for much more than a visual kill; her significance to the young boys is often expressed but never really shown within the performance. Nicco Del Rio, who played Rookie Priest, feels like a stand up comedian bombing; Del Rio is clearly here to be funny but he tries to hard and loses any chance the scene has of succeeding. Laura Mennell, who played Petey's Mum, feels like someone who should be more active in her scene but isn't; Mennell is more used as an important background prop than a mother character. Adam Scott, who played Captain Petey Shelborn, really goes over the top for the films opening scene; Scott makes it clear this project is one of buffoonery and nonsense. 

Osgood Perkins is one of the most overhyped directors in the horror film genre right now. I would give The Monkey a 3/10.