The Monkey, the latest Stephen King adaptation, hit theaters over the weekend. There’s been a string of horror-esque movies to start the year, including this one. When someone like King’s name is attached to a project in any way, though, it’s often a good idea to tune in. His adaptations, though nearly countless, are more good than bad. Is that the case with this one? Or is it all guts and no glory?
The Monkey Drums Through A Fun Hour-and-a-Half
The Monkey comes from Osgood Perkins, who rose largely to fame with 2024’s Longlegs, one of the best horror movies to come out in a pretty strong year for the genre. That movie thrived on being just barely humorous, as everything that’s funny in the film is largely designed only to make the viewer more uncomfortable. In his latest scary movie, the comedy is much more prevalent. In fact, I’d argue it’s the main genre. This is absolutely a horror-comedy, and there are some absolutely gnarly moments filling the taut 98-minute runtime. But truthfully, it’s much more of a comedy-horror, as even the horrific moments are sometimes met with laughs.
As such, it becomes even more subjective of a film. Sure, all film is subjective. Horror is very subjective, as what’s scary to one won’t be scary to another. Comedy is even worse, and most movies with comedy do not nail 100% of the jokes. That’s true here. There is a particular scene that’s supposed to be quite tense and uses a line that I won’t spoil as a callback to someone saying it earlier. It was cringy at first, and it only got worse the second time, and I genuinely couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be.
There is also a surprising amount of “Did I just say that out loud?”-esque jokes. I mean that literally, as that’s one of the jokes in the movie (it’s not as bad as it sounds). For such a gory film, it had plenty of comedy, but comedy that felt at times more appropriate to a movie designed for 12-year-olds. Speaking of that gore, gnarly, as I said earlier, is perhaps the best word to describe The Monkey. It’s bloody, disgusting, and revolting at times, but it doesn’t ever go quite too far.
I recently watched The Substance, and that film had more than a few sequences that I pretty much had to turn away from. I grimaced plenty and took some longer blinks at times during Perkins’ film, but it was never that bad. If you’re squeamish, know that going in, but it’s not Quentin Tarantino levels of gore. Truthfully, all the kills, and there are a great many, are inventive. They seem to try and one-up each other, and one makes for a jaw-dropping finale that I didn’t see coming.
The film suffers a little in pacing. The first third of the movie is paced fine, and the pacing picks up in the middle, but the final act seems almost too quick. Obviously, 98 minutes isn’t particularly long for a movie these days, and it may have been a little too short. There’s some emotional growth and a bit of a resolution to the film’s central conflict, but it comes abruptly and far too quickly.
There’s a payoff, but it’s not earned. If you happen to check your watch right before this part, you’d be surprised to see that the runtime is nearly up, but there’s still plenty to be done. It gets done, but it throws a lot into a little bit of time. The plot, though, is passable. It’s not going to win any awards (nothing that comes out in February ever does). It features a twist that the trailers didn’t give away, a true rarity in 2025, and and one that I didn’t see coming.
In hindsight, it makes total sense, but the marketing hid it well and the early part of the movie doesn’t tip its hand. The cast in The Monkey is pretty good, though some people are far underutilized. Adam Scott performed well, but he’s on screen for maybe two minutes. Tatiana Maslany put in a really strong sardonic performance, but she is also not on screen as much. The plot demanded that, but it’s just a shame.
Theo James, who plays both twin brothers, is pretty good. I can recall after seeing Divergent way back in the day that I was certain James would be a superstar one day. It hasn’t panned out yet, and this certainly isn’t a star-making turn for him. But it is nice to see him in more mainstream projects (including his brilliant season of The White Lotus) that he doesn’t totally bomb at. He had some pretty rough moments, but I’m inclined to believe those were more the script and especially the dialogue he was given than any poor acting per se.
The Monkey is a short, fun movie. It’s not groundbreaking, and it probably won’t linger long in the memory. But in February, it’s sometimes asking too much to even have a solid movie on the slate. The early months are rough, but there are some nice finds sprinkled in. This is one of them, and there are certainly worse ways to spend less than two hours on a cold weekend day.
Score: 3.5/5
