The Monkey (2025) [4K Ultra HD]

Director: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery

Release Date: June 24, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.

Based on the short story by Stephen King, ‘The Monkey’ tells the terrifying tale of twin brothers who happen upon an odd wind-up toy monkey during their childhood that soon unleashes a chain of odd deaths and accidents upon those close to them, eventually causing them to try and find a way to get rid of the sinister toy. The tale rejoins the two many years later in adulthood when the toy suddenly resurfaces and unleashes a new wave of bloody carnage and death on a local community, resulting in the men attempting to try and find a way of stopping its evil once and for all.

Written for the screen and directed by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoat’s Daughter) and based on the short story by Stephen King, Perkins does a solid job at the helm of ‘The Monkey’ guiding along the almost goofy, overly gory ride with a tongue-in-cheek vibe throughout. The film’s cast includes Theo James (TV’s The Gentlemen), Tatiana Maslany (TV’s Perry Mason 2020), Christian Convery (TV’s Sweet Tooth), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends), Adam Scott (TV’s Severance) and Elijah Wood (TV’s Yellowjackets) along with more and the majority each offer capable or at least fitting performances in their respective roles.

‘The Monkey’ is a wildly violent, gory and ridiculous tale of twin brothers who find their lives plagued by a sinister windup monkey toy that embarks upon a murderous rampage in two different timelines, murdering unsuspecting folks in the most bizarre and gnarly ways imaginable and directly shaking up their lives time and again in the process. It’s a very different type of film from Osgood Perkins who made waves with his calmly paced and unsettlingly eerie serial killer tale ‘Longlegs’ last year and this time around disregards the pacing and care in favor of over the top carnage and insanity at the highest level, while never shying away from the ridiculous aspects; instead repeatedly building the level of brutal and unexpected deaths along the way and embracing the silly tone and style at every turn.

Utilizing an almost tongue-in-cheek level of increasing goofiness and over the top gore throughout, it quickly sees the carnage become the real star of the show which will be just fine for many seeking a bloody good time without having to think too hard, yet may deter some who are hoping for more of a fleshed out story or notable evolution for the characters within. If you can let go and just roll with the silly fun and chaos, then ‘The Monkey’ is a blast and I certainly had a great deal of fun with it and will be revisiting it in the foreseeable future, although it’s definitely not going to be a ride that everyone will enjoy taking.

Overall, ‘The Monkey’ is an insanely bloody, gory and goofy ride that fully embraces its ridiculous tone and goofy nature, all while increasing the level of carnage and over the top accidents as the tale progresses; quickly allowing the gore to become the real star here. It’s fun, silly and ridiculous throughout and if you appreciate a wildly bloody and darkly humorous horror comedy that instead of pulling any punches goes out of its way to embellish them, then this one should be right up your alley and is definitely recommended. It’s a very different type of outing for filmmaker Osgood Perkins and many may be put off by its darkly funny nature and overly aggressive approach, yet many others will be thrilled by just how wild it repeatedly gets and how far it’s willing to go.

VIDEO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘The Monkey’ features a full 2160p Ultra High Definition presentation with HDR-10, presented in its original 2.00:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty nice as a whole and offers a generally clean, sharp and well detailed presentation throughout that’s largely absent of any notable issues other than a few instances of light banding present. Detail is good on character faces and clothing, along with the various interior and exterior settings, while the HDR helps to enhance some of the bright colors such as the glow of motel lights and blood, while black levels and shadowing are capable and solid. Overall, this is a fairly nice Ultra High Definition presentation that looks good throughout and should please fans as well as newcomers.

AUDIO:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack is a blast and it delivers a clean, crisp and hard hitting audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, action and accident effects, along with plenty more overtaking the various speakers whenever fitting, while never causing any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered problematic in the process. Overall, this is a great 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that sounds good at every turn and continually complements and enhances the goofy fun.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of ‘The Monkey’ offers a few entertaining extras including Behind the Scenes Featurettes that include interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. The included Featurettes are ‘Outrageously Gory and Thoroughly Gratuitous’ (running approximately 3 minutes in length), ‘The Cast of The Monkey’ (running approximately 4 minutes) and ‘Becoming Hal and Bill’ (approximately 3 minutes). Also included is a ‘Funeral Gallery’ and ‘3 Trailers’ for the film including an ‘Announcement Teaser’ (1 minute), ‘Teaser’ (90 seconds) and the full ‘Trailer’ (2 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray disc included in the 4K UHD Combo Pack and resized. They do not represent the quality of the 4K Ultra HD disc itself and will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on the 4K UHD & Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘The Monkey’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from NEON – Decal

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You can purchase ‘The Monkey’ on 4K UHD at Amazon HERE!

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