Osgood Perkins, Son of Anthony Perkins and director of Longlegs, has a new film out based on a short story by Stephen King. Originally published in 1980, The Monkey is one of King’s lesser-known stories, so the film adaptation came as some surprise.

The story is simple. Twin brothers Hal and Bill find a wind-up toy monkey when looking through their fathers' old things. They turn the key and think nothing of it. That is until gruesome accidental deaths start happening to their loved ones. The brothers, horrified of what the toy does, decide to throw it away. 25 years later, Hal, estranged from his brother and son out of fear of the monkey’s return, is contacted by his brother to tell him the monkey is back and killed their aunt. Hal and his son, Petey then go on a journey back to his hometown of Maine to get to the bottom of the grotesque death, and to stop the monkey once and for all.

Elijah Wood, Osgood Perkins and Theo James at the LA premiere of The Monkey. Credit: Olivia Wong GettyImages

It’s an odd but intriguing premise. The expectation of the film is of a rubbish but entertaining comedy horror, but it’s safe to say The Monkey will take you by surprise. It’s funny, visually interesting, and surprisingly heartfelt.

The film is shot by cinematographer Nico Aguilar and it looks gorgeous. Osgood Perkins, off the back of his hit film Longlegs, shows us he’s a force to be reckoned with when it comes to modern horror. He effortlessly keeps the audience in the balance of fear and laughter.

The film is full of outlandishly funny deaths that work to progress the story but also give us a good chuckle. From people spontaneously combusting, to a herd of horses trampling a camper while he sleeps, the film is full of over-the-top deaths. But that’s not the only thing it’s full of, it's also full of heart.

The Monkey is ultimately about acceptance. In life, we must accept everything that comes to us. Death especially. The slogan for the film sums this up perfectly, “Everybody dies, and that's f*cked up”, and it is, but it’s something we just must get over.

But how do we accept this grief? Some people lock themselves away, some bottle it down and try to forget about it and some let it out till there’s no tears left to cry. But a lot of people turn to humour. This is what Oz Perkins has done with “The Monkey”, he's laughing in the face of death.

This film seems like a way for Perkins to get over the horrifically tragic deaths of both his parents, his mother's especially, who sadly lost her life during 9/11. Perkins uses this film as canvas to paint death as a comedy, in doing this, Perkins has allowed other people to deal with their own grief, by giving them a reason to laugh and forget for a while.

All in all, The Monkey is a fun film to watch if you’re up for a laugh. Its directed well by Perkins and shot beautifully by Nico Aguilar.

The Monkey finds the funny side of death