Ever since Longlegs released last Summer, I have been nursing an unhealthy obsession with Osgood Perkins’ filmmaking career. As the Seventh She incarnate, I simply had to be the first in line to see Perkins’ take on Steven King’s 1982 short story The Monkey.

 

Twin brothers Hal and Bill live with their mother Lois. Dad is nowhere to be seen, Hal is getting bullied by his classmates and his brother, and also it’s 1999 so they didn’t have twitter yet to doom scroll through the pain. When the boys find a toy monkey with a drum and a turn key on its back, awful tragedies start taking place. Realizing the monkey’s power, they throw it down a well. In the present day, Hal and Bill don’t talk. Hal has kept his teenage son Petey at bay for most of his life in an effort to protect him. Now determined to make lasting memories during their final visitation week before signing over custody, Hal finds out that he can’t keep everything hidden from Petey forever. 

 

Hal and Bill are twins played by the same actor; Christian Convery as teenagers and Theo James as adults. Both actors simply delivered two (four?) of the most well rounded performances in recent memory. Playing double roles is some good old fashioned filmmaking that can be a challenge, but a stellar actor/director dynamic can pull it off. Tatiana Maslany delivered two really good moments in her relatively short screen time that are seared into my brain forever now. And be sure to look out for a really prominent cameo- wink, wink. 

 

Perkins gives himself root access to the original short story and takes certain liberties and embellishments to leave his signature comedy-horror mark on the movie while maintaining its strong Steven King DNA. After reading the original short story, I appreciated the way Perkins reworked characters into a different context, serving more cinematic purposes while reworking a 40+ year old story for modern audiences.

 

Not only does The Monkey have gruesomely over the top kills, it also lets you know early on that there will be frequent and brilliant moments of humor. Longlegs had its dry humorous moments, but The Monkey is a true comedy horror. It explores the tense relationship between the worst situation imaginable and the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever. It also takes a look into different representations of toxic masculinity, ultimately showing how it never wins. Rather, choosing empathy and courage in the face of the utmost evil is what is going to save us in the end. The Monkey is also a movie about generational trauma and what it means when you pass your fears and worries on to your kids. I’ve had so much fun peeling back the layers of this onion and I can’t wait to see what else is coming from the twisted, brilliant mind of Osgood Perkins.