The Monkey (R)
Bloody Disgusting; Dread Central; IMDb; Kindertrauma; NEON; Rotten Tomatoes; Stephen King Wiki; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Fandango; Hulu; YouTube

This 2025 film is loosely based on a 1980 short story by Stephen King, which I haven't read. It's a comedy horror, but I've put my review under "weird movies" because... it's a weird movie. (I will, secondarily, link to it under "comedy horror", and I've given the page the color scheme of my horror reviews.) Most critics seem to like the movie more than I did, and dig deeper into its meaning than I could. But I did think it was a decent movie, both for its humor and its horror. It definitely has some inventive and gory deaths, if you're into that kind of thing. But the whole movie is pretty ridiculous, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It begins with a man named Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott) trying desperately to return a wind-up drum-playing monkey (don't call it a "toy") to an antiques shop. It's obvious he's had some horrific experiences with the monkey, and I'd be curious to know more about that. We see the shopkeeper killed after the monkey plays its tune, and then Petey tries to destroy the monkey with a flamethrower he found in the shop. After that, we never see Petey again, and it's unclear what became of him.

He left behind a wife, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), and twin sons Bill and Hal. (They're played by the same actor, but honestly, I didn't even think they looked like twins.) The boys find the monkey among their father's belongings, and wind it up. Soon after that, their babysitter dies a horrifying death. Some time later, Hal winds up the monkey again, hoping it will kill Bill, who constantly bullies him. Instead, their mother dies. They're then taken in by their aunt and uncle. Before that, Hal chopped up the monkey and threw it away. However, it reappears in its original condition at their new home. Bill winds it, and not long after that, their uncle dies. So the boys throw the monkey down a well.

Twenty-five years later, Hal is living a solitary life, avoiding people as much as he can, for fear of their dying if they got too close to him. He hasn't seen Bill in years. (Again, as adults Bill and Hal are played by the same actor, Theo James, but again, they looked like different people to me.) But he does have an ex-wife, and a son named Petey, who he only gets to see once a year. (That was his idea, because he wants to keep Petey safe, though he does regret not getting to spend more time with him.) His ex-wife has remarried to a man named Ted (Elijah Wood), who wants to adopt Petey. After that, apparently, Hal won't be allowed to see his son ever again. So he has just one week left to spend with Petey. And of course, the monkey reappears, and more people die. Lots more people. And their deaths are always horrific. Hal receives a call from Bill, who wants him to destroy the monkey (or so he says). But things get more complicated than that, in ways I don't want to spoil.

It is never explained how the monkey caused all these deaths, and in fact I don't know how Hal and Bill ever connected the deaths with the monkey in the first place. But by the end of the movie, it's pretty clear that the monkey really was causing people to die, and it wasn't all just a coincidence. Because damn, that would be way too many coincidences. I suppose it's enough just to accept that the monkey is cursed, and not inquire any further about it. But I can't help wishing I knew anything at all about the monkey's origin. And I don't really know what else to say. It's all just really weird, and random, but I still liked it.