Not even a 12 months in the past, Osgood Perkins unleashed the devilishly creepy “Longlegs” and set stratospheric expectations for no matter he might need up his sleeve subsequent. Seamlessly mixing occultist scares with a ability for locating the darkish comedy in hidden corners (due in no small half to Nicolas Cage’s unhinged, rock-and-roll efficiency), the filmmaker’s assured course left many questioning — okay, perhaps simply me — how he may deal with one other horror flick that switched gears fully. As an alternative of a freakish deep dive into essentially the most unsettling depths of the human id, how a few horror-comedy that used grotesque kills and over-the-top violence to seek out the humor within the absurd?
That expectation-defying encore comes ahead of we would’ve thought with “The Monkey,” a breezy adaptation of the Stephen King quick story of the identical title. It will not take lengthy, nevertheless, for viewers to comprehend this function feels as loosely linked to its supply materials because it does to “Longlegs.” Having little to no connection to King’s story, I can solely take a stab at how purists will react to inventive license that goes far, far past changing the eponymous monkey toy’s cymbals with drumsticks. Sadly, that huge gulf additionally extends to how “The Monkey” measures up (or, extra precisely, fails to measure up) to Perkins’ earlier effort. The place “Longlegs” felt really recent and revelatory, this a lot shabbier follow-up cannot escape the stench of pastiche — and never a very distinctive or intelligent one, at that.
What’s most irritating about “The Monkey” is that Perkins had the correct thought to lean into the inherent silliness of the story. In any case, there’s solely a lot mileage you will get out of a cursed windup toy that brings dying to anybody caught in its path whereas treating it with po-faced seriousness. However overcorrecting too far within the reverse excessive solely opens up a set of different issues. Laughs transform as hit and miss because the strained and solely sometimes creative kills themselves. The distractingly arch, haphazard tone can by no means resolve whether or not to settle into one lane or the opposite. The script loses all of its momentum by the point it reaches a conclusion that is someway each too messy and too pat. Worst of all, any sense of enjoyable slowly finally ends up subsumed by the pervasive feeling of cynicism and snark.
In a greater world, “The Monkey” would stand as unmitigated proof that administrators should not be pigeonholed into one particular field. As an alternative, this disappointing collection of missed alternatives might need you wishing that Perkins had caught to his confirmed strengths.
Osgood Perkins tries to seek out the laughs amid the tragedy in The Monkey
Anybody who has ever misplaced a beloved one is aware of that, even within the midst of a grieving course of that seems to haven’t any finish in sight, tears can provide solution to smiles when least anticipated. Osgood Perkins has endured greater than his fair proportion of tragedies, and every one helped form the trajectory that finally led to “The Monkey.” Typically, his unwieldy script appears to argue, the one factor we are able to do within the face of our most existential fears is to snigger. Sure, which means that is solely the newest in an extended line of horror motion pictures about everybody’s favourite “T” phrase — trauma — however its offbeat method is one essential side that separates this from lots of its forgettable rivals, not less than.
No matter else could also be mentioned about it, “The Monkey” is rarely forgettable. That a lot is evident proper from the early parts of the movie, which opens with a zany, bloody prologue (that includes an oddly good Adam Scott in a glorified cameo) establishing every little thing we have to know concerning the movie’s foremost risk. This additionally works in opposition to it, paradoxically, because it units a excessive bar for managed chaos which the remainder of the movie is unable to match. Should you’ve been following together with the completely flawless advertising marketing campaign spearheaded by Neon, you realize the essential gist by now. The story begins in Nineteen Nineties New England and follows quarrelsome twins Hal and Invoice Shelburn (each performed by Christian Convery as children), the unlucky souls who find yourself caught with that creepy monkey toy and its accompanying murderous curse. As if its behavior of popping up in inexplicable locations weren’t dangerous sufficient, its skill to go full “Last Vacation spot” on anybody (besides the one who truly turns the important thing on the monkey’s again, notably) provides a much-needed dose of unpredictability to an in any other case easy affair.
If you will get previous the clunky dialogue, awfully unconvincing appearing, and a surfeit of eyeroll-worthy tropes all through these first half-hour or so, properly, issues not less than marginally enhance from there. Choosing up 25 years later, we rejoin Hal as an absentee and divorced dad (now performed by Theo James) who shuns everybody, together with his now-estranged brother Invoice (additionally portrayed by James) and his distant son Petey (Colin O’Brien), in a determined try to preserve his household secure. The previous has a humorous method of catching as much as us, nevertheless, and it is solely a matter of time earlier than Hal, Petey, and Hal’s whole childhood city are caught within the wake of this supernatural serial killer.
The Monkey by no means lives as much as its potential
On paper, every little thing about “The Monkey” ought to’ve been a slam dunk. Extra so than many different style mashups, horror-comedies require the steadiest of palms on the wheel and Perkins appeared like precisely the type of expertise who might trip that impossibly high quality line. As an alternative, the expertise of watching this may principally depart you to dwell on all the missed alternatives. I are likely to abide by the notion that any given film must “educate” us learn how to watch it, purposefully speaking the precise type and method storytellers are utilizing to get their concepts throughout. For higher or worse, “The Monkey” vegetation its flag early on when a personality states reasonably ham-fistedly, “Do not give it some thought an excessive amount of.”
That laissez-faire ethos trickles right down to virtually each side of its filmmaking: from a visible aesthetic that often reverts to boring lighting and oddly unmotivated framing, to one-note gags overly reliant on abrupt modifying cuts or music cues reasonably than cautious setups and payoffs, to scattershot parts of worldbuilding that refuse to return collectively as a cohesive entire. That final half arguably finally ends up feeling most grating, as Perkins struggles to populate this story with many attention-grabbing and even colourful characters. Native burnout Ricky (Rohan Campbell), a hilariously overmatched priest (Nicco Del Rio) who retains officiating a string of disastrous funerals, and particularly the scene-stealing Tatiana Maslany because the twins’ offbeat mom Lois are among the many only a few solid members who clearly perceive the task right here. (Elijah Wooden is one other, popping up in an all-to-brief look … although not earlier than devouring each inch of surrounding surroundings first.) But for each joke that lands and each determine that makes an enduring impression, there are exponentially extra duds emblematic of the “Throw every little thing on the wall and see what sticks” methodology all too prevalent in “The Monkey.” Not even Theo James’ twin performances as two very totally different twins can paper over the remainder of the movie’s missteps.
“All people dies and that is life,” goes one fixed chorus all through the 98-minute runtime. Within the context of the film, what appears like a painfully rote remark at first is definitely meant to play as a profound realization. The inevitability and suddenness of our finish is not a ok excuse to surrender and pack it in; in actual fact, that is exactly what ought to encourage us to preserve dwelling. It is only a disgrace that the execution of such poignant themes leaves an excessive amount of to be desired. “The Monkey” is a blood-soaked barrel of guffaws and grisly kills that by no means finds an efficient solution to reconcile both of these.
/Movie Ranking: 5 out of 10
“The Monkey” opens in theaters February 21, 2025.
