Oz Perkins’ latest horror film The Monkey finds itself fitting snugly between horror and comedy, unfortunately the combination of genres dampens its message about death.

Loosely based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name, The Monkey follows twin brothers Hal and Chip as they are tormented by a wind-up toy monkey for over twenty years. They don’t understand what the monkey wants, all they know is that every time it starts to bang its drum, someone dies.

The plot functions more as a vehicle to show gruesome kills and the hilarious ways they happen. Even if the deaths make little sense, there’s no denying they are incredibly entertaining to see.

Unlike Perkins last film Longlegs, The Monkey does away with slow ambient horror, instead the scares are built through the gory deaths and fairly frequent jump-scares.

New Film, Old Execution

Even though The Monkey has a lot of original elements such as its crazy kills and freaky killer toy, as the film goes on it becomes abundantly clear where a key part of the films DNA comes from. Over two decades ago there was another horror film that had almost the same premise, that film was Final Destination.

Both films involve a malevolent force killing a cast of comedic characters in ways that aren’t as scary as they are stupid. The only difference is The Monkey’s creepy monkey toy.

The monkey toy is a great gimmick for the film as it provides some genuinely scary moments whilst also providing a weird amount of levity to the horror. In some scenes the monkey even looks pretty cute.

A big selling point for the film is its stacked cast, featuring the likes of Adam Scott and Elijah Wood in small roles that provide an entertaining backbone to the films non-stop carnage.

Unfortunately the thrill of the first act wares off by the time the third act begins, all the gory kills and scary visuals fade as the weak story takes center stage. The relationship between the twins is at the core of the film, but their relationship is one of the films weakest elements.

What Could Have Been

As the film was based on a short story, the expanded plot and new characters added bring the films point down.

The Monkey is a story about the inevitability of death and even though that is a terrifying thought, it’s kind of funny at the end of the day. Death is all around us and having that be personified in a killer monkey toy that latches on to a family and refuses to leave them is really funny.

Death is a monkey and that monkey doesn’t take requests. There’s a good message right there, but as the film lurches towards its admittedly interesting conclusion, all the meaning disappears in one scene just before the credits role.

If you like Final Destination and enjoy watching supernatural films that are in the same vein, The Monkey might be for you. Even Though the next Final Destination film comes out in a couple months.

Featured Image Credit: Neon