Osgood Perkins
Cast
Theo James - Hal and Bill ShelburnChristian Convery - young Hal and Bill
Tatiana Maslany - Lois Shelburn
Adam Scott - Capt. Petey Shelburn
Colin O'Brien - Hal's son, Petey Shelburn
Sarah Levy - Aunt Ida
Osgood Perkins - Uncle Chip
Rohan Campbell - Ricky
Danica Dreyer - Annie Wilkes
I haven't watched as many new horror movies this year as I have in previous years. I don't have the same sort of access to theatrical releases as I used to. I'm also watching too many other things to catch anything new that's streaming. And, honestly, not much has grabbed my interest.
The 2025 movie "The Monkey" did, though. It's odd-ball premise and being based on a short story by horror writer Stephen King is what grabbed my interest. I just didn't catch it in theaters when it was released back in February, but I found it streaming on Hulu.
Speaking of new horror releases grabbing my interest, the new "Conjuring: Last Rites," which was released yesterday (September 5) snatched my interest as well, mainly because I read Robert Curran's book "The Haunted" about the Smurl family which the movie is based on. Otherwise, those "Conjuring" movies are more misses than hits in my opinion. The only one that I found entertaining was "The Conjuring 2" from 2016. The first one was too over-the-top for me. And the third, "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It" from 2018 was...honestly...I don't remember what I thought about it outside of simply not liking it much. Now, I'm getting off topic.
Anyways, movie makers seem to continue taking interest in the obscurer-er writings of King. I've seen adverts recently for an upcoming horror movie called "The Long Walk" based on King's 1979 novel of the same name.
By "obscurer-er" I mean older stories by King that haven't gotten the big screen treatment. The last King adaption to hit the big screen was, as I recall, "The Boogeyman" back in 2023.
Frank Darabont and Jeff Schiro happened to adapt King's 1978 short story "The Boogeyman" into a short film back in 1982. Darabont would later direct three other more well-known Stephen King movie adaptations - "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Mist," and "The Green Mile."
Frank Darabont and Jeff Schiro happened to adapt King's 1978 short story "The Boogeyman" into a short film back in 1982. Darabont would later direct three other more well-known Stephen King movie adaptations - "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Mist," and "The Green Mile."
King had a Renaissance around the time "It" was released back 2017. A surge of King story to movie adaptations began popping up - "Doctor Sleep," "The Dark Tower," "In the Tall Grass," "1922," "11.22.63." to point out a few titles that released either theatrically or on streaming apps around then.
I wrote about that back in 2018 as I checked out 10 not-so-remembered movie adaptations of King's works from the past.
1) The Mangler
2) Riding the Bullet
3) Mercy (Based on King's short story "Gramma.")
4) Dolan's Cadillac
5) Quicksilver Highway
6) The Dark Half
7) Disciples of the Crow & The Boogeyman ("Disciples of the Crow" is based on King's "Children of the Corn")
8) Segmented Stories - ("The Moving Finger," "Gramma," and "Word Processor of the Gods.")
9) Cell
10) Desperation
2) Riding the Bullet
3) Mercy (Based on King's short story "Gramma.")
4) Dolan's Cadillac
5) Quicksilver Highway
6) The Dark Half
7) Disciples of the Crow & The Boogeyman ("Disciples of the Crow" is based on King's "Children of the Corn")
8) Segmented Stories - ("The Moving Finger," "Gramma," and "Word Processor of the Gods.")
9) Cell
10) Desperation
King's short story "The Monkey" was first published in Gallery magazine in 1980. A revised version is included in King's collective 1985 book "Skeleton Crew."
In this movie, Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott) tries to leave a mechanical wind-up monkey that plays a drum, at an antique store. He's nervous and desperate to get rid of it. He warns the store proprietor not to allow the monkey to strike its drum. As he does, the monkey's hand comes down on its own and strikes its drum which causes an unfortunate and deadly accident to occur.
Petey ditches the scene but not before torching the monkey. He then leaves his wife Lois (Tatiana Maslany) and their two young sons, Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) for the rest of their lives.
Hal is the more sensitive of the two boys which brings on the wrath and anger of his brother, Bill, the more rebellious of the two.
Hal is the more sensitive of the two boys which brings on the wrath and anger of his brother, Bill, the more rebellious of the two.
They both find the monkey unscathed among a collection of items their father collected from around the world as he worked as an airline pilot.
They wind it up of course, and it does its mechanical performance.
Later that evening, as their babysitter (Danica Dreyer) takes them out to a Japanese steakhouse for dinner, she suffers a terrible accident that causes her to lose her head. This begins a chain of deaths through unusual freak accidents which occur each time the monkey is wound up and plays its drum. This includes the sudden death of their mother due to a sudden aneurysm.
The babysitter's name, by the way, is Annie Wilkes. If you know, you know. Paul Sheldon would definitely know. So, there's that weird callback.
Anyways, Hal and Bill are forced to live with their Uncle Chip (Osgood Perkins) and Aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) who are both more or less decent people.
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Christian Convery in dual roles as Bill and Hal Shelburn. |
Now an adult, Hal (Theo James) has never been able to completely forget about the toy monkey. Nor has he kept in touch with Bill (also played by Theo James). Bill relentlessly bullied his brother in their youth so it's no wonder Hal prefers to avoid any communication.
While dealing with a custody issue over his son Petey (Colin O'Brien), his Aunt Ida...yep...has an accident. It's a very, very, very unfortunate freak accident.
While dealing with a custody issue over his son Petey (Colin O'Brien), his Aunt Ida...yep...has an accident. It's a very, very, very unfortunate freak accident.
Hal's paranoia turns quickly into reality as the monkey mysteriously returns to his life. And with it, an undesirable reunion with Bill.
While the name Stephen King brings stories such as "Carrie," "The Shining," and "It" to most minds, off-the-wall horror stories (for lack of a better term) like "The Monkey" aren't anything new for King. When he's not taking the dumb side of dumb arguments on "X" in his old, crotchety age, King is still writing insane fiction. And evidently people are still making movies out of his not-as-popular works.
This guy wrote about a possessed laundry-folding machine in the short-story, "The Mangler," a town inhabited by the ghosts of dead rock n' roll legends in "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band," a haunted Polaroid camera in "The Sun Dog," and deadly wind-up novelty teeth in "Chattery Teeth."
If King can come up with stories that mix horror with outlandish plots, and still be taken seriously, what's stopping me from actually writing some of the weird ideas I've had for stories. And I do have a few.
I'll add that his book "Pet Sematary" is the scariest book of his I've read. And his short story "The Moving Finger" was the creepiest.
When it comes to the term "dark comedy," this applies to "The Monkey" in the truest sense of both words.
Some of the ol' Stephen King tropes are including in "The Monkey." There's the Maine location. Most of King's stories are set in Maine. There's also a father who left when he ran out for some cigarettes. And an insane premise sitting on top of something deeply (to some degree or another) psychological. Maybe it's drugs that arouse these weird plots? No accusations, of course. Seriously, what is "scary" about "The Monkey" and these other weird stories? In this case, it's the premise of unbelievable realities that dissolve boundaries. It's beyond the protagonist's control. In fact, the main character is at the mercy of some evil thing. And evil doesn't have mercy. It doesn't reason, either. Nor does it have any willingness to even try.
"The Monkey" has the feel of a classic campfire horror tale. Only an active imagination eager to scare could conjure up a story about a deadly supernatural wind-up monkey that plays a drum. Add some ridiculous gore and really grotesque ways to die, and it quickly becomes a dark comedy in the truest meaning of the term "dark comedy."
What I found most haunting was how well the face changes on the toy monkey without actually changing. The production quality of making the monkey have expression without changing its facial structure was absolutely masterful. I'm guessing it was either lighting or altering the color shades on its face that made its expressions go from innocent, to cunning, to evil and raging as it stared straight on with wide open staring eyes that never move.
Director Osgood Perkins certainly has a twisted sense of humor. "The Monkey" manages to be a great fright-night popcorn flick gorefest. It's over-the-top and it knows it's over the top. And the underlying theme of family and forgiveness in the most difficult time gives the movie some actual substance.
Otherwise, the movies' insane. It's crazy. It's practically puerile. I was invested from beginning to end.