Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for The Monkey
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Just one year after unleashing the breakout horror smashLonglegsupon the world, Oz Perkins seems poised to make lightning strike twice withThe Monkey. And while Perkins’ new film doesn’t match the ominous atmosphere of his previous work, it does allow him to further showcase his range as a director and to deliver big laughs alongside his now-signature scares. In fact, it’s every bit as much a comedy as it is a horror film.
Based on a Stephen King short storyof the same name,The Monkeyrevolves around, you guessed it, a wind-up monkey that, whenever activated, brings death upon a random individual. It’s a premise that, on paper, could easily verge on self-parody, but Perkins wisely leans into the absurdity of it all. On top of that, he delivers what almost feels destined to be the most gruesome deaths of 2025, with geysers of blood on screen that would even putHappy Tree Friendsto shame. Yet one death in particular is worth the price of admission alone.
The Monkey
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Who Dies the Most Gruesome Death in ‘The Monkey’?
About midway throughThe Monkey, the story jumps forward 25 years after twins Hal and Bill Shelburn dropped the titular monkey down a well and seemingly escaped its curse. Yet the past isn’t through with them, as the toy reappears in their old house, killing the twins’ aunt Ida after being reactivated. At the resulting estate sale, Ricky (Rohan Campbell ofHalloween Endsfame), the son of a police officer, becomes interested in the monkey and purchases it.
But it’s quickly revealed that Ricky was hired by Bill to retrieve the monkey, as he plans to exact revenge on his brother Hal, blaming him for their mother’s senseless death. Repeated activations have seen the monkey continuously fail to kill Hal, so Bill hires Ricky to kidnap Hal and his son, Petey. Disguised in his father’s uniform, Ricky coerces Petey into entering Bill’s mansion, where he’s tricked into turning the monkey’s key, as Bill believes that someone else activating the device may be the trick to finally killing Hal.
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But a different person turning the key makes no difference, as Hal is spared once again. Instead,Ricky meets a particularly gruesome end as he waits with Hal in his dad’s police car outside. A stray bullet from inside the house accidentally penetrates the car’s windshield, as Ricky suddenly notices they’re parked next to a conveniently placed hornet’s nest.
All of a sudden,a swarm of bees charge out of the hive, through the bullet hole, and straight into Ricky’s mouth, stinging his body apart from the insidein a setpiecethat pushes the R-rating to its limits. As disturbing as it is in concept, the setup, payoff, timing, and sheer absurdity also make it a hilarious death, and it seems destined to make more than a few Nicolas Cage fans collectively shout “not the bees” in delight.
‘The Monkey’s Best Kill Is Bee-utifilly Absurd
Part of what makesThe Monkeywork so well is its utter commitment to going as over the top as possible without being shackled to any semblance of realism. In another filmmaker’s hands, we could very well see the disturbing factor of a man getting stampeded to death or a woman being electrocuted in a swimming pool getting played up. But going full torture porn with kills that are fundamentally ridiculous would be a tonal mistake, especially for a story with such a supernatural angle. Since Perkins plays these setpieces like a live-action cartoon, it feels like an invitation to laugh at theabsurd amounts of blood on screen.
Nowhere does this work better than with Ricky’s death, which gleefully dispenses all plausibility. From the waythe entire hivecollectively swarms into Ricky’s mouth to the way they literally crawl out of his skin, thus making his head look like an actual beehive, it’s all gloriously silly in the best way possible.And while one could nitpick at the obvious CGI, even that is weirdly in line with the film’s cartoony tone, and it’s arguably less distracting than some of the effects in the recentItduology.
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Rohan Campbell himself was as delighted by Ricky’s gruesome end as anyone else. In a recent interview withScreenRant, he got excited upon reading about the set piece in the script: “I had no idea how they were going to do it, and I just wanted to ensure that no bees were going to get hurt in the process… it obviously looks amazing in the movie, and it’s probably my favorite way I’ve ever died on camera. And I’ve died a lot of different ways on camera. But this one is electric.”
In a film full of delightfully over-the-top deaths, Ricky’s demise still stands hands and shoulders above the restin how expertly it blends the laughs with the gore. Even if therest ofThe Monkeydidn’t deliver(which it does), we’d still say that the bees are reason alone to give the movie a watch, as they’ve set an impossibly high bar for other horror kills this year to live up to.The Monkeyis now playing in theaters.
