Review: The Monkey

By William Pattison

Well, I just finished watching the newest film adaptation of one of Stephen King’s vast number of short stories. The problem with most adaptations of King’s short works is there is a high chance of adaptions of his works being major suck fests. It is a major test of a filmmaker to try and put a King short story in the form of a feature film and not make it a head scratcher or at worst give the viewers the urge to slam their heads against the lobby walls. I still can’t get the adaption of Dreamcatcher out of my mind. I’m sorry to say that Osgood Perkin’s adaptation firmly fits in the latter level of pain.

The Monkey tells the story of twin brothers Hal and Bill. When teenaged Hal and Bill 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. But now the killings have started again and adult Hal with his son Petey must try to stop Bill and the monkey from killing again.

Director Osgood Perkins decided to change the rather straight forward King story about a killer cymbal playing monkey toy into a dark comedy. It was a nasty mistake. The supposedly joke infused dialogue sound unrealistic and not funny at all. Also none of the killing that are played for ironic laughs don’t work. All together this makes the film feel off and unrealistic, and not in that Troma way. This film is not in the least funny or scary and just comes of as plain wrong and unentertaining for fans of King or horror in general and it is unfortunate for that.

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