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. 

Movie Review : "It"

Friday night my daughter and were talking about what her mom was going to do I told her she was going to go see “It”.Because 7 year olds know everything My daughter replied “No she is going to see a movie about a scary clown. I then tried to explain to her what the title of said scary clown movie was . But if you are wanting to see a movie about scary clowns you might be better off with the current season of American Horror Story. As “it’ doesn’t limit itself to just being about a scary clown and the bigger more sinister picture is well painted . itself among the some of the better Stephen King adaptations to film, this movie falls short of the Shining or the Mist in terms of scares , but has a lot of heart.This is only the first chapter so if you go in wanting to for them to return to Derry as adults then you better stock up on pop-corn and wait for the next movie. Generally speaking I think the director nailed the personalities of kids. This was the studio putting a ton of faith in a director whose other work “Momma” was luke warm. This film does a better job than the Tim Curry tele-vision miniseries. The big question you are really going to ask here is how does Pennywise stack up?

So you are asking Bill Skarsgard to stuck up against Tim Curry. If you strip away any cgi that was augmenting Skarsgard’s performance and kept it do who delivered their lines better than Curry would win.This also outline’s one of the movie strengths that blows the nostalgia horror fans are known for hanging onto out of the water. That is no saying we need to re-make “The Exorcist” of “the Shining” with today’s effects. In fact since this was originally a made for television mini-series and not a full length theatrical release then technically it’s not a remake. So it’s 2017 and has a bigger budget than the televised version, so it looks better. This is not just from a effects perspective there are some well placed shots, most of these you have seen in the trailer. Though a few like right before Pennywise starts dancing in his lair, so effective.

Pennywise never goes full out bug in this version, just like we are once again not shown the kids giving it to Beverly in sewer, I think that is something you can only see in Second Life. The sexual tension was more present. Not just with the kids, but a few of the townspeople and her father. Much like the lesson Joss Whedon taught us in Buffy that highschool is a terrifying place. The early adolescent world of these kids is just as scary as anything they encounter in the sewers. So it is much truer to King’s vision in this regard. I think the maniacal head shaking charge we see repeated by Pennywise was the only part of the movie I did not like, though the inclusion of the Wolf-man the protagonist sees in the book would have been a nice touch but perhaps Universal had too tight a reins on those rights. I haven’t read the book since it’s release in 1986. But the impact the book had still made me able to weigh it against the film and able to chant”he thrusts his fist against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts” which could have been given a little more context. So even the overblown drama of the Hollywood moments was not able to diminish the films entertainment value. If you are a horror fan you might find it lacking in the scares department, but it’s still a fun ride for Stephen King Fans.

Dr. Sleep

Thats right a book, remember those things? Can't remember the last time you read one? Well here's the perfect opportunity. Because once upon a time there was this book called the Shining , that was written by  surprise, surprise an alcoholic. Most writers tend to be those , but this writer was named Stephen King. You may or may not have heard of this writer, though it seems he did once upon a time write a good bit of horror that found it's way to the big screen.

The Shining is in fact the best book written on the subject of alcoholism, even better than the so called big book- of Alcoholics Anonymous, which Dr. Sleeps barrows many of it's catch phrases .King sobered up years after writing the Shining , but it was clear he was taring down many of his demons in the bottle while writing it. King found his novel overshadowed by the Stanley Kubrick adaptation, which is one of the few cases where the movie holds up against the book, though King would tell you otherwise.

With the first book's main character Jack Torrance, dead you would think a sequel would prove a challenge. King claims the inspiration for the story came when he was doing a book tour and some one at a signing asked him what ever happened to Danny. This question haunted King for years, he would find himself, doing the math as to how old Danny would be.

The ghosts of the Overlook Hotel do haunt the edges of the narrative, there are new monsters. One of them being the demon in the bottle. Like most children of alcoholics, Danny picks up where his father left off. There is also a nomadic band of psychic vampires, which is one of the defining elements to the story that really separates it from the original story. This also changes the thematic climate, the first book was very much about the horrors of isolation, where as this book is about finding community in unlikely places, some of these communities however are more sinister than others.  

At 531 pages, it still proves a pretty easy read, as you are quickly drawn into it. I read the bulk of it in four hours. Like most of King's work, I am sure it will reach the sliver screen in due time, though King more than likely put a clause in his advance contract to keep Kubrick away from it. SPOILER WARNING: Yes, they do return to the Overlook, it's just different from how it was left. So if you have ever wondered what happened to Danny, then pick this one up and give it a good read. Like most sequels it doesn't have the same impact of it's predecessor, but finds a path of it's own to take.