The Monkey Watch Guide 2020 (0)
Review 1
The Monkey is anything but a Stephen King horror movie. Instead, the movie is quirky, incredibly funny and in its way strongly reminiscent of the “Final Destination” universe. The premise is simple, but genius: Whenever someone turns the key on the mysterious monkey toy, the monkey looks for a victim – and it dies in the most glorious, absurd and quirky way.
The movie lives on from its darkly humorous production and exaggerated death sequences, which are both shocking and funny. You can see that the makers here deliberately relied on a mix of horror, comedy and twisted ideas – and it works amazingly well.
A real highlight is the cast: Elijah Wood as “Dad-Jesus” is just great. His portrayal is so underated that it fits perfectly into this movie and provides for some of the best laughs. All the other actors are doing their thing as well, but Elijah Wood definitely stands out.
The monkey itself is wonderfully staged as an antagonistic force: an eerie mix of children’s toys and death-bringers, which always causes suspense and surprises. The effects are solid, the staging is great, and boredom never sets in.
Although the film may disappoint hardcore horror fans a bit, as it relies less on horror than on whimsical fun. But anyone who can start something with a mix of dark humor, absurd deaths, and light horror will come at a cost here.
Bottom line: The Monkey is a wonderfully quirky, twisted, and funny horror-comedy that would fit perfectly into the Final Destination universe. Not a badass horror, but a lot of fun, and Elijah Wood as “Dad-Jesus” is the icing on the cake.
Review 2
A pretty fun over the top gory horror/comedy from the mind of that old cokehead Stephen King and directed by Psycho’s son, Osgood Perkins, of Quigley (2003) fame!
This one immediately lets us know what we are getting into. A pilot drenched in blood (Adam Scott, is it me, or is he slowly morphing into Harry Dean Stanton? It’s probably just me) rushes into a pawn shop trying to get rid of a drum-playing toy monkey, but things go horribly wrong, and the shop owner is disemboweled by a harpoon gun! Say What?
Then we are introduced to the pilot’s family, and it seems he split town! His twin sons Bill and Hal (Christian Convery) go through his things and guess what they discover? That’s right, porn. But also, the drum-banging monkey with the simple instructions written on a card being ‘Turn the key and see what happens’, and oh boy they do! With disastrous consequences!
The brothers are not exactly tight, and as they sort of get the rules of the monkey down, and the chaos they have caused, they figure out a way to get rid of it! LOL, yeah right!!
Flash forward 25 years and Christian Convery transformed into Theo James, we learn the twins don’t really engage anymore, until a death in the family brings the brothers together again, to hate each other, but it’s fun to watch! Because one of these twin brothers has gone bonkers and maybe, just maybe the monkey has reappeared?
Worth checking out if you’re into that sort of over-the-top goriness fun! Nothing too deep to ponder over, besides the family at the hotel looking suspiciously like the Griswold’s, the car even looks like the family truckster, the random beauty in the bikini at the hotel pool! Is this secretly part of the VacationVerse??? Hmmm, probably just me! But I’m telling you, look for it! LOL.
Also, one of those perfect 90-minute flicks that is well paced, well told and everyone gives a solid performance, including the director popping in as a weird 70’s style looking swinger and Elijah Wood, doing what he does best now, weird as hell roles.
I say, check it out!
Director: Oz Perkins
Producer: James Wan, Dave Caplan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Chris Ferguson
Screenwriter: Oz Perkins
Distributor: NEON
Production Co: Atomic Monster, Black Bear, C2
Viewers Discretion & PG: (Language Throughout|Gore|Some Sexual References|Strong Violent Content)
Original Language: English
