Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
The Monkey is an Osgood Perkins adaptation of Stephen King's short story that leans hard into splatter-comedy excess. The plot has a fun structural hook — the twin brothers separated by the monkey's curse, reuniting 25 years later — but execution is uneven and the middle sags. Acting is serviceable but rarely distinguished, with Theo James doing dual work that's competent but not revelatory. Cinematography is stylish in places but inconsistent. The film's best asset is its commitment to gonzo Rube Goldberg death sequences and a genuinely nasty macabre tone, giving it decent novelty within the horror-comedy space. The ending deflates somewhat, resolving the central conflict in a way that feels rushed and undercooked relative to the wild setup.