Quick Review: The Monkey (2025)

An absurd fun time

Feb 25, 2025

Introduction:

After the release of Osgood Perkins last film Longlegs, I was left disappointed with how that turned out. I usually don’t let the hype get to me, but with the marketing and how it was hyped, I think I went in with too many expectations and was left disappointed. So I was surprised and skeptical when it was announced that Perkins had another film coming out not even a year later. I stayed away from the marketing and anything that would mess with my expectation with this one and went into the theater open minded with this film. Despite the absurdity of this film, I was surprised to see that I really enjoyed The Monkey.

Positives:

Unlike Longlegs where their was a much more serious tone and more at stake in that film, The Monkey knows that the concept it’s dealing with is ridiculous and fully embraces it, I think because of this it made me appreciate the movie more. I had a good couple laughs during the film and the film overall has a good placement with comedy. It’s also pretty fast paced and the film moved pretty fast overall. It didn’t really feel like any of the scenes dragged too much. The story is nothing too special, but it’s a good concept for a film like this and does a good job with telling the story. The characters also aren’t too special but get the job done. Theo James is good as the lead and plays in with the film well. One last thing I really loved is the absurdity of the kills and gore. It knows how ridiculous it is and does some wacky stuff with it. This film overall just offered a fun time with this concept and I’m glad that I was able to enjoy it for what it was.

The Monkey Trailer: Theo James Stars for Osgood Perkins of Longlegs

Negatives:

I think the film does have quite a few weak jokes in it. While I had good laugh at most of them, there was some that dragged a little too long for their own good. Also the narration from the Theo James character could be very exposition heavy at times and there was a good amount of scenes where it felt unnecessary. One last thing to mention is the third act doesn’t come together as well I wished it did. It’s one of those movies where I wouldn’t have minded a good 10-15 more minutes just to flesh things out. However I still had fun with the movie despite those issues.

The Monkey Review — 'A fun night at the movies'

Final Verdict:

Overall: The Monkey is an absurd and over the top horror comedy, but it knows what it’s doing and for that, I did enjoy my time watching it. I think Osgood Perkins is better at making something with more of a comedy twist rather than going more serious and I think it would be cool for him to make more of these type of films in the future.