Year of Release: 2025
Director: Osgood Perkins
Starring: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Elijah Wood, Sarah Levy, Rohan Campbell, Osgood Perkins, Tess Degenstein, Danica Dreyer, Zia Newton, Adam Scott, Laura Mennell, Katie Stuart
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
View Trailer
Synopsis and Review
Writer/director Oz/Osgood Perkins is back, following the critical and commercial success of his prior film, "Longlegs". This time around he's adapting a short story by Stephen King, which focuses its attention on two brothers, identical twins by the names of Hal and Bill. Their father has abandoned/left the household, and their mother Lois, is suddenly back in the dating arena, trying to raise them while coming to terms with being by herself. The two siblings don't get along at all, with Bill bullying Hal most of the time. While going through their father's possessions, they come across a stuffed monkey inside a box. They decide to wind it, and later that evening while dining out with their babysitter, she experiences a particularly gruesome death. As Bill's bullying worsens, Hal out of sheer despair, winds the monkey again and hopes his brother is the victim. As it turns out, their mother dies of a particularly rare aneurysm, which racks Hal with guilt, leading him to dismantle and get rid of the monkey. The brothers also end up in Maine living with their aunt (and her husband). When the monkey reappears, it scares the brothers, but Bill decides to wind it up again, which results in their uncle getting killed (by a stampeded). The brothers decide to seal the monkey in a box and throw it down a well. Twenty-five years later, Hal and Bill are estranged, while Hal who has a son, has been avoiding him as much as possible out of fear the young boy is impacted by the monkey. When a series of horrific deaths starts happening again, Hal suspects the monkey may be involved.
While "Longlegs" was an interesting exercise or variation on some of the paths that Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" created, "The Monkey" is a very different film, both in tone, and also in terms of character development. The film is very economical for starters, succinctly describing and positioning the antagonistic siblings as the focal points for the narrative, providing just enough dimension to them, while also never volunteering much of what has happened with them when they became adults. Osgood Perkins manages to, much like he did in "Longlegs", define an environment quite well, courtesy of stylistic options that he makes, which includes the cinematography and production design. His style options make his films always feel situated in the beginning of the 1980s, even if his narratives are contemporary. All these choices aside, Osgood Perkins also goes for over the top violence in this film, borderline Robert Rodriguez's splatter violence which he illustrated on "Planet Terror", always with a very clearly ironic stance. No matter how morbidly violent the deaths are, it always feels as if the characters are so jaded that none of them are very shaken by it in the least. The narrative moves fast and some character cameos are wonderfully loony, such as Elijah Wood's, Sarah Levy's and even Osgood Perkins' character. Theo James who gets to play Hal and Bill as adults sadly doesn't have much to give to the characters, but the film's purpose is definitely not to be a character study, but to bring this odd entity to life, with over the top death scenes, dark humor, and a conveniently eerie environment. The supporting cast is quite good, including Tatiana Maslany, Adam Scott (in a great cameo), Elijah Wood, and Osgood Perkins as the creepy uncle. The production team is quite solid as well, with highlights going to Nico Aguilar's cinematography, and Danny Vermette's production design. It's a dark and over the top narrative, one worth watching.
0 comments:
Post a Comment