Here’s a film that asks, “What if Final Destination were a comedy?” It’s hard to deny how funny it could be if the late Rube Goldberg were in charge of stunts in horror films … but it might look a little like The Monkey, a tragic film with comic timing. You either love it or you don’t; there’s unlikely to be much of an in-between here.
The premise is there exists an evil supernatural monkey toy stylized after an organ grinder. When wound up, The Monkey does a little mechanical trick spinning a drumstick and then proceeds to tappity-tap-tap on his drum just like it was created to do so. Great. It’s stupid and silly… a toy likely to amuse a small child for no more than five minutes maximum.
Oh, but there’s a catch – wound or no, every time The Monkey plays the drum, someone dies, often in spectacular and grisly fashion. For example, the movie opens in a pawn shop where the father of our twin “heroes” is trying to unload The Monkey. When the owner scoffs, The Monkey drums, and in a series of inventive domino-falls, the harpoon-wielding mannequin in the back of the store pivots and shoots the owner in the torso. The harpoon string then slowly recoils taking intestine with it. Wanna see a man slowly disemboweled by a toy? Here it is.
That’s probably enough to make you want to see/ignore this film already. For the sake of reviewing, I will glide over the plot briefly: Hal and Bill Shelburn are mismatched twin boys … despite the fact that they are played the same actor (Chistian Convery as young Hal/Bill; Theo James as adult Hal/Bill). Bill, the elder by three minutes, is a dominant caveman douchebag. Hal is more thoughtful and docile. Yeah, these two are going to be at odds sooner or later.
With an absentee father and an overworked mother, the teen version of the boys go exploring 
in their father’s closet and discover The Monkey. It takes them not long at all to realize activating The Monkey comes with a human sacrifice. But The Monkey itself is pretty arbitrary about who gets it. Oh, and it’s also immortal, indestructible, and can teleport, so once The Monkey becomes part of your life, it’s hard to lose.
This is a classic black comedy – the best parts here are colorful deaths followed by exasperated operators. If you don’t dig a 40-foot intestine unroll for the sake of comic effect, you probably aren’t going to enjoy this film. The Monkey is a Stephen King adaptation. It’s no Shawshank Redemption, but I’d definitely rate it among the top half of King works brought to the big screen.
The Monkey surveys all it saw
And chooses through some simian chutzpah
Which one of us dies
All one big surprise!
Think it’s also the source of monkey paw?
Rated R, 98 Minutes
Director: Osgood Perkins
Writer: Osgood Perkins, Stephen King
Genre: Stupid pet tricks
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Suckers for comic horror
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Everybody else
