I will not build a tension like Alfred Hitchock and his most outstanding follower Brian de Palma, who is the director of King’s most outstanding screening, or “Carrie” by the way, and I will write immediately that it was successful. “Monkey” It is not a horror as excellent as last year’s “Evil Code” of Perkins, but also King’s material hits completely different tones. Very Kingowski, which, however, is not surprising, since the story was created in the 1980s, when King liked in the lustration of Reagan’s America. A small town of Maine, kids who have to face their fears and a monster (this time a toy monkey) symbolizing our original fear throughout their lives. This monkey might as well have a Pennywise mask with “to” or be a car 1958 playmouth fury from “Christine”. It’s just that the material was taken by one of the most interesting contemporary director of Osgood Perkins horror.
Perkins did not build a “monkey” just like his previous thick and full of horror symbols. If I did not know who directed this adaptation of King, I would not guess that he was the author of “Evil in me” and “I am the pretty dealing that lives in the house”. “It’s completely crazy!”- Stephen King himself said about “monkey” before the premiere. I agree. Perkins invited us to a bloody, funny and twisted rollercoasterin which Kinga’s classic universe meets the ingenuity of deaths from the series “Failing Destiny” and insolence of Peter Jackson’s “brain necrosis”.
Perkins quickly shows us what climate we will get. First, there are subtitles like from the grindhouse cinema, and then there is the first death straight from Gore horror. The man (Adam Scott), brings a toy to the store playing a monkey, which in his opinion is demonic and deadly. The seller of course does not want to accept the toys and of course he quickly pays on the loss of bebechs. The monkey is burned with a flamethrower used with passion that Rick Dalton would not be ashamed of in “Once in Hollywood” Tarantino. You guessed – the monkey does not die from fire. The toy goes into the hands of the twins brothers Hala and Bill (Christian Convery). The boys are fascinated by herbecause she was found in the attic in the things of their absent father. However, they quickly find out about the dark dimension of the toy when their babysitter and then more people die. 25 years later, Bill and Hall (Theo James) and the son of the latter, Petey (Colin O’Brien), must ultimately (?) Facher to play deadly notes of the monkey.
“Everyone dies. This is life” – we hear several times on the screen. Melancholic sentence? Maybe King’s yes, but here it is important to die. Perkins abandons his seriousness with “Evil code“And he plays (and we with him) various fancy types of death. This is not a departure as in the serial version of” Dead Evil “or even more from the series” Terrifier “, but five with the creators of” nightmare from Street 3 “Street 3” son of Norman Bates performer in “Psychosis” can nail. Perkins packs to “Monkey” A lot of humor and reflects from the typical reflection on Americanity. The “monkey” is about pure fun, which, however, does not result from the infantilism of Perkins himself. His mother, actress Berry Berenson was a passenger of the American Airlines Flight 11 aircraft, who on September 11, 2001 stuck to the northern World Trade Center tower. Perkins survived her death strongly, which can explain the specific design of the characters of Mother Hall and Bill played by Tatiana Maslany. The father died prematurely at AIDS.
“Everyone dies. This is life” – Perkins understand these words very well. So maybe his bloody Toy Story, where by the way the monkey playing on the plates was also a bit ghostly, is a form of catharsis? Maybe. Disney, moreover, forced the creators of the “monkey” that their musical Jolly Chimp would play drums, not plates. Helped Not very much, I from now on every playing mechanical monkey (I had one in my childhood, Brrr …) I will look through Perkins’s eyes. This is the biggest victory of his film. The monkey has already entered the Hall of Fame demonic toys. I am waiting for some crossover with the Chucky doll, but I am also waiting for the next serious horror director of “Evil code”. It is good to know, however, that entertainment stupidity can also shoot in the best style.
7.5/10.
“Monkey”dir. Osgood Perkins, USA 2025, distributor: Cinema Świat, cinema premiere on March 7, 2025.