In The Monkey (2025), (Almost) Everyone Dies. And That’s Funny.

Staff Writer Ezekiel Sen reviews Osgood Perkins’ latest film, The Monkey (2025), starring Theo James, Oz Perkins, and Elijah Wood.

Osgood Perkins, Elijah Wood, and Stephen King went out to a dingy bar.

It was 2 a.m., and they were a couple of drinks in when the topic of horror films came up.

Oz couldn’t help but praise King for his books and filmography that have kept him up at night like The Shining (1980) and Carrie (1976).

King blushes in response but inevitably agrees.

Elijah Wood just sits there giggling like a Maniac.

Somewhere in the drinks, the tension, the giggling, lightning strikes.

And then The Monkey (2025) came to life… At least that’s how I hope this film was made because it truly seems like it was made for the fun of making film.

The Monkey is Osgood Perkins, director of Longlegs (2024), the horror film that was on everyone’s lips last year. Based on a short story by Stephen King, the story follows twin brothers Hal and Bill, who deal with a series of unusual deaths that all seem to happen after a vintage monkey drummer toy bangs its drum.

What a 180-degree turn for Osgood Perkins, because surprise, (at least for those who did not watch the trailer like me) the film is a horror comedy, with emphasis on the comedy. You may have ironically laughed at a pale Nicholas Cage screaming “MOMMY! DADDY!” in a car, but I promise you will be laughing throughout this film, even when the people on screen are getting mashed to a pulp.

It’s almost like the reverse of a jumpscare, a jump-laugh if you will, as Perkins uses one of the oldest tricks in the book but it works every time— you’ll be met with a horrific death, stomach-churning literally and figuratively. But before you can puke, it jumpcuts to a framed photo of the deceased at their funeral and somehow it doesn’t get old.

Some reviewers online have been comparing this film to the Final Destination franchise, with how each death is crafted with suspense and creative use of mundane items impaling or disembowelling people.

If you’re squeamish, you will squirm at the gore here but for the most part, it’s so overdone and with very little emotion that you can’t help but guffaw.

Now, let’s talk about the true diva of this film, the titular Monkey. Not since Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022) have I been this unsettled by an ape/monkey villain. The eyes on this thing have nothing but murderous malice in them, and its placement and presence in scenes just feels so intrusive.

However, by the end of the film, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the thing, going as far as to deem it “kind of adorable”. I mean all it really wants to do at the end of the day is spin its tiny drumsticks, play its little carnival tune, and sure, brutally kill people.

If you were hoping to catch some of that naughty boy smoulder from Theo James, like in White Lotus (2021—), you would be disappointed (unless awkward, nerdy men with little-to-no reaction to a body exploding in front of them are your thing). That by no means his or his younger selves characters, played by Christian Convery, were badly acted as a movie of this ilk really requires a straight man for the comedy to work, and they really do play the straightest men.

But coming back to why I think a film like this was made for the fun of making film; I hope this is the direction of cinema as we go along, where big-shot directors make achievable, enjoyable films that aren’t your kitschy blockbusters or your Instagram-able art house pictures.

Sure, it may not be the world’s greatest writing and the plot is highly predictable, but it’s still well-executed. There’s a difference between having fun care-free and making a film carelessly, and I think The Monkey towed the balance to the right side.

I think the one scene that nailed this on the head for me was a sequence where (SPOILER, though in a film like this, it’s not going to matter) one of the twins reveals his decades-long obsession with the monkey, seeing it everywhere he goes, including inside a fortune cookie and at a strip club.

I don’t think I can do justice in describing this scene further, but it’s a moment where the audience sits back and goes, ‘This movie is really just about a cursed toy monkey’, and that’s okay.

My only grime with this film is the usage of CGI to emulate gore. I get it, the body count was likely in the hundreds, so they couldn’t possibly perform practical effects on each of the gory scenes. However, one pivotal scene had the addition of CGI-created gore, and it did take away a little bit.

Will this film snag any Oscars or awards in the future? No. But unlike Timothee Chalamet, I don’t think everyone is in a pursuit of greatness, but rather a pursuit of accomplishment and a spectacle. This is the perfect film to watch with your friends on Halloween night, take a shot every time there’s a funeral and maybe you too will hear the sounds of the Monkey banging on his drum.

Also yes, Elijah Wood is in this film, and yes it is as odd a scene as you might expect.