Horroris a medium built by death, with the terrifying fates of its protagonists unnerving viewers not only with their thematic significance but how ruthlessly they’re carried out. Recent years have seen an increase in filmmakers trying out “creative” ways to disturb audiences; fromTerrifiertoTalk to Me, there’s been an onslaught of kills that are as unique as they are disgusting. The latest addition to this trend isOsgood Perkins’The Monkey,aStephen Kingadaptation that follows a pair of twins whose lives are torn apart by a toy monkey that just so happens to love murdering people.
Whether it be hidden snakes or the worst bowling accident ever, the plot is filled with jaw-dropping kills…but those aren’t the ones that stuck with me. As a lifelong horror fan,I’ve seen the most bombastic bloodshed you could imagine, which is why I was so shocked by the one I couldn’t get out of my head: when the twins' mother, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), suffers a brain hemorrhage. It’s a quietly heart-wrenching moment in a film filled with bloody noise, not only perfectly summarizing this plot’s exploration of death but offering one of the most realistically terrifying scenes that I have ever seen.
‘The Monkey’ Finds the Humor in Heartbreak
Most ofThe Monkey’shorror is the kind of dark comedythat audiences love from modern King adaptations. It follows Bill and Hal (Theo James), brothers who discover the titular toy in a pile of their absentee father’s junk. They learn that turning the key on its back causes somebody nearby to die in a gruesomely imaginative way, with this malicious entity haunting the boys long into adulthood as they know it could supernaturally kill everyone they care about. From a group decapitation to a terrible hibachi incident, viewers grow accustomed to the comical way this plot approaches death. But one person’s views stick out from this humor: their mother, Lois, a sardonic woman that Maslany plays to perfection. While the movie treats death as a punchline, she offers a surprisingly uplifting view by explaining to the boys that,yes, we’re all going to die — so why don’t we go dancing?It’s an initially baffling approach to coping that, sadly, only really resonates with watchers through Lois' death only a few moments later.
With ‘The Monkey,’ Osgood Perkins Makes a Sharp Turn That’s Been a Long Time Coming
There is a heartwarming message behind the gory deaths.
The Monkey’smost grounded scene comes when, after a furious Hal turns the monkey’s key to kill Billy, said sibling walks into the kitchen to find his mother choking for air, bleeding from every orifice as a “boomerang hemorrhage” tears apart her brain. Visually, this is the movie’s most upsetting kill; it lingers not only on Billy’s traumatized shock, but Maslany’s stunned confusion over what’s happening inside her skull. But it also punctuates the message Lois had been trying to impart on her sons: we can’t be so scared of death that we forget to live. She emphasized that death is as much an accident as it is a force of nature, something that will happen to us all (often in the way we least expect it) and thatthe only true method of preparing for it is to enjoy the only moment we have for certain: right now.She delivers this monologue after a funeral, with viewers watching the movie’s only genuinely happy scene as the trio dances around in their funeral attire. This showcases how it’s through embracing life that we heal from death, with Lois suffering one of these “accidents” forcing her sonsto consider whether they followed the advice and appreciated their time with her…and making viewers wonder the exact same thing.
I’ll Always Hate ‘The Monkey’ for Making Me Cry So Hard
Look, I’m as much of an emotional sap as I am a horror fan, so I may be alone in thinking this isThe Monkey’smost upsetting kill. There are so many other more violent, bloodier scenes for watchers to be terrified by. But when it comes to striking viewers to their core, there’s nothing more impactful than remembering that everyone in life is going to die — but also, the fact that you can’t spend all of your time thinking about that. Lois’ death initially stuck with me because of its abject terror, but as the days went on, I began to see this moment for what it was: a dark lesson on enjoying life. Emphasized in the most distressing way possible, it reminds viewers that life can be taken away at any moment and that if we spend all of our time scared of this randomnesswe’ll miss out on the potential happiness all around us. Do I wish it’d been conveyed in a way that kept Maslany in the movie longer? Hell yes. But, I have to admit, the horrific shock of this moment finally made me understandThe Monkey’score message:don’t be so scared of death that you forget to live.
The Monkey
