4K Blu-Ray Review: The Monkey

The Film

After delivering one of my favorite horror films in years with Longlegs, director Osgood Perkins surprises with this wild curve ball of a movie, one that is so tonally baffling that it almost makes up for everything that doesn't work.

The Monkey is based on the short story by Stephen King. The original story is just around 40 pages, which logic would dictate translates better to a short film. Yet Perkins has gone the route of a feature film adaptation instead, stretching the thin, if effective, narrative to a far too long 96 minutes. It's the single greatest stumble the otherwise moody and surprisingly funny thriller makes.

As far as setups go, The Monkey is pure Stephen King. There's a dysfunctional family unit, a Mid-Western American suburbia, and a personification of evil in the shape of an unsettling monkey toy that goes on unexpected killing sprees in demented, Rube Goldbergian fashion.

Split into two distinct sections between childhood and adulthood, The Monkey is at once unnerving in its insinuations, then weirdly gleeful in its executions. At first, we worry for our lead, Hal, as he navigates a wildly traumatic youth around an abusive family and increasingly sleazy relatives. Then, as an adult, he tries to maintain normalcy while fearing for the monkey's reawakened powers. At this point, Perkins switches up the tone to something akin the Child's Play movies, where the deaths turn intentionally convoluted and payback becomes the payoff.

It doesn't always work, and it takes a little while to figure out what we're supposed to laugh at, but once you tune in, there is still a lot to love in the way Perkins manipulates his audience. He has an exceptional ability to craft an unsettling mood, and he finds the demented fun in King's prose better than almost anyone. If directors like Mike Flanagan and Frank Darabont understand the heart and emotion of King's fantasy, it's Perkins who really gets the terror and malice that permeates his vision of modern Americana.

That said, The Monkey, like Longlegs, really isn't for everyone. It's an acquired taste that will be extremely off-putting to those expecting a straight horror film. Perkins tries out new things, and not all of them land, but as an experiment and a vessel for experiencing a world where the rules of nature go right out the window, The Monkey is in a class of its own.

Longlegs is one of the most terrifying films in years

★★★★★ | Violence of the fams

Toisto.netJoonatan Itkonen

Video

The 4K Blu-Ray arrives on a single disc without any fanfare or extras, so one would hope the disc at least packs in some solid video, right? Well, not quite. It's all very passable on this front, but The Monkey – shot on digital intermediary – looks oddly washed out in places. Especially at night, it takes on a soft, blueish hue that at least on my TV stands out in a bad way.

This doesn't happen all the time, though. Some shots, like early excursions in Hal's youth, where the kids play in places they really shouldn't, look fantastic. There's a superb sequence involving a staircase into a basement where the shadows really pop and the contrast reminds me of Italian Giallo movies. If only it was that constant throughout.

Complaints aside, the 4K presentation is fine. It's not a demo disc, but it's a preservation of the director's vision, and that's exactly what we could hope for. I'll have to test the regular Blu-Ray disc at some point to compare, but I doubt there's a massive difference between the discs because most of the CGI effects are 2K composites upscaled into 4K anyway.

Audio

No Dolby Atmos here, which is odd, considering how explosive and loud this mix is. It's also very front heavy, with a lot of bangs and jump cuts (which I hate), and happily some fantastic clarity in dialog even when the other effects could easily overpower the chatter.

There's also a great emphasis on musical cues, and I love how the raspy, tinny drumming of the monkey's instruments come through. It's so carefully mixed that it almost sounds like it's coming from the same room, and it's precisely the kind of unnerving atmosphere you'd want out of a horror film.

Elsewhere, the effects work is deliciously over the top, with a lot of squelching, banging, crashing, and cracking as people are pulverized in increasingly inventive ways. Someone had fun designing the effects, and it's wonderful how well they're reproduced here.

Horror fans are bound to love this track, even if it's not the best we've gotten to date.

Extras

The Monkey has two versions out in the Nordics, the most common of which is this barebones package without a hint of extras. There's a steelbook version, which comes with three featurettes ranging between 5 to 10 minutes in length, but even those feel lackluster. No commentaries or making-of material to speak of.

All in all, disappointing, considering how eloquent Perkins is in all the interviews he's done about directing horror.

Overall

I enjoy The Monkey, but I acknowledge that my taste is very different from the mainstream. I appreciate shaggy dog stories, and I cackle at demented stuff more than I probably should. My love for Longlegs helps, too, as I'm already in tune with the weird way Perkins sees horror. For reference, I recommended The Monkey to a friend and he couldn't even finish the film. It's a divisive experience.

But for those willing to experiment with some wild tonal shifts and an story that really doesn't try to provide a traditional narrative, The Monkey will deliver some unexpected thrills. It's well-crafted and acted, and it's surprisingly funny to boot.

The disc itself is fine, but sadly very sparse on anything special. If you're already into collecting 4K discs, you might as well get it, too. If you're not picky, the regular Blu-Ray should be enough.