The Monkey Review: This Stephen King Horror Adaptation Will Shock You - In A Good Way

We are back with another episode of the Fully Booked podcast, and as February drags on, we find ourselves waiting for the winter snow to melt, just like everyone else in Eastern Canada. To shake off the seasonal gloom, we decided to treat ourselves to a movie!

Luckily, our timing was perfect because February 21, 2025, marked the release of The Monkey, a film adaptation of a Stephen King short story, directed by Osgood Perkins. Given our love for horror, and with Perkins’ track record of unsettling films, we were eager to dive into this adaptation. So, we grabbed our tickets, watched the film, and now we’re here to break it down for you.

The Story Behind The Monkey

The movie is based on Stephen King's short story, The Monkey, originally published in Gallery magazine in 1980 and later included in Skeleton Crew (1985), a collection that also contains The Mist - another King classic with multiple adaptations.

The story follows Hal Shelburne, a man who, since childhood, has been haunted by a cursed wind-up monkey toy. Someone dies every time the monkey claps its cymbals (or, in the movie’s case, beats a drum). As an adult, Hal’s past comes back to haunt him when the monkey is rediscovered, dragging his family into a cycle of death and destruction.

Though the adaptation stays true to the core concept, the film takes some liberties, including changes to the monkey’s mechanics and added layers of dark comedy. The Monkey currently has a 6.5/10 on IMDb, a 79% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 60% audience score. We personally think the audience is wrong - this movie is better than that.

A Darkly Comedic and Campy Horror Experience

One of the most striking aspects of The Monkey is its unexpected tone. It is absolutely a horror movie, but it also leans into an absurd, almost slapstick, dark comedy style that took us by surprise. We laughed - a lot.

The film is directed by Osgood Perkins, who comes from a long line of cinematic and artistic figures. His father, Anthony Perkins, famously played Norman Bates in Psycho, and his mother, Berry Berenson, was a photographer, actress, and model. His grandfather was a silent film actor, and his maternal grandmother was Elsa Schiaparelli, a legendary fashion designer. With this rich lineage, it’s no wonder Perkins has carved out a unique space in horror filmmaking.

Perkins has directed eerie and atmospheric films like The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, but The Monkey is a departure from his usual style. It leans into camp, exaggeration, and grotesque humor. While some horror fans might find the film’s comedic undertones off-putting, we found them incredibly entertaining. There’s a certain madcap energy to the way events unfold - especially in the film’s death scenes - that makes it feel like a Final Destination movie, but funnier and more stylized.

The Plot: A Family Cursed by a Sinister Toy

The movie follows Hal Shelburne and his twin brother, Bill, from childhood into adulthood. As kids, they stumble upon their father's old belongings and find the wind-up monkey. When they activate it, strange and horrifying deaths follow.

The film opens with a chilling cold open - one of the best we’ve seen in a while - where their father, played by Adam Scott, tries to get rid of the monkey in a pawn shop, only for a brutal series of events to unfold, leading to his own gruesome death. The family, unaware of what really hap