The Monkey was theatrically released in the United States by Neon on February 21, 2025. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed $31.3 million worldwide against a budget of $10–11 million.
Plot
In 1999, Petey Shelburn attempts to return and destroy a drum-playing toy monkey at an antiques shop. Before he can do so, the monkey plays its drums to the tune of I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside, and a chain reaction causes the shop owner to be disemboweled with a harpoon gun. Shortly afterwards, Petey disappears, leaving his wife Lois to raise their identical twin sons Hal and Bill. The twins eventually discover the monkey in a closet containing their father's belongings and wind its key. Later that evening, the monkey plays its drums while they are at a hibachi restaurant, triggering their babysitter Annie's accidental decapitation.
Bill's bullying of Hal prompts the latter to wind the monkey's key again, hoping it will kill his brother. Instead, Lois suffers a sudden aneurysm and dies in front of Bill. Overcome with guilt, Hal dismantles and disposes of the monkey before he and Bill move to Maine to live with their aunt Ida and uncle Chip. When the monkey mysteriously reappears at their new home, Bill realizes its power and winds its key despite Hal's protests; Chip is trampled to death by a horse stampede shortly after. The twins seal the monkey in its box and throw it down a nearby well, hoping it will remain hidden.
Twenty-five years later, Hal is estranged from both Bill and his own son Petey, whom Hal sees only once a year out of fear that the monkey will return and kill him. He also learns that his ex-wife and her new husband Ted plan to adopt Petey fully, effectively cutting him out of Hal's life. Meanwhile, Ida is suddenly killed in a freak accident. Bill calls Hal and insists he drive to Ida's house, claiming he is suspicious that the monkey has returned and someone has been winding its key. Hal realizes it is true when a woman explodes after a motel pool is electrified. Real estate agent Barbara reveals to Hal that, following Ida's death, a series of bizarre fatal accidents have occurred in the town over the past week, before a falling shotgun blows Barbara apart.
When Hal and Petey arrive at Ida's house, they learn that Bill is living in town and now possesses the monkey. He hired a local named Ricky to retrieve it for him due to Bill having long suspected that Lois' death was caused by Hal in an attempt to kill him, so he has spent years waiting for the monkey's return to use it in retaliation. However, the monkey has only been killing random people instead of Hal over the past week. Bill suspects whoever winds its key is immune to being the next victim, and tells Hal that he will allow Petey to wind the key to keep him safe; otherwise, Bill will keep mercilessly winding it until Hal is killed, no matter who else dies in the town as a result.
Hal refuses until Ricky, who has grown obsessed with the monkey, forces Petey at gunpoint to retrieve it for him at Bill's house. Bill offers Petey to wind the key and Ricky is subsequently killed by a swarm of wasps. Hal enters the house and Bill, seeing his brother is still unscathed, forces the monkey to drum without winding the key in a desperate attempt to kill Hal. In retaliation, the monkey begins drumming uncontrollably and triggers widespread death and destruction throughout the entire town. Bill finally gives up, and the twins reconcile over their shared grief for their mother and apologize to each other. Shortly after, the monkey beats its drums one last time and Bill is suddenly decapitated by a bowling ball bearing Lois' name.
Driving through the now-devastated town, Hal and Petey accept their fates as the monkey's owners to prevent the key from ever being wound again. A pale black-eyed man riding a horse—implied to represent the Pale Horseman—passes by and acknowledges them. Hal, determined to reconnect with his son, suggests they go dancing as it is something Lois had loved, and Petey accepts.
The original story featured a cymbal-banging monkey toy, but the cymbals were replaced with a drum for the film.
Director Frank Darabont originally held the film rights to Stephen King's short story "The Monkey" and planned to begin working on a film adaptation upon completing The Mist (2007), itself an adaptation of one of King's novellas. The project never materialized.[8]
Principal photography occurred in Vancouver from February 5 to March 22, 2024.[12][13][11] The original story by Stephen King features a cymbal-banging monkey, but the film replaces the cymbals with a drum. According to Perkins, this change was made because the film's producer believed that The Walt Disney Company owned the rights to the cymbal-banging version of the toy on the basis of its appearance in Toy Story 3.[14] In writing the film, Perkins chose to give the film comedic elements because he thought it was more fitting for a film about a toy, and he wanted to distinguish The Monkey from more serious horror films about possessed toys.[15] Perkins further stated that the comedy in the film intentionally avoids subtlety and makes use of extreme gore to joke about the absurdity, pointlessness, and randomness of death.[16] Perkins stated fully to Empire on his approach to the material:
I took liberties like a motherfucker. They [Atomic Monster] had a very serious script. Very serious. I felt it was too serious, and I told them: 'This doesn't work for me. The thing with this toy monkey is that the people around it all die in insane ways. So, I thought: Well, I'm an expert on that.' Both my parents died in insane, headline-making ways. I spent a lot of my life recovering from tragedy, feeling quite bad. It all seemed inherently unfair. You personalize the grief: 'Why is this happening to me?' But I'm older now and you realize this shit happens to everyone. Everyone dies. Sometimes in their sleep, sometimes in truly insane ways, like I experienced. But everyone dies. And I thought maybe the best way to approach that insane notion is with a smile.[17]
Marketing
The film's official trailer released on January 16, 2025, and amassed over 43 million views online within 24 hours. After 72 hours, it had over 100 million views;[18][19] according to Neon, this made it "the most watched independent horror film trailer ever".[20] In late January, Neon attempted to air a trailer for the film on four major television networks, and all four rejected the studio, citing the film's "excessive violence". Neon released screenshots of the email discussions with the networks, although identifying information was redacted.[21]
As part of the film's marketing campaign, Neon opened an online application for churches to seek permission to screen the film alongside theaters.[22] Additionally, Neon partnered with Bloody Disgusting to hold a giveaway for an exclusive resin sculpture of the titular monkey toy.[23]Deadline Hollywood reported that the film's marketing cost was "around $10 million".[24]
Release
In May 2024, Neon won a bidding war between multiple US distributors for domestic rights at the Marché du Film and set a theatrical release date for 2025.[25] The film was released in the US on February 21, 2025.[26]The Monkey marks the second collaboration between Neon and Perkins after Longlegs (2024).[27] Prior to its official February release, the film was screened early in January at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre as part of Beyond Fest.[18]
Reception
Box office
In the United States and Canada, The Monkey was released alongside The Unbreakable Boy and was projected to gross around $17million from 3,200 theaters in its opening weekend.[28] The film made $5.9million on its first day, including an estimated $1.9million from early screenings. It debuted to $14million, finishing second at the box office behind holdover Captain America: Brave New World.[29] Men accounted for 58% of the audience during its opening, with those 25–35 years old comprising 35% and premium large format screens contributing 12%.[24]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 197 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10.The website's consensus reads: "Cruelly clever with some unforgettably gory set pieces, The Monkey reaffirms director Osgood Perkins' horror bona fides while revealing he also has a surprising – albeit sick – sense of humor."[30]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[31] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an average 2.5 out of 5 stars, with 49% saying they would "definitely recommend" it.[24]
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Perkins has always been a formally confident filmmaker, but The Monkey contains some of his most striking imagery, shot through with malice by Nico Aguilar, and perfectly assembled by editors Graham Fortin & Greg Ng (who also cut Longlegs)."[32]Peter Travers of ABC News said the film "loses steam in its final section", but added, "King and Perkins are still a dream team of fright masters when it comes to revealing the psychological dread lurking under the macabre monkeyshines that keep us up nights."[33]The Atlantic's David Sims wrote, "In the hands of another director, the tone could wobble too wildly. Perkins is a specialist in making childhood trauma feel grounded and relatable, however, and that holds true for the loopy scares of his latest movie."[34]
Siddhant Adlakha from Inverse gave the film a less positive review, describing it as "tonally haphazard" and criticizing it for a "lack of dramatic coherence". He argued that the film's irony and snark undermine any intended commentary about parenthood or death, comparing it unfavorably to Deadpool.[35]The i Paper's Christina Newland gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "For a movie that professes to be bizarre, shocking and violent – and which shares a director with Longlegs, the scariest horror film of last year – The Monkey is surprisingly lacking in any good ideas. In fact, it's the worst thing a horror film can be: boring."[36]
King praised the film, describing it as "batshit insane".[37][38]
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