Film Review - "The Monkey"

2025 seems to be the year we are finally flushing horror tropes down the toilet and getting more original movies than remakes. A low-key Stephen King short story adaptation does the trick. Not that this movie does not have some common ground with the Final Destination franchise. It is just done with more flair. The concept of this is easy to pick up on, even more the trailer, a cursed toy monkey brings death with the crash of its drum. Director Oz Perkins, who has also brought us other smart horror films such as  " Gretel and Hansel" along with last year's "Longlegs," their a blend of fresh cinematography that complements the storytelling to give this movie its charm. 

There is a "Wonder Years" gone wrong feel to the first half of the film. Then things flash forward to the protagonist dealing with life as a traumatized father, who is not going to win "Dad of the Year" by a long shot and is obsessed with keeping his son as far away as possible from the cursed monkey, even if that means emotionally pushing his son away. It is in this raw, gritty look at what life might be like with a cursed money toy that the real bleakness settles in with its emotional heaviness, which is another level of human dread. 

The end product of this finds the deaths as the lighthearted entertainment that gives a reprieve from the real horrors of dealing with family. This is an interesting twist. The gore is over the top and almost cartoonish, but it captures a grimly surreal look at the fragile thing that is life, and when life is as ugly as it gets in this movie, then death is a welcome relief. Here is where the twist on the horror genre takes place, as any Stephen King adaptation could fit neatly into a box, but this is done better than most.