(director/writer: Oz Perkins; screenwriter: based on the Stephen King short story; cinematographer: Nico Aguilar; editors: Greg Ng, Graham Fortin; music: Edo Van Breeman; cast: Theo James (Hal/Bill), Tatiana Maslany (Lois), Christian Convery (young Hal/young Bill), Colin O’Brien (Petey), Rohan Campbell (Thrasher/Ricky), Oz Perkins (Uncle Chip), Sarah Levy (Aunt Uda), Adam Scott (Captain Petey Shelborne), Elijah Wood (Ted); Runtime: 98; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: James Wan, Dave Caplan, Michael Clear, Chris Ferguson, Barry Kavanaugh-Jones; Neon; 2025)
“Despite all the monkey business, there’s no tension or a build-up of suspense.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Horror film writer and director Oz Perkins (“Gretel & Hansel”/”Longlegs,” the 50-year-old son of Anthony Perkins) loosely adapts to the screen a Stephen King 1980 short story. Its tagline is “everybody dies and that’s fucked up.” Oz made the absurd macabre horror film comedic, cartoonish and playful. It has a high body count thanks to a drum playing organ grinder’s mechanical monkey.
The killer wind-up monkey wears a red vest and has a sinister permanent grin. The murders by the monkey are referred to as “freak tragedies.” There’s one of a grocery clerk who chokes on a vape and a babysitter who is beheaded at an hibachi-styled restaurant.
In the prologue, the beleaguered father (Adam Scott) of twins fails to sell his killer monkey toy at an antique shop. The store owner gets disemboweled when the monkey gets excited and starts banging the drum.
During the middle school years Christian Convery plays both youths. With their dad bolting from the household, they stay with their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany).
Bill is the naughty, bully twin, while Hal is the timid, nerdy one. Bill enjoys playing terrible pranks on his vulnerable brother, which are more obnoxious than funny.
After a series of family deaths, the twins are sent to live with their eccentric childless Aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) and Uncle Chip (Oz Perkins) in Casco, Maine.
The boys tie up the toy monkey and toss it into a well, after realizing it’s indestructible and can’t stop killing.
As adults the twins, now played by Theo James, go in separate ways. Meanwhile the monkey somehow resurfaces after 25 years and again goes on a killing spree.
The twins provide voice-overs about the plot points, and we observe more creative comically gruesome deaths.
Despite all the monkey business, there’s no tension or a build-up of suspense. This is a nonsensical film that even the filmmaker fails to take seriously. It might tickle the funny bone of those who like shock humor, but it rubbed me the wrong way. It’s a misanthropic film that makes light of death, but has nothing worthwhile to say about the human condition. Its comedic efforts were too crass, heavy-handed and absurd.
REVIEWED ON 2/21/2025 GRADE: C+
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