The tagline for The Monkey is, "Everybody Dies, And That's Fucked Up". Seldom has a slogan summed up a film so succinctly. While director Osgood Perkins may have spent his career to date crafting slow burn phycological horrors he turns the volume up to eleven this time round with a gonzo and completely over the top, abyssal black, comedy featuring flying limbs and a ledger filling bodycount.
Based very loosely on the Stephen King short story of the same name, the titular simian is an old wind up toy that plays a drum. Wind it at your peril however as every time the drum strikes, someone dies, usually in an excessively gruesome way. There is no influencing who it decides to take and no destroying it. The film opens with a father desperately trying to get rid of the unwanted toy and then switches to his twin sons, Hal and his placenta hogging bully of a "big" brother Bill. We spend a little time with them as youths in 1999, as the monkey reeks havoc on their childhood, before moving to the present, where Hal and his estranged son have to deal with the repercussions of the murderous primates reemergence.
To give you an idea of exactly how dark the humour in The Monkey is, its writer/director considers his previous film, occult chiller "Longlegs", to be a "funny" movie. Unsurprising then that to say the laughs here are macabre would be an understatement. Laugh you will though, as the combination of ridiculous deaths (think Final Destination meets The Evil Dead) and the deadpan tone of the world turns out to be uproariously funny. Perkins has said that, as someone who lost his parents in very public ways at a relatively young age, he spent a lot time wondering why he was so unlucky but realised as he got older that crap happens to everyone and the best way to face the outrageousness of death is with a smile on your face. With that in mind, the slapstick nature of the fatalities on display here actually complements the films themes of accepting your past and coming to terms with death being a lifelong companion. That the movie is able to pull off such an insane tonal blend is largely down to some great performances, especially from Theo James as both grown up twins. There are also a couple of very entertaining cameos to look out for.
Despite the change in tone, The Monkey does share a lot in common with Perkins previous work. Comedy it may be but there is still plenty of menace in the framing and it has its fair share of tense moments and frightening shots. Some scenes will linger with you after the credits roll. It also has the same timeless quality that permeated Longlegs. The section set when Hal and Bill were kids explicitly states it takes place in 1999 but the soundtrack, directing style and voiceover make it seem further back, like a messed up 'The Wonder Years". Similarly, the present day portion is lite on smartphones and internet, with people dialling pay phones and getting their info from TV news. This cartoonish noir world sits adjacent to ours, rather than as part of it.
There are a couple elements of the film that might prove a barrier to enjoyment for some. It has that distinct Perkins pace, which combined with the bare bones, concept driven, plot can make proceedings feel like a series of events rather than a focused story and there is a section where it runs out of steam before picking things up for an apocalyptic feeling finale. For something that is, on the surface at least, so light, it is also a clearly personal film and those who don't share the directors attitude to tragedy may not enjoy watching him work through some stuff via a canvas of dismemberment, impalement and animal related mishaps.
It's worth getting on The Monkey's wavelength though, because once you are there you'll find a uniquely twisted laugh fest that balances the bleak with the humorous to deliver something surprisingly life affirming.
8 toys to be vanquished out of 10.
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