The Monkey (film)

The Monkey is a 2025 American comedy horror film based on the 1980 short story by Stephen King. The film adaptation is written and directed by Osgood Perkins. It stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood. Its plot follows twin brothers whose lives are turned upside down by a cursed toy monkey that causes random horrific deaths.

The Monkey
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Osgood Perkins
Screenplay by	Osgood Perkins
Based on	"The Monkey" by Stephen King
Produced by	James Wan Dave Caplan Brian Kavanaugh-Jones Chris Ferguson
Starring	Theo James Tatiana Maslany Christian Convery Colin O'Brien Rohan Campbell Sarah Levy Adam Scott Elijah Wood
Cinematography	Nico Aguilar
Edited by	Greg Ng Graham Fortin
Music by	Edo Van Breemen
Production companies	Black Bear TSC Atomic Monster C2
Distributed by	Neon
Release date	February 21, 2025 (2025-02-21)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10–11 million

The Monkey was released in theaters in the United States by Neon on February 21, 2025 to generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In 1999, pilot Petey Shelburn attempts to return and destroy a drum-playing toy monkey at an antiques shop but fails. Shortly afterward, he disappears, leaving his wife, Lois, to raise their identical twin sons: the meek Hal and the cruel Bill. Years later, the boys discover the monkey in a closet containing their father’s belongings and wind its key. Later that evening, the monkey begins drumming while they are at dinner, triggering the accidental decapitation of their babysitter, Annie.

Bill’s bullying of Hal intensifies, prompting Hal to turn the monkey’s key again, hoping it will kill Bill. Instead, their mother, Lois, suffers a sudden aneurysm and dies in front of Bill. Overcome with guilt, Hal attempts to destroy the monkey with a cleaver before he and his brother move to Maine to live with their aunt Ida and uncle Chip. However, the monkey mysteriously reappears at their new home, completely unscathed. Realizing its power, Bill, despite Hal’s protests, tests it; it results in Chip’s gruesome death after he is trampled by a stampede during a hunting trip. Understanding that the monkey cannot be destroyed, the brothers seal it in its box and throw it down a nearby well, hoping it will remain hidden.

Twenty-five years later, Hal is estranged from both his brother and his son, Petey, whom he sees only once a year out of fear that his own misfortune will pass onto him. Hal learns that his ex-wife and her new husband, parenting author Ted Hammerman, plan to adopt Petey fully, effectively cutting him out of his son’s life. During their stay at a motel, Hal lies about being an only child, while Petey grows increasingly frustrated with his father’s apparent indifference.

Aunt Ida is killed at her home when the monkey, having escaped the well, is triggered once again. At the subsequent estate sale, Ricky, the son of a local police officer, purchases the monkey and becomes attached to it, as it reminds him of his absent father. Out of the blue, Bill calls Hal and insists he drive to Ida’s house to settle her estate and locate the monkey. Hal realizes it has already been activated when a woman is electrocuted and explodes in their motel pool. Traveling to Ida’s house with Petey, Hal learns that a series of bizarre fatal accidents have occurred in town over the past week following Ida’s death, where Petey also discovers Bill’s existence. Shortly after, the real estate agent is killed in front of Hal when a shotgun falls from a closet and discharges on its own.

Hal discovers that Bill now possesses the monkey, having hired Ricky to retrieve it from him. Bill, having long suspected that their mother’s death was caused by Hal using the monkey, has spent years waiting for its return to seek revenge. He has also deduced that whoever turns the key is immune to its power but cannot control who it kills, having repeatedly attempted to kill Hal, only for the monkey to claim others instead. Bill demands that Hal bring Petey to him so that Petey can turn the key in his place, but Hal refuses. Ricky, disguised in his father’s police uniform and armed with a gun, kidnaps Hal and Petey, forcing Petey to enter Bill’s booby-trapped house to retrieve the monkey.

Petey evades Bill’s traps and encounters his uncle for the first time, who tricks him into turning the key, resulting in Ricky’s death by a swarm of wasps. Hal follows his son inside, where Bill, enraged, attempts to force the monkey to drum without turning the key. In retaliation, the monkey begins drumming uncontrollably, triggering widespread death and destruction throughout the town while still sparing Hal. Amid the chaos, Hal and Bill reconcile over their shared grief for their mother and apologize to each other. Shortly after, the monkey suddenly decapitates Bill using one of his own booby traps.

Hal and Petey drive through town, accepting their fate as the monkey’s owners to prevent the key from ever being turned again. At an intersection, a pale black-eyed man riding a pale horse — implied to represent the Pale Horseman — passes by and acknowledges them. Hal, determined to reconnect with his son, suggests they go dancing, something Lois had loved. Petey accepts.

Cast

• Theo James as Hal and Bill Shelburn
  • Christian Convery as young Hal and Bill
• Tatiana Maslany as Lois Shelburn, Hal and Bill's mother
• Colin O'Brien as Petey, Hal's son
• Rohan Campbell as Ricky
• Sarah Levy as Ida, Hal and Bill's aunt
• Adam Scott as Capt. Petey Shelburn, Hal and Bill's absent father
• Elijah Wood as Ted Hammerman, the new husband of Hal's ex-wife
• Osgood Perkins as Chip, Hal and Bill's uncle
• Danica Dreyer as Annie Wilkes, Hal and Bill's babysitter
• Laura Mennell as Hal's ex-wife and Petey's mother
• Nicco Del Rio as Rookie Priest

Production

Director Frank Darabont originally held the film rights to Stephen King's short story "The Monkey" and planned to begin working on a film adaptation upon completing The Mist (2007), itself an adaptation of one of King's novellas. The project never materialized.

Going into the 2023 Cannes Film Market, financer Black Bear Pictures announced that a film adaptation of "The Monkey" was in development and up for sale to distributors. Osgood Perkins was hired to write and direct, and James Wan would produce under his Atomic Monster banner. Theo James was cast in the lead role. In March 2024, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell and Sarah Levy were revealed to have joined the cast.

Principal photography occurred in Vancouver from February 5 to March 22, 2024. The original story by Stephen King features a cymbal-banging monkey, but the film replaces the cymbals with a drum. According to Perkins, this change was made because the film's producer believed that The Walt Disney Company owned the rights to the cymbal-banging version of the toy on the basis of its appearance in Toy Story 3. In writing the film, Perkins chose to give the film comedic elements because he thought it was more fitting for a film about a toy, and he wanted to distinguish The Monkey from more serious horror films about possessed toys. Perkins further stated that the comedy in the film intentionally avoids subtlety and makes use of extreme gore to joke about the absurdity, pointlessness, and randomness of death. Perkins stated fully to Empire on his approach to the material:

I took liberties like a motherfucker. They [Atomic Monster] had a very serious script. Very serious. I felt it was too serious, and I told them: 'This doesn't work for me. The thing with this toy monkey is that the people around it all die in insane ways. So, I thought: Well, I'm an expert on that.' Both my parents died in insane, headline-making ways. I spent a lot of my life recovering from tragedy, feeling quite bad. It all seemed inherently unfair. You personalize the grief: 'Why is this happening to me?' But I'm older now and you realize this shit happens to everyone. Everyone dies. Sometimes in their sleep, sometimes in truly insane ways, like I experienced. But everyone dies. And I thought maybe the best way to approach that insane notion is with a smile.

Marketing

The film's official trailer released on January 16, 2025, and amassed over 43 million views online within 24 hours. After 72 hours, it had over 100 million views; according to Neon, this made it "the most watched independent horror film trailer ever". In late January, Neon attempted to air a trailer for the film on four major television networks, and all four rejected the studio, citing the film's "excessive violence". Neon released screenshots of the email discussions with the networks, although identifying information was redacted.

As part of the film's marketing campaign, Neon opened an online application for churches to seek permission to screen the film alongside theaters. Additionally, Neon partnered with Bloody Disgusting to hold a giveaway for an exclusive resin sculpture of the titular monkey toy.

Release

In May 2024, Neon won a bidding war between multiple US distributors for domestic rights at the Marché du Film and set a theatrical release date for 2025. The film was released in the US on February 21, 2025. The Monkey marks the second collaboration between Neon and Perkins after Longlegs (2024). Prior to its official February release, the film was screened early in January at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre as part of Beyond Fest.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 136 critics' reviews are positive with an average rating of 6.80/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Fiendishly clever with some unforgettably gory set pieces, The Monkey reaffirms director Osgood Perkins' horror bona fides while revealing he also has a surprising – albeit sick – sense of humor." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Perkins has always been a formally confident filmmaker, but The Monkey contains some of his most striking imagery, shot through with malice by Nico Aguilar, and perfectly assembled by editors Graham Fortin & Greg Ng (who also cut Longlegs)." Stephen King, the author of the original story, praised the film, describing it as "batshit insane".

Siddhant Adlakha from Inverse gave the film a less positive review, describing it as "tonally haphazard" and criticizing it for a "lack of dramatic coherence". He argued that the film's irony and snark undermine any intended commentary about parenthood or death, comparing it unfavorably to Deadpool.

See also

• List of adaptations of works by Stephen King

External links

• The Monkey at IMDb