Year of release: 2025
Run time: 1 hr. 38 mins.
Rated: R
Genre: Horror / Comedy
Language: English

When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Don’t get The Monkey confused with the toy monkey you’ve been seeing on the shelf together with The Lorraine’s cursed collection. Its very different and each serves way different purpose from one another. The Monkey is essentially a demonic Russian Roulette, you turn the key and a random someone gets it. It’s a funny, but deadly, little game actually.
“After discovering their father’s old toy Monkey in the attic, twin brothers Hal and Bill are haunted by a series of chilling deaths. Hoping to escape its curse, they discard the Monkey and go their separate ways. But when the deaths begin again.”
Characters
Forgettable cast to be honest, though the one character that stood out was Frodo’s (as Ted). Why? Well because he’s Elijah Wood, its always a pleasure to see Wood playing a different character aside from Frodo Baggins.
Dialogue
Meh, it was crappy dialogue from start to finish. To be fair, they only had a short story to work with, and it only averages around 35-40 pages (editions vary).
One lane plot line
There really isn’t anywhere you could go with this. Once you see the intro of it, you know its going to be an eeny, meeny, miny, moe-blood fest-Final Destination kind of party. The only thing I was looking forward to was HOW its going to happen, I really couldn’t care less who was next.
Take note, “Horror-Comedy”
Don’t go in expecting a good old horror jump scare flick. If you’ve seen Braindead (1992) directed by Peter Jackson, this is in the same wheelhouse. Where someone d1es horribly but it’ll give you a nice chuckle. If you’re into dark comedy, this is for you.
What I Didn’t Like
- Story-wise it sucked big time. There really isn’t any story if I’m being honest. Its like a documentary of how many people the Monkey has k1lled and how it did it. I was falling asleep every now and again and I had to rewind it back just so I could give my honest thoughts on it.
- Too much CGI, but I couldn’t really blame them. Just saying that it could’ve helped their ratings if they used more practical effects. Much like how Braindead did it in the past.
Conclusion
It’s honestly an enjoyable ride, but I’m thankful I didn’t have to pay to watch it. It doesn’t even feel like it deserved a theatrical release. Regardless, it was a nice gore flick with great use of dark humor. Honestly, the only thing that got me going were the d3ath scenes.

Cast:
Theo James as Hal / Bill
Tatiana Maslany as Lois
Christian Convery as Young Hal / Young Bill
Colin O’Brien as Petey
Adam Scott as Captain Petey Shelborn
Elijah Wood as Ted
Sarah Levy as Aunt Ida
Osgood Perkins as Uncle Chip
Director: Osgood Perkins
Written by: Osgood Perkins, based on short story by Stephen King
Produced by: James Wan, Dave Caplan, Chris Ferguson
Composer: Edo Van Breemen
Cinematographer: Nico Aguilar