The Monkey

gmisk · 15-10-2024 07:03PM #1

From the director of Longlegs.

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1846219666080886785?t=6E8B1DOjp4ykRZ41VH9KtQ&s=19

gmisk · 16-01-2025 08:12PM

New trailer

JP Liz V1 · 16-01-2025 11:35PM

I hope no one mixes it up with Robbie Williams Better Man 😄

Jim Herring · 16-01-2025 11:41PM

Looks interesting 🐒

Bogey Lowenstein · 10-02-2025 12:04PM

Was Stephen King involved with the film or just based on his story?

Basq · 10-02-2025 12:07PM

Bogey Lowenstein

Feb 10, 2025

Was Stephen King involved with the film or just based on his story?

Not involved other than writing the story it was based on.

Bogey Lowenstein · 10-02-2025 12:08PM

Basq

Feb 10, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123154352#Comment_123154352
Not involved other than writing the story it was based on.

Phew!

Basq · 10-02-2025 12:23PM

Bogey Lowenstein

Feb 10, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123154360#Comment_123154360
Phew!

Indeed.. he has (shockingly!) praised it in recent weeks, but we all know that isn't worth much.

gmisk · 17-02-2025 08:12PM

Reviews looking pretty good so far.

The Monkey | Rotten Tomatoes

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_monkey

When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree, forcing the estranged siblings to confront the cursed toy.

ancapailldorcha · 18-02-2025 02:10PM

It feels a lot like a Final Destination clone but with quite serious issues with its tone. It's very slapstick in some places but we're clearly supposed to care about the characters which the film discards at will in increasingly ostentatious ways. It's just hard to know exactly what this is supposed to be. I'm guessing comedy horror but the comedy kills any sense of the latter while the constant jokes in the form of the over the top deaths just kill any sense of fun given the tone of the rest of the film.

It's clearly a story about the difficult bond between the two brothers. I don't understand the motivation of one but it's hard to get too involved because of the film's obsession with extravagant and gratuitous kills that border on something I'd expect from South Park.

It's functional, I suppose. I didn't recognise Theo James or Elijah Wood so that was a nice surprise but that's about it. Perkins was behind Longlegs and this feels like a weaker fusion of that and Final Destination.

piplip87 · 18-02-2025 02:19PM

Went to Odean scream unseen last night and to my surprise this was the movie shown.

Its absolutely mental, funny in parts and quite a good watch

2smiggy · 21-02-2025 04:54PM

the lad on Movies & Booze on Moncrieff enjoyed it anyway !!

Basq · 21-02-2025 06:07PM

Kermode gave it a very good review too..

johnny_ultimate · 21-02-2025 06:47PM

Didn't come together for me, alas. I think there are plenty of funny, absurd moments in it, most of which involve some outrageous death (though, for all its graphic effects work, two crash cuts were the best punchlines). But the whole thing really came across as scattershot, messy and tonally unsteady IMO.

What I think makes it suffer compared to something like Final Destination is that series really takes time to wind up its elaborate death sequences to make the most out of them. Here, the deaths - even with various Rube Goldberg machinations - just kinda happen without much in the way of pace or tension. It definitely comes across as a short story concept artificially inflated out to feature length, and I really didn't warm to any of the characters on screen

(both Theo James characters are varying degrees of abrasive and irritating, and the usually excellent Tatiana Maslany is dispatched too swiftly to make much of an impact)

Again, good for a few laughs, but really quite insubstantial. I wish I liked it more, as I do enjoy a good horror-comedy. This one's just too haphazard.

2smiggy · 21-02-2025 07:52PM

johnny_ultimate

Feb 21, 2025

Didn't come together for me, alas. I think there are plenty of funny, absurd moments in it, most of which involve some outrageous death (though, for all its graphic effects work, two crash cuts were the best punchlines). But the whole thing really came across as scattershot, messy and tonally unsteady IMO.
What I think makes it suffer compared to something like Final Destination is that series really takes time to wind up its elaborate death sequences to make the most out of them. Here, the deaths - even with various Rube Goldberg machinations - just kinda happen without much in the way of pace or tension. It definitely comes across as a short story concept artificially inflated out to feature length, and I really didn't warm to any of the characters on screen

(both Theo James characters are varying degrees of abrasive and irritating, and the usually excellent Tatiana Maslany is dispatched too swiftly to make much of an impact)
Again, good for a few laughs, but really quite insubstantial. I wish I liked it more, as I do enjoy a good horror-comedy. This one's just too haphazard.

I do enjoy horror comedy, rather than just horror. Any good recommendations, just in case I missed any good ones

gmisk · 21-02-2025 08:29PM

2smiggy

Feb 21, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195566#Comment_123195566
I do enjoy horror comedy, rather than just horror. Any good recommendations, just in case I missed any good ones

I can think of a few I like.

tucker & dale vs evil

The evil dead 2

What we do in the shadows

Recentish one I liked was Freaky

Bogey Lowenstein · 21-02-2025 10:23PM

gmisk

Feb 21, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195737#Comment_123195737
I can think of a few I like.
tucker & dale vs evil
The evil dead 2
What we do in the shadows
Recentish one I liked was Freaky

Joy Ride which was also released under the name Roadkill.

The Evil Dead films.

Companion could probably fit into that category too.

Bogey Lowenstein · 22-02-2025 09:40AM

Bogey Lowenstein

Feb 21, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195854#Comment_123195854
Joy Ride which was also released under the name Roadkill.
The Evil Dead films.
Companion could probably fit into that category too.

Peter Jackson did some horror-comedy: Braindead, Bad Taste and The Frighteners. Also try a recent Irish series Video Nasty.

Space Dog · 22-02-2025 10:11PM

2smiggy

Feb 21, 2025

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195566#Comment_123195566
I do enjoy horror comedy, rather than just horror. Any good recommendations, just in case I missed any good ones

Abigail, The Cabin in the Woods, Housebound, Ready or Not, The Babysitter, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Happy Death Day, Deathstream, Jennifer's Body

Man Vs ManUre · 24-02-2025 12:32PM

I loved Longlegs, but this was a let down. Funny in parts but mostly just stupid. Comparing this to Longkegs is a bit like comparing Renfeld to recent Nosferatu or the Coppola version of Dracula from 30 years ago.

apache · 27-02-2025 06:07PM

Went to see it today as I'm a King fan and read the book.

Didn't like the comedy but enjoyed the gore.

Bogey Lowenstein · 05-03-2025 10:15PM

Very entertaining film. What I really liked about it was the oddball characters and weird dialogue, it reminded me of some Coen brothers movies like Raising Arizona or a touch of David Lynch. The monkey itself was creepy as heck too.

artvanderlay · 07-03-2025 04:16PM

Bogey Lowenstein

Mar 5, 2025

Very entertaining film. What I really liked about it was the oddball characters and weird dialogue, it reminded me of some Coen brothers movies like Raising Arizona or a touch of David Lynch. The monkey itself was creepy as heck too.

Agreed. Very entertaining, and it didn't overstay it's welcome (if anything it was too short). It wasn't scary at all, but it looked great and it was very funny. Very good casting throughout, especially Corey from Halloween Ends wearing a ridiculous wig :)

p to the e · 14-03-2025 04:06PM

I was in bits laughing at the lad in the sleeping bag.

El Duda · 18-03-2025 04:34PM

The Monkey – 4/10

The Monkey is a totemic item that brings with it a curse that unleashes Final Destination style powers on unsuspecting victims.

Reviews for this one have been mixed to the extreme, with some publications (The Observer) giving it the full 5-star treatment while others were much more scathing. It all hinges on how well it rides that line between black comedy and gory splatter-fest and whether the big moments land for you or not.

There have been a lot of comparisons with the Final Destination franchise but for me it doesn’t come close to that level of fun. There’s Hitchcockian craft in the way the Final Destination films build suspense before the death scenes. Here, they just sort of blurt out from nowhere. Sometimes it works, but in my screening, there were a lot of misfires. The same problems that we saw with Longlegs are apparent again here. Perkins approach is scattergun, with too many tonally contrasting elements fighting against each other.

I think it might be time for him to try directing a script written by someone else.

The Monkey

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The Monkey | Rotten Tomatoes

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