Of all the striking things aboutThe Monkey, and there are many, one of the most interesting to note is its runtime. At 98 minutes,The Monkeydelivers not only everything promised by the horror-comedy genre, but great performances, excellent direction, and an incredibly incisive take on modern masculinity. This is to say that a movie can be short, relatively low budgeted, and simple in concept, yet executed at an absolutely elite level across the board. We live in the days of bloated budgets and run times which, more often than not, fail to deliver meaningfully.The Monkeyis the antidote.
Of course, if you aren’t game for somegraphicLooney Tunes-level violenceplayed straight in a deeply moody setting carefully crafted by emerging master Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), then you should consider passing on this one. But you’ll be missing so much.
Shock the Monkey
The Monkey
Adapted from the story of the same name by Stephen King, The Monkey is a horror mystery film that follows twin brothers Hal and Bill, who discover a mysterious monkey toy in their father’s attic that seems tied to several grizzly deaths. After years apart, the twins learn that similar deaths have begun again and must reunite to destroy the monkey.
The Monkeyis anadaptation of a Stephen King short storyabout a vintage, extremely creepy, cymbal-crashing wind-up monkey ‘toy’ that, when activated, wreaks total havoc on anything in a certain vicinity. There is a great deal of mystery behind the “how,” “why,” and “when” of the toy’s powers, which is, to quote the movie and multiple characters, just “like life.”
It is in this simple set-up of the story and this Monkey-MacGuffin that the bigger, bolder themes and meanings are glimpsed and begin to emerge. Without an obvious spoon-fed explanation, one must begin to draw connections and conclusions about the events that transpire.
The monkey was left to two twin boys, Hal and Bill (Christian Convery doing double duty), by their deadbeat airline pilot father, played in a brief scene by Adam Scott. It is in a closet full of ‘junk’ he has collected over the years as he traveled the world, and the boys discover it (and its creepy, deadly powers) almost by accident. All of these early days are narrated by an older Hal (Theo James), whose gravely voice delivers his charisma long before he even appears on-screen.
Theo James Is a Revelation
Bill bullies Hal mercilessly as their single mom, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), struggles to manage their teen years. The timing of the discovery of the monkey at this pubescent life stage is certainly no coincidence. Right off the bat, it becomes clear that the monkey represents something pivotal about their emerging manhood. The first victim of all this is babysitter Annie (Danica Dreyer), an attractive young woman who the camera, and every male in her vicinity, seem to be gazing at. Is it any accident the monkey chose this place to start?
From here we get to some very callous and honest moments between an ill-equipped priest and Lois. Lois ‘comforts’ the boys with a beautifully nihilistic monologue on the nature of life and death that presages so much of the carnage to come. At this point in the movie, things have hardly boiled past a simmer, but the story is engrossing, hilarious, gory, and pretty deep.
Along with more bullying comes some emasculating coming-of-age hardships and a few more shocking deaths, which leads Hal and Bill to the conclusion that the monkey has everything to do with the surrounding nightmare. This kicks us into the present day. The handsome visage of Theo James enters the movie once we flash forward a certain number of years and see a grown Hal requesting time off from his stoner boss. Hal gets one day a year to see his son, by choice, because he knows he brings the dark curse of the monkey wherever he goes and doesn’t want anyone he cares about near him or it.
James takes over the rest of the movie as both the older Bill and Hal, as they struggle to grasp the legacy of the monkey, fatherhood, brotherhood, the past, and the hellscape that keeps following them, splattering on them, and just barely missing them. James plays the comedy perfectly, both from the Hal and Bill characters, while also capturing a genuine sadness and struggle with fatherhood in scenes between Hal and his estranged son, Petey (Colin O’Brien). It’s hard not to see James launching into any type of role from here, given the range on display.
The Emerging Vision of Osgood Perkins
Osgood Perkins' career dates back to his appearance as a younger version of his father’s iconic Normal Bates inPsycho 2.Since then, he’s acted in many projects, and more recently emerged as a dynamic writer/director with multiple great films before blowing up withlast year’sLonglegs. ButLonglegswas clearly no flash in the pan. That serial killer thriller is, in Perkins own words, related to motherhood, and it’s clear he decided to tackle the fatherhood side of the coin withThe Monkey.
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Perkins' visual skills are on display withThe Monkey.There is a combination of stellar lighting techniques, specific and dramatic production design, and excellent camera movement all coordinating to create a truly unique ‘world’ that resembles our own, but belongs almost out of time entirely. There are period clues sprinkled throughout, but subtle notes in color and art direction lead us into something more like a general ‘past’ and not necessarily the specific dates mentioned in the movie’s timeline.The Monkeyis, in its own way, a universal time and place.
The way in which special effects interact with the edits and character reactions, or the way the score slowly leads the audience to the next horror, (or joke, depending on how you take these things), is another masterstroke by Perkins. Horror comedy is perhaps considered by some to be a limited genre. Perkins blows the doors of that concept wide open, because there is nothing limited about this one.
The Meaning of ‘The Monkey’
The Monkeyinvited audiences to analyze our particular moment in the world. We live in a time when ideas of masculinity or fatherhood have become more complex than ever before, and there has been considerable pushback to that idea. The emergence of Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate, and others like them and their truly half-baked (maybe even quarter-baked) influence over men young and old has put us in a strange place. Those who are uncomfortable with change cling tightly to the past in an effort to make certain things… ‘great again.’ There’s a sense of devolution to that, something they embrace. They want to justify toxic masculinity by pointing to outdated biological and evolutionary notions. They want to blame the monkey.
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The Monkeyisn’t about all of those things in obvious ways, but it is certainly about them if you look at it closely and take it in our context. Like Hitchcock’s best works, including the seminalPsychothat starred his father, Perkins' has found a way to talk about big picture stuff without telling us what to think, how to think, or why to think it. He is spinning a great yarn, and also not so subtly suggesting that patriarchy has a dark legacy of violence. Sexual violence, matricide, fratricide, homicide (all the cides, really). Recognizing the darkness and keeping it under control is the task at hand. Be a man, not a monkey.
What does it mean? What can we do? There are lines at the end ofThe Monkeythat put it plainly, if you are looking for advice. The darkness is in our very fabric. The horrors of life and what people do to each other are impossible to prevent or ignore. They simply are. What do we choose to do with that reality? How do we choose to relate to those around us while we have them? What do we do with this moment right now?The Monkeyis about graphic cartoon violence, horror, and humor, but if you’re looking for it, it’s about all those other things as well. That is what makes it transcend the medium and belong in the larger conversation of our time.
