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The Monkey Reviews
While The Monkey is a barrel of fun for much of its relatively brief running time, it’s a bit less memorable than some of the filmmaker’s earlier works.
The Monkey cuts out all the fat of vast lore and creeping dread to get to the gore and shock value.
These kills were inventive, they were brutal, and it was equal opportunity!
A riotous hoot that’s delightfully wicked, especially thanks to a gloriously unhinged Theo James.
The Monkey is far more pleased with itself than it has any business being.
Theo James does the heavy lifting as the hapless Hal being tortured by not only The Monkey, but also by almost everyone he meets. His resigned everyman is the perfect straight man for the insanity happening around him.
In its own terrifying, challengingly comical way, The Monkey stands as horror’s State of the Union address.
What if 'Final Destination was insanely funny but also an arthouse film?
To call this a bad film feels harsh, but I cannot in good conscience describe it as good either.
Much like some other horror comedies this year, it struggles with having to meet a level of extreme violence, and also make it funny. However, I was entertained. The cast is solid, and I think horror fans are coming for the elaborate and gory deaths.
At the very least, Perkins is experimenting with his craft, and his ambition is evident. But in The Monkey, the horror never quite lands,
Perkins' a very good horror director with the skills to pull off funny moments, but he seems not ready for a full-on horror comedy. A badly cast lead and a script leaning too much into the comedy makes for a not-so-fun ride. [Full review in Spanish]
What makes “The Monkey” so fun is its unseriousness.
An amusing, blood-soaked horror comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, although some uneven pacing and a lack of sustained tension do hold it back somewhat.
Perkins' latest offering is a fun splatter-fest that highlights that sometimes, the best way to deal with death is to laugh – and laugh lots.
The Monkey is a blessing in disguise in how it permits its lead characters, Hal and Bill Shelburn (Christian Convery, Theo James), to approach Death as a metaphysics of life, namely one that we, as humans, have at least some control over.
If Perkins is hoping to draw a parallel between fatherless Hal and his new role as an unwilling father, “The Monkey” offers nothing in the way of motifs or thematic depth for the parallelisms to work.
Osgood Perkins played this really well. It's such a delicate balance but he truly nailed it. There's so much humour in the storytelling and everything is so outlandish and over the top but at the same time it's genuinely poignant underneath all of that.
The Monkey is pure carnage, comedy, and the chaos of existence.
Unfortunately, the two main draws that would make The Monkey such a fun time – good kills and being funny – are entirely absent inside a film that lacks a true sense of identity beyond the visual elements it consistently steals from.