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The Monkey, a new feature-length Stephen King adaptation from Longlegs director Osgood Perkins, has arrived – and it's a bloody, laugh-out-loud good time.
The film, based on the horror author's short story of the same name, stars Theo James as estranged twins Hal and Bill (Christian Convery plays younger Hal and Bill), who are plagued by a wind-up monkey toy that they accidentally inherited from their father. The result is a Final Destination-esque romp filled with enough gore and guts to put an '80s slasher to shame.
The Monkey ending recap
In a plot twist (that differs greatly from the original short story), it turns out that Hal's estranged twin brother Bill is the one behind all of the unexplained deaths in their hometown. He explains to Hal that, after Hal initially disposed of the Monkey, Bill realized it was his brother who'd "murdered" their mom when they were kids – having turned the toy's key. Bill went back down into the well Hal threw it in to retrieve it, but it was gone. So he spent the rest of his life waiting for it to return, with the hope of turning the key and having the monkey kill Hal. Fortunately, the person who turns the key never dies, but as the film regularly reiterates, the monkey "doesn't take requests"...
After Aunt Ida's death, the monkey is sold to a local punk named Ricky who then sells it to Bill. Bill, in his creepy, booby-trapped apartment, asks Hal to come to town to go through Aunt Ida's things. With Hal in close proximity, Bill begins turning the key hoping the monkey will kill him next – but people all around him begin to die in freak unexplained accidents instead. Bill wants Hal's son Petey to turn the key, assuming this will make the monkey kill Hal, but it kills Ricky instead by sending a swarm of hornets straight into his mouth.
When Hal and Bill are finally face-to-face, Bill tells Hal that he knew Hal turned the key because he'd intended him to die – and it was just a terrible mix-up that their mother, Lois (Tatiana Maslany) got caught in the crossfire. Hal apologizes for accidentally killing their mom and for not being there for him when they were youngsters, extending an olive branch and suggesting they finally come together and figure out their grief as adults. Seconds later, however, one of Bill's booby-traps backfires and sends a bowling ball, engraved with their mom's name, straight through his head. (The monkey may not take requests, but it appears it doesn't take too kindly to being throttled and threatened much, either).
Realizing the deaths are now unpredictable and never-ending, Hal decides to keep the monkey close by, and he and Petey drive through the town, which is now partially on fire. Vowing to never let anyone turn the key again, the twosome pass by a bus of cheerleaders, who immediately get decapitated by a passing truck. Looks like the monkey's list of victims was a little longer than they thought...
Who dies in The Monkey?
There are hundreds of deaths in The Monkey. If we're rounding up the main deaths: Hal and Bill's babysitter, their mother Lois, their Uncle Chip, their Aunt Ida, Ricky, and Bill. We can also infer that Hal and Bill's dad Petey died, too, even though we mostly just see him run away after disposing of the monkey in the film's cold open.
The babysitter, Annie Wilkes – a not-so-subtle nod to King's Misery – gets decapitated in a teppanyaki restaurant; Chip (played by Osgood Perkins himself) gets trampled by a band of wild horses while snoozing in a tent during a hunting trip, and Aunt Ida accidentally sets her head on fire (and runs right into a sharp 'For Sale' sign) after getting too close to the stove. Lois's death is perhaps the most unusual, in that she just seems to start bleeding from her eyes and ears and collapses in the Shelburne's kitchen.
Other anonymous deaths involve parachuting into a building, an unintentional intestine extraction, an espresso machine explosion, choking on a vape pen, and a cobra holding out on a golf course.
Do Hal and Bill break the curse?
Technically, the monkey is a cursed toy, but whether or not it's actually cursed Hal and Bill isn't really made clear in the movie. Instead, its conclusion is less about the twins shedding themselves of its terribleness than it is... learning how to manage it.
With that, Hal and his son Petey resolve to not get rid of it at the end of movie, and potentially leave it up to fate as to whether or not it'll strike again, deeming themselves its unofficial guardians.
How is it different from the Stephen King short story?
The movie and the short story are quite different, but the key differences here are in the second act and the ending. In the story, Hal is an only child, an his childhood best friend and his Aunt Ida's cat are the initial victims of the Monkey, rather than his babysitter and mother. The disposal of the Monkey, in the bottom of a well, is the same.
At the end of the short story, the Monkey tries to kill Hal's son Petey as the two attempt to destroy the Monkey while sinking it to the bottom of the lake. After they throw the bag into the water, they hear the cymbals clap and the boat starts to break up. Hal and Petey manage to swim to the shore, and the story ends with a newspaper excerpt fast forwarding some years later that states that hundreds of fish have mysteriously died in the lake since the boat incident.
The Monkey is in theaters now. For more, check out our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.
