Hot off the success of indie horror Longlegs, Oz Perkins brings us a new exercise in cinematic terror. And this time out it’s a Stephen King adaptation!
How to watch The Monkey in New Zealand
The Monkey arrives in New Zealand cinemas on February 20, 2025.
What is The Monkey about?
The inevitability of death and family trauma!
Adapted rather loosely from the eponymous short story by Stephen King (collected in Skeleton Crew if you want to take a peek), The Monkey sees twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn find the titular toy simian among their father’s effects, the old man having abandoned them and their mother. The thing is, the furry thing is cursed—every time it bangs its little drum, someone dies. The twins ditch the thing down a dry well, but years later the now-adult Hal, long estranged from his brother, encounters the little chimp anew, forcing him to once again reckon with its evil power.
The cast of The Monkey
Theo James is Hal and Bill Shelburn, with Christian Convery as the young Hal and Bill; Tatiana Maslany is Lois Shelburn, Hal and Bill’s mother; Adam Scott is Petey Shelburn, their absent father; Colin O’Brien is Petey, Hal’s son; director Oz Perkins and Sarah Levy are Chip and Ida, Hal and Bill’s uncle and aunt; Elijah Wood is Ted Hammerman; Rohan Campbell is Ricky; and Nicco Del Rio has a delightfully weird cameo as the world’s most checked-out priest.
The Monkey trailer
Why we’re excited about The Monkey
Well, the critics are loving it! Kind of a gonzo meditation on guilt, regret, fate, and inevitability, The Monkey mixes gory, audacious death scenes with a hefty dose of generational trauma. The tonal shifts may do it a disservice though, and lashings of snark undercut the emotional heft. It’s strikingly shot, though, but this one is a pretty good time rather than a great one.
