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 Stephen King short story, a film by Osgood Perkins, Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood.

Captain Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott) walks into an antique and pawn shop, trying to return a wind-up toy monkey he had bought earlier for his sons.

The shop owner (Shafin Karim) refuses, explaining that all sales are final and pointing out that the toy appears to be broken as its right hand is stuck in the raised position. Petey insists that this isn’t just an ordinary toy and warns that if its hand comes down, something terrible will happen.

Suddenly, the toy monkey slams its drumstick against the drum, setting off a Rube Goldberg-like chain of events that leads to the shop owner’s death. Horrified, Petey grabs the wind-up monkey and a flamethrower before rushing out of the shop.

He torches the toy, hoping to destroy it once and for all, as its face melts under the intense heat. Petey vanishes without a trace, leaving his wife Lois to raise their identical twin sons, Hal and Bill.

Although Bill and Hal are identical twins (Christian Convery), their personalities couldn’t be more different. Hal is quiet and polite, while Bill is aggressive and constantly picks on his brother. Bill makes up stories to get Hal into trouble at school and bullies him whenever he feels like it. Over time, Hal’s resentment toward Bill grows, festering in his mind. Sometimes, he even imagines killing Bill in his sleep, just to escape the relentless torment.

One day, the twins discover a box in their father’s closet containing a wind-up toy monkey that looks exactly like the one that was supposed to destroy. Curious, Bill winds the key on the back of the monkey. The monkey raises its arm, and the mechanical drumstick begins to spin before suddenly stopping. Unimpressed, Bill tosses the toy aside, convinced it’s broken.

That evening, while Hal, Bill, and their babysitter Annie (Danica Dreyer) are dining at a Japanese restaurant, the monkey suddenly starts playing its drums. This sets off a freak accident that results in Annie’s decapitation in front of everyone in the restaurant.

At school, Bill and his friends continue bullying Hal, pushing him to the point where he genuinely wants to kill Bill. Hal becomes convinced that the toy monkey is connected to Annie’s death, which occurred right after its key was wound. Desperate, Hal winds the key and wishes for Bill’s death. However, he soon realizes the horrifying truth: the monkey doesn’t grant wishes or follow commands, and it kills randomly after someone winds it up. Instead of Bill, their mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany), suffers a sudden aneurysm and dies right in front of him. Devastated and shocked, Hal keeps the terrible secret to himself, never telling a soul that he caused his own mother’s death.

Overcome with guilt, Hal decides to dismantle the monkey and get rid of it for good. After the funeral, the twins’ uncle Chip (Osgood Perkins) and aunt Ida (Sarah Levy) take them in, bringing the boys to live with them in their home in Maine.

When the toy monkey mysteriously reappears at their new home, despite Hal’s insistence that he destroyed it. Bill begins to suspect that the monkey is no ordinary toy. He starts connecting the dots, wondering if it’s responsible for the death of their babysitter Annie, whom he once dreamed of marrying. To test his theory, Bill decides to wind the key, believing it’s the only way to prove the monkey can cause death. Hal, terrified and worried that Bill might discover the monkey also caused their mother’s death, tries desperately to stop him. But Bill ignores Hal and winds the key anyway.

The monkey triggers another freak accident, this time causing a herd of wild horses to trample Uncle Chip to death while he’s in his sleeping bag. Horrified, the twins finally realize the true power of the toy monkey. Convinced it can’t be destroyed, they seal the monkey in a box and throw it down a nearby well, hoping no one will ever find it again.

The series of tragic deaths doesn’t bring the twin brothers closer. Instead, it drives a wedge between them, leaving them more estranged than ever.

Twenty-five years later, adult Hal (Theo James) lives a life of isolation, haunted by his past. He sees his ex-wife (Laura Mennell) and son Petey Jr. (Colin O’Brien) only once a year, paralyzed by the fear that the cursed monkey might return to claim his family. His ex-wife has moved on, now living with Ted (Elijah Wood), a renowned self-help author who plans to fully adopt Petey. During a rare visit, Hal learns that this might be the last time he’ll ever see his son.

Meanwhile, Ida meets a gruesome end after a series of increasingly bizarre incidents. During a trip with his son, Hal receives a call from Bill, urging him to drive to Ida’s house to ensure the cursed monkey hasn’t reappeared. Hal initially refuses, but he changes his mind after witnessing another shocking accident that claims the life of a motel guest.

Written and directed by American filmmaker Osgood Perkins, The MONKEY is a horror-comedy based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same name. The film centers on a pair of twins who find themselves haunted by a cursed, cymbal-banging monkey toy capable of causing inexplicable deaths to those around them.

Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” was first published in 1980 as a booklet included in an issue of Gallery magazine. It was later revised and included in King’s collection Skeleton Crew in 1985.

Christian Convery delivers an amazing performance portraying twins Bill and Hal, so convincingly that I genuinely thought they were two different actors. His ability to create distinct personalities for each character was so compelling that it felt like watching actual twins on screen.

The film’s opening pulls us in with its haunting premise: a cursed toy monkey that randomly claims innocent lives with each turn of its key. The way the monkey latches onto this specific family creates an intriguing narrative hook.

There are some truly memorable death scenes, but the twins’ mother’s death stands out as an unexpected terror. The scene is so brilliantly crafted that I momentarily believed the monkey might possess some mind-controlling supernatural ability.

Unfortunately, the film misses the opportunity to reach its full potential by failing to explore the monkey’s origins or establish any clear rules governing its supernatural abilities. Without this deeper context, viewers are unable to fully invest in the protagonist’s struggle or understand the true stakes of the supernatural threat.

The second half devolves into a Final Destination-style spectacle of increasingly outlandish deaths that blur the line between horror and dark comedy. Take the scene where a woman gets electrocuted in a pool, her body literally explodes into a million pieces, a death so absurd it’s almost laughable. While the film seems to aim for shocking creativity, these deaths quickly spiral from tense to ridiculous, undermining any sense of genuine terror.

The MONKEY was theatrically released in the United States on 21 February 2025 by Neon. The film has grossed over $31 million worldwide on an $11 million production budget.