Summary
- The Monkey is Osgood Perkins' latest horror film based on a Stephen King short story.
- The film combines scares with dark comedy through absurd kills and cursed toys.
- Viewers who enjoy The Monkey may also like other wild horror takes on the genre.
The Monkey is Osgood Perkins’ latest horror film following 2024’s Longlegs. It’s an adaptation of a Stephen King short story and James Wan, a newer master of horror, helped produce it. The film begins with two twin brothers, Hal and Bill Shelburn, witnessing several murders after uncovering an old toy of their father's in 1999.
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Decades later, the toy appears again to wreak havoc in their lives even after they buried it as kids. While scary, The Monkey is also played for laughs thanks to the absurdity of some of the kills. Viewers who enjoyed it in the theater may also enjoy these wild takes on the horror genre. Evil toys, childhood traumas, cursed families, dark comedies, and more are ahead.
8 Beetlejuice
A Model Home
Beetlejuice
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 30, 1988
- Runtime
- 92 minutes
- Director
- Tim Burton
- Cast
- Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Keaton, Glenn Shadix, Sylvia Sidney, Patrice Martinez, Dick Cavett, Robert Goulet, Maree Cheatham, Susan Kellermann, Carmen Filpi, Annie McEnroe, Rachel Mittelman, Hugo Stanger, Maurice Page, J. Jay Saunders, Mark Ettlinger, Cindy Daly, Gary Jochimsen, Duane Davis, Simmy Bow, Adelle Lutz
Beetlejuice is a horror comedy about the mundanity of death and becoming a ghost. The movie opens with Adam and Barbara Maitland dying in a car crash, doomed to live in their house for near eternity before they can move on. This would be okay if they were alone, but instead, they also have to deal with new owners, the Deetz's, who rearrange their stuff.
Upset by these new conditions, they think about hiring a poltergeist named Beetlejuice who resides in a model town Adam built before his death, and chaos ensues from there. Beetlejuice is a Tim Burton miracle that probably doesn’t need that much explanation, but the fact remains that it is a classic.
7 It Follows
Always Use Protection
It Follows
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- March 27, 2015
- Runtime
- 101 minutes
- Director
- David Robert Mitchell
- Cast
- Keir Gilchrist, Maika Monroe, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe, Bailey Spry, Carollette Phillips, Loren Bass, Charles Gertner, Debbie Williams, Ruby Harris, Leisa Pulido, D.J. Oliver, Linda Boston, Ingrid Mortimer, Kourtney Bell, Alexyss Spradlin, Mike Lanier, Claire Sloma, Scott Norman, Erin Stone, Joanna Bronson, Don Hails, Ele Bardha
It Follows is a metaphor for the dangers of engaging with romantic partners without proper care and protection. Most modern horror movies like to use allegories for conditions to tell their stories, and this is one of the creepiest of the bunch.
It features a curse whose origins are unknown, but those afflicted will pass on this curse to their romantic partners. Once infected, a ghost-like entity that can take on any form will follow that person around and ultimately kill them given the chance. Even if someone lives in Minnesota and moves to Japan, that ghost WILL find them, much like the cursed monkey in The Monkey.
6 Longlegs
When Is Your Birthday Little Girl?
Longlegs
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- July 12, 2024
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby, Lauren Acala, Kiernan Shipka
- Runtime
- 101 Minutes
- Director
- Oz Perkins
For those who missed it, Longlegs was the last movie Osgood Perkins directed before The Monkey. It follows FBI Agent Lee Harker as she stumbles upon a paranormal case in the department. Someone has been tricking fathers into murdering their families around the time of their daughters' birthdays, only for the true killer to leave a coded note taking credit, which Lee eventually puts together.
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She also finds a doll at one of the murder houses which has a mysterious orb inside. How it relates to the overall case requires a spoiler, but let’s just say that it’s unpredictable, much like Nicolas Cage’s performance as the codenamed Longlegs is unpredictable and unhinged in the movie.
5 Needful Things
The Devil Is In The Details
Needful Things
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 27, 1993
- Runtime
- 120 minutes
- Director
- Fraser C. Heston
- Cast
- Max Von Sydow, Ed Harris, J.T. Walsh, Bonnie Bedelia, Amanda Plummer
There are a lot of great item-based Stephen King adaptations worth highlighting after watching The Monkey, but Needful Things sticks out the most. Like many King settings, the movie begins in the small town of Castle Rock.
A new shopkeeper moves in, providing the residents of this sleepy village with things they desire the most with seemingly no catch. The trick is that these items are cursed, making the owners more evil by the day. By the end of the movie, the town is practically destroying itself because everyone is going cuckoo for consumerism.
4 Piranha 3D
No Stranger To Horror
Piranha 3D
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 20, 2010
- Runtime
- 88 minutes
- Director
- Alexandre Aja
- Cast
- Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Steven R. McQueen, Jessica Szohr, Kelly Brook, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, Dina Meyer, Riley Steele, Adam Scott, Richard Dreyfuss, Devra Korwin, Brooklynn Proulx, Sage Ryan, Cody Longo, Ricardo Chavira, Paul Scheer, Eli Roth, Gianna Michaels, Ashlynn Brooke, Genevieve Alexandra, Bonnie Morgan, Greg Nicotero, Kym Stys, Nicole Randall
Piranha 3D is an absurdist remake, or more like a reimagining, of Piranha from 1978. It takes place around the Spring Break holiday when college kids are at their worst, and in this beach setting, a crew is trying to make an adult movie.
Things go wrong when people start dying to ravenous piranhas, which is when a group of scientists are called in to deal with the problem. Imagine Jaws if it were bloodier and funnier. Piranha 3D is a good recommendation for those who love gore and comedy blended and, because Adam Scott is in it (he briefly makes an appearance in The Monkey), it makes an ideal companion to 2025's latest horror comedy.
3 Ready Or Not
Should Have Signed A Prenup
Ready or Not
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- August 21, 2019
- Runtime
- 95 minutes
- Director
- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
- Cast
- Samara Weaving, Mark O'Brien, Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell, Melanie Scrofano, Kristian Bruun, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, John Ralston, Liam MacDonald, Ethan Tavares, Hanneke Talbot, Celine Tsai, Daniela Barbosa, Chase Churchill, Etienne Kellici, Andrew Anthony, Elana Dunkelman, Kate Ziegler, James Eddy, Adam Winlove-Smith, Alicia Richardson, Nat Faxon, Guy Busick
Ready or Not takes place in a mansion after Alex and Grace get married. Alex belongs to a board game empire and his family invites them to the family mansion to play a game to celebrate their vows, as is their family tradition. It’s a bit unorthodox, but Grace goes along with it and, unfortunately, she chooses the wrong game: Hide and Seek.
Alex’s family, it is revealed, are cursed by tradition, and they have to kill the bride of a newlywed family member or else they will all die. The movie then becomes a cat-and-mouse game wherein Grace tries desperately to hide from members of the family who are trying to kill her. Is the curse real? That’s the big question.
2 Society
There Are No Words
Society
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Runtime
- 99 Minutes
- Director
- Brian Yuzna
- Writers
- Zeph E. Daniel, Rick Fry
- Cast
- Billy Warlock, Concetta D'Agnese, Ben Slack, Evan Richards, Patrice Jennings
Society is a hard movie to describe beyond calling it a physiological thriller without spoiling too much. Bill is an ordinary teenager who feels on the outs with his parents, who seem to adore his sister more. Bill keeps seeing weird stuff but believes it’s just a trick of the eyes. People around town are starting to act weird as well, making Bill think otherwise.
Is it all in Bill’s head or is something going on? Let’s just say Bill’s family is hiding something and, when things hit a boiling point, viewers will be unable to unsee the horrors found within. There is absolutely nothing like the climax of Society, so don’t look too much more into it and just watch it instead.
1 Vivarium
Trapped In Mundanity
Vivarium
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- September 7, 2019
- Runtime
- 97 Minutes
- Director
- Lorcan Finnegan
- Cast
- Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris, Senan Jennings, Eanna Hardwicke
Vivarium is a smaller horror movie from 2019 that probably not many have seen. It stars a schoolteacher, Gemma, and her janitorial partner, Tom, who decide to look at a new suburban plot outside of the city. Their tour guide is a bit weird, as is the cookie-cutter neighborhood they tour, which looks to be in pristine order albeit abandoned.
Their guide eventually sneaks away, and the two find themselves trapped in suburban hell and unable to escape. Also, they’re given a child in a box to raise who looks and sounds like Damien from The Omen franchise. To call Vivarium weird would be an understatement, but it is captivating from minute one.
- Release Date
- February 21, 2025
- Runtime
- 97 minutes
- Director
- Osgood Perkins
- Writers
- Osgood Perkins, Stephen King
- Producers
- Chris Ferguson, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Dave Caplan
Cast
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Theo JamesHal / Bill -
Tatiana MaslanyLois