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The verdict is in for the new horror film from the director of Longlegs, and the critics say The Monkey is a hit, rating it at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes in early reviews from 21 critics.
Osgood Perkins is back in his horror bag to bring the short story from Stephen King to the big screen, following twin brothers Bill and Hal, who find their father’s old toy monkey in the attic, an event which leads to a series of gruesome deaths.
EJ Moreno at Flickering Myth says The Monkey “is for the sickos, the weirdos, and the nasties” and that “Oz Perkins delivers some sick s*** with his pure monkey madness.”
This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to people who watched Longlegs last year, the film following an FBI agent in pursuit of a serial killer starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, which earned itself the superlative of “Most Scary Film of the Year” from many critics.
“The Monkey is prime evidence that Perkins is one of the rare horror directors who can strike a sublime balance between comedy, suspense, and the type of gore and nastiness that has been missing from mainstream horror for years,” says Emma Kiely at Collider.
Meagan Navarro at Bloody Disgusting agrees, saying, “With brisk storytelling efficiency and a playful spirit, The Monkey delivers a Stephen King adaptation like no other. Perkins pushes back against logic in favor of entertaining midnight madness, and death has never been funnier or gorier.”
Courtesy of NEON
The Monkey‘s runtime is just 95 minutes, five minutes shorter than Longlegs, and it appears critics are appreciating that, noting the number of times the film’s “brisk” pace is mentioned throughout reviews.
“There’s no fat on this one,” Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com says, “which can’t be said about a lot of modern horror movies, or a lot of films adapted from short stories.”
While the praise overwhelms the critique, there are a couple of rotten reviews festering among them.
Siddhant Adlakha at Inverse says The Monkey‘s “ruminations are restrained by a tonally haphazard approach, laced with an irony that’s neither funny nor bitter enough to make a lasting impact.”
Jeff Nelson from Guy at the Movies agrees on the tonal confusion, saying, “Osgood Perkins leans heavily into a mixed bag of humor and horror, where the film struggles to break free from its one-note slump.”
The Monkey hits theaters on February 21, and more early screenings are on the way, so it’s expected that the film’s Rotten Tomatoes rating will likely alter in the coming days – but for now it’s a hit, and we look forward to seeing was Osgood Perkins has cooked up.
