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Film: The Monkey
Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Osgood Perkins, Adam Scott, Elijah Wood
Director/Screenplay : Osgood Perkins
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 98 min
The “Longlegs,” director goes on to his next project, a horror comedy, with a sense of fatalistic fun. It’s nothing like “Longlegs” which was a tricky, gimmicky, choppy serial killer mystery with a creepy atmosphere, great horror cinematography and a Nicolas Cage, looking unlike himself with long hair and heavy makeup.
Perkins’ follow-up film,“The Monkey,” adapted from a 1980 Stephen King short story, is funny because its really messy and clumsy in it’s attempt to generate macabre enjoyment. The tone is all over the place and the action is over-the-top. It’s neither classy nor subtle – just a whole lot of body parts splattering in ridiculous fashion.
“The Monkey” is a half-baked story of twin brothers who hate each other (and we’re not convinced why?).
Theo James plays twin brothers Hal and Bill who were gifted a wind-up money by their traveling father. It’s when their father and subsequently, their mother die in freakish ways that they begin connecting the dots. But for the audience it’s a done deal even before the first kill.The brothers are estranged and reunite only when Bill compels Hal to go see if the monkey has somehow gotten loose. Hal’s teenage son Petey (Colin O’Brien), is the add-on complication.
Right from the beginning we know what we’re in for – The opening sequence has an airline pilot (Adam Scott), his cap and uniform stained with blood, walking into a pawnshop with a wind-up monkey he wants to sell. It’s somewhat like ‘Chucky’ but there are no scares to keep you winded.
The moment the monkey`s right paw hits the ground with its drumstick, someone is killed and the weirdest thing is that whoever turns the monkey’s key will not be killed. The kills are all spectacularly splashy, tasteless in an operatic horror movie form. It’s a rather crude series of macabre, freaky, gratuitous scenes put together in an attempt to tell a story. The ghoulish chain of events and macabre weirdness don’t count when the deaths don’t even feel shocking.
The Monkey is morbid horror comedy that fails to generate any kind of rush. Perkins’ follow up is a madcap misadventure that fails to keep you engaged.
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