Starring Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood.

Written and directed by Osgood Perkins

Neon, in cinemas now

When twin brothers Bill and Hal find a wind-up toy monkey amongst their father’s things, gruesome consequences ensue with every turn of the key.

I haven’t read the original Stephen King story, but I think writer/director Osgood Perkins has something profound he wants to say via the medium of spooky wind-up monkey toys. It’s something to do with the fatalistic nature of horror. If death is inevitable (the words ‘Like Life’ are inscribed on the monkey’s box) then is the titular simian evil at all, or is evil in the hand of the winder-upper? Or whatever.

There’s also an attempt to paint a sensitive portrait of an estranged father/son relationship as Hal tries to protect his son Petey (Colin O’Brien) from the trail of carnage the eponymous anthropoid has inflicted upon him ever since he turned the key as an angry child. Teen actor O’Brien deserves a shout out for bringing a modicum of emotional truth to proceedings.

But despite these more serious aspirations, the problem with The Monkey is that it’s a misconceived ungainly mess. Its superstructure is that of comedy gross-out horror. Someone turns the key; someone dies horribly. How we laugh! Except the problem is we don’t. The Monkey is neither funny nor scary, and perhaps more significantly the pacing constantly misfires. It has none of the rhythmical skill – the timing and anticipation – that is key to comedy horror. It’s as if Perkins has watched the entire Final Destination franchise without understanding the basics of how those movies work and why the gross-out executions are so enjoyable.

Verdict: The Monkey is watchable, although it’s perhaps more interesting for how it fails than any scares, laughs or profound commentary on the nature of death. But at the same time it’s not bad enough to be inversely enjoyable. In other words, nothing to go ape about. 4/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com