- Directed by Osgood Perkins
- Written by Osgood Perkins, Stephen King
- Stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BLUVCRKshw
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Like the poster implies, there’s quite a body count in this one. And the deaths are over the top. It’s a good mix of dark humor and gruesome horror, very well made. We both really liked it.
Spoilery Synopsis
After the 1970s-era titles, we cut to a junk shop. Captain Petey Shelborn comes in with a monkey toy; he’s also covered in blood. He explains that it’s not a toy, but the proprietor doesn’t want it. Suddenly, the monkey starts banging his drum, and the captain looks around, terrified. We soon see that he has good reason to be afraid. The captain sees a flamethrower on the wall and burns the monkey. Credits roll.
It’s 1999, and Hal and his twin brother Bill are annoying. Their deadbeat father was a pilot who walked out on the family. In the father’s closet, they find a box containing the monkey toy. Their father was Captain Petey from earlier, and this is the monkey he burned, only it looks untouched now. Bill turns the key on the monkey’s back, but nothing happens.
The babysitter takes the boys to a Japanese-style restaurant, and they take the monkey with them. The monkey activates, plays his drum, and inside, the chef accidentally beheads the babysitter. Bill and Hal’s mother talks about death, but she sounds almost eager for it.
Hal gets bullied at school, and when he gets home, he finds the monkey in his room. He takes it to school with him. Hal tells the monkey that he wishes Bill was dead. Instead, their mother dies. The doctors said it was an aneurysm, but Hal knows better. The monkey doesn’t take requests.
The boys go to live with Aunt Ida and Uncle Chip. Hal cuts up the monkey, which bleeds like a real monkey. He puts the pieces in the trash and the family moves to Maine.
Bill finds the monkey, and Hal says he cut it up back at the other house. They both know it killed the babysitter. Bill wants to try it again, just to be sure. Soon, Uncle Chip is trampled by wild horses on a camping trip. The boys throw the monkey down into a well.
Twenty-five years later, Aunt Ida hears the monkey’s song playing and goes down to the basement to investigate. She falls into a box of fishing lures and then sets herself on fire, but that’s… not the worst of it.
Grown-up Hal now works in a store, and Dwayne, his boss, is half his age. He’s divorced from his wife, and her new husband, Ted, is a “family” expert. Hal’s son, little Petey, keeps asking about Hal. Ted wants to legally adopt Petey, and then Hal won’t be able to visit anymore.
At Aunt Ida’s estate sale, Ricky, a young guy, buys the monkey; it reminds him of his dad. Ricky knows a guy who might want to buy the monkey.
Petey wants to know about Hal’s family; he’s working on a family tree. Hal denies having any siblings. That night, he dreams about the monkey. Bill calls him on the phone to tell Hal about Aunt Ida’s death. Bill wants Hal to make sure the monkey isn’t in her house. As they discuss the monkey, a woman at the motel’s swimming pool explodes. Hal and Petey leave the motel in the middle of the night.
Hal really doesn’t want Petey to be involved with any of this, but his son wants to see Hal’s childhood home. Barbara, the realtor, tells Petey about Bill, his uncle. Barbara recounts all the outrageous deaths from the past week in town. Every day since Ida, someone died ridiculously. She doesn’t remember selling a toy monkey at the estate sale. Barbara becomes the next death when she meets a shotgun in a closet.
As the police investigate the death, Ricky and a bunch of cheerleaders congregate outside. Hal tells Bill on the phone that there’s no monkey here, but that people have been dying mysteriously all over town.
Hal opens up the 2024 phone book (those exist?) and looks for Bill inside, thinking he might be local. He finds “Mrs. Monkey” in there instead.
We hear from Bill, who explains that he crawled back into the well for the monkey. It was gone, but there was a note saying it would be back. Years later, in 2016, the year of the monkey, he started seeing it everywhere. He became obsessed, even placing ads in the paper looking for his monkey. When Ricky brought him the monkey, he prayed to it’s infinite wisdom to smite the right person.
We cut to Dwayne hurting himself. Ricky asks Bill for the monkey back. When Bill refuses, he goes home and gets a gun.
Petey asks Hal if he’s ever killed anybody, and Hal’s not really sure how to answer. Hal calls Bill, who admits to turning the monkey’s key. Bill wants Petey to turn the key. “The person who turns the key never dies.” If Petey turns the key over and over, he’ll never die.
Ricky comes to the door and take Hal and Petey hostage at gunpoint. He sends Petey inside to get the monkey from Bill. Inside Bill’s house, Petey encounters several booby traps. We see all kinds of dangerous things in and around the building– it’s not gonna go well for someone.
Bill shows Petey the monkey and tells him that it was Petey’s grandfather. Petey does, in fact, turn the key. Outside, the world’s biggest hornet’s nest appears, Ricky shoots it, and all hell breaks loose– but just for Ricky.
Bill wants the monkey to kill Hal. Bill winds the monkey and watches the monkey really go to town on his drum. An airplane crash sends bodies through the roof of the building.
Bill confronts Hal; he knows that Hal got his mother killed by trying to kill him. The two make up, at least a little. The monkey activates, and the Rube-Goldberg in the traps all feed on each other, and Bill’s head gets blown off with a bowling ball.
Hal and Petey drive through what’s left of the town, and it’s just… wow. They decide to keep the monkey and accept that it’s theirs. They stop at a traffic light as Death himself rides by on his pale horse.
They decide to go dancing.
Brian’s Commentary
There are numerous callbacks to Stephen King characters and names as well as for other movies. The deaths here are all excessively over-the-top and comical, and they’re the high point of the film.
It’s very silly, but it’s also very well made. The characters are interesting, the deaths are very creative, and it all moves at a reasonable speed. I liked this one a lot.
Kevin’s Commentary
The death scenes were awesome. And so was watching Hal, just trying to deal with it all. I was also impressed with the acting and effects from a single actor playing twins, both the boys and the adult versions. It deserves a big thumbs-up from me.
