I watched the trailer for The Monkey and as soon as I saw this was based on a Stephen King short story, was produced by James Wan, and directed by Osgood Perkins, I was all in. So much so, that I honestly never paid a ton of attention to the trailer, I knew the gist of what the movie was about, but I decided there and then that I wanted to see no more trailers or read nothing else about the movie….. that may have been a mistake.
How to Download The Monkey
The Monkey was released on February 21, 2025. You can expect this to become available for download or streaming on Hulu some time later. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check the current availability.
The Movie Review
The Monkey Movie Review: A Disorienting Genre Shift
I love Stephen King and feel that there are far more good Stephen King adaptations than there are bad ones. James Wan brought us some of my favorite horror franchises of all time and Osgood Perkins did the recent Longlegs which I loved even more the second time around that I watched it. This movie pretty much had so many things that I loved going for it, I felt that there was no way I would not like it.
The Monkey Movie: Horror or Comedy?
The thing is, had I really paid attention to the trailer or if I had watched a second trailer or even read some previews, I would have found out that The Monkey is not a straight up horror movie, it is a dark comedy. I feel that this is more of a comedy than it is a horror and that was a huge mistake in my opinion. Granted, I had expectations that were not warranted, but it was still a very weird and disappointing movie.
Hey, I love horror and comedy mixed together, off the top of my head, Ready or Not, The Babysitter, Cabin in the Woods and even Scream are all movies that mix comedy and horror elements together very well. The Monkey on the other hand has just a very strange tone that makes you wonder what they were really going for here.
The Monkey Movie Premise: Cursed Toy With Deadly Consequences
The premise of the movie is awesome. We have twin brothers (Theo James) who come into possession of this cursed monkey toy, although according to the movie, we are not supposed to call it a toy. When this “toy” monkey is wound up and he starts to bang on his little drum, someone dies.
As an idea, this is awesome and the way that we get these elaborate scenes that cause a person to die is pretty insane and the first time it happened, I was like hell yeah, this is exactly what I wanted from this movie. However, it then plays so much of the tragic stuff for laughs that it is just weird. Even the non-horror stuff, for example, and no full spoilers here, there is a weird custody battle thing in the movie and even that has comedic elements sprinkled over it!
Final Verdict on The Monkey: Expectations vs Reality
If you asked me to say is The Monkey a comedy or is it a horror, like if I had to pick one genre, I would say that this feels far more like a comedy than it does a horror. To be fair, I have never read the short story, but I feel the cool premise of this cursed monkey “toy” would have been so much better as a full horror. So far, this is one of the most disappointing movies I have seen in the theatre in 2025. However, now that I know exactly what The Monkey is, I do think it could be something I have more fun with during a second viewing.
© Neon
