Don't Turn the Key

As one of the most prolific authors of the modern era, Stephen KingRising to fame with the release of his first book, Carrie, Stephen King is one of the most prolific, and most successful, American authors (in any genre, not just horror). has seen plenty of adaptations of his works. We’ve discussed this before, on several occasions, and it’s no big shock. When you write a couple of novels a year, plus novellas, short stories, and so much else, you’re bound to end up with a ton of adaptations of your works. Stephen King is one of the big topics on this site, with Asteroid G having reviewed so many of his works. We can’t go a month most of the time without finding one to cover.

And this month is no exception, with another film based on one of his works having recently come out. The Monkey was released on February 21, 2025, and was met with fairly solid praise from critics and audiences. It’s already managed to pull in $56.1 Mil against its $11 Mil budget, making it a solid success, even when using Hollywood math. Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, released by Neon in the U.S., and based on the 1980 horror short story "The Monkey" (originally published in Gallery magazine and then later compiled into King’s Skeleton Crew), the film takes its liberties with the source material (which, as a short story, was understandably short on story to work with) but the end result is one of the better King adaptations to ever come out.

But to be clear, this isn’t a horror film like you’d normally expect from King’s works. While the original short story was very much a horror tale, 2025’s The Monkey is a pitch black comedy. Every time the film builds to a scare it then swerves and goes for a laugh. They’re disturbing laughs, finding humor in situations that, in most cases, wouldn’t be funny (like a man getting his intestines ripped out). But still, it’s a comedy all the same. A comedy for those with warped sensibilities that can enjoy this kind of thing. I’m of that camp, and The Monkey was exactly the kind of film I needed on a cold March day.

The film introduces us to twins Hal and Bill Shelburn (both played by Christian Convery as a young teen, and then Theo James years later as an adult). Hal is the nerdier one of the twins, while Bill is the abusive “older” brother (having been born three minutes earlier). When the two go digging into their father’s old things (their dad played for a scene by Adam Scott) they find a wind-up toy monkey. A very creepy, ugly, wind-up toy monkey (although don’t call it a “toy”). Bill turns the key on the back of it after the box it’s kept in prompts, “turn the key, see what happens.” Nothing immediately occurs, but later that night, while they’re hanging out with their babysitter at a Japanese hibachi restaurant, she gets her head cut clean off in a horrible accident.

Afterwards, Hal and Bill suspect that the monkey might have done it. After a particularly cruel set of pranks played on Hal by Bill and some mean girls at school, Hal decides to turn the key and wish for his brother’s death. Instead, their mother, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), keels over from a massive brain aneurysm. This forces them to go live with uncle, Chip Zimmer (Osgood Perkins), and his wife, Ida (Sarah Levy). A twist of the key, this time from Bill, leads to Chip’s death, and at that point the boys bury the monkey in a well, hoping never to see it again. Except, then, years later, people start curiously dying in their hometown. Hal suspects the monkey, and a cryptic call from Bill sends Hal, with his estranged son Petey (Colin O'brien) in tow, to investigate. Is the toy back? Are these deaths random? Hal has to find out.

Written out, the movie doesn’t sound like a comedy. People die, including people close to the kids, and it’s really sad. Or, at least, it should be. That’s the trick about the film, though: in most instances, the film finds a way to play every kill the monkey orchestrates as an elaborate gag. It finds a way to swerve and give us a chuckle (or sometimes even much more) from these moments. And as the film goes on, and the bodies start piling up, the laughs actually get bigger and bigger. It’s kind of crazy.

I was reminded of the Final DestinationA series of films predicated on Rube Goldberg-levels of slasher murder, the Final Destination series has gone five films (and counting) to become one of modern horror's more successful franchises. series while watching the film. We have an entity bent on killing people, giving us a little drum roll before, with the last bounce of the stick, someone dies. We witness the setup for the kills, see it lay out before us, understand what’s coming even before the little, elaborate play commences. Hell, when I went to see this film in theaters the trailer for the next Final Destination film even played before the main event. The comparison was right there, and it was hard to miss. The key difference, of course, was that Final Destination expects you to be scared by the kills it sets up, while The Monkey understands it’s all very silly.

I appreciated that about this film, that it knew exactly what kind of movie it was going to be. It could have gone for straight horror, trying to build up scares with each twist of the key, each elaborate setup. That kind of film works, but only once. I enjoyed the original Final Destination back when it first came out, but whenever I go back and watch it again it doesn’t feel as scary, as visceral, or as interesting. Some of the magic is lost because I know what’s coming and the shock is gone. You can only properly scare someone with a Rube Goldberg-like setup one time, and as the sequels to that series have come out, the diminishing returns absolutely have set in.

I don’t feel like that’s going to be the case for The Monkey, though, and that’s because it’s going for laughs. It walks a fine line between horror and comedy to find something that perfectly fits in between the grooves. It gives a lot of gore, and a few solid jump moments, but these are played as part of the gag. The film finds a way to make it bigger, broader, and funnier than it needs to be all so it can get a laugh out of the audience. While the shock of the kills probably will fade over time, the humor is going to last longer. We’ll see the silliness and artifice for what it is, but because the film isn’t trying to scare us in these moments, not really, it all will play better on repeated viewings.

I’m sure some fans of King’s work are going to be upset at the liberties the film takes, and it does take plenty, but I don’t really see this as a bad thing. The key moments of the story are preserved, carried over to the film so that we know what story we’re watching. I read the story way back in the day when I was younger and I remembered it just well enough to think, “yeah, this is an adaptation in spirit, but it’s the right spirit.” Anyone hoping for a true horror film isn’t going to get that here, unless they’re truly squeamish about gore, but anyone that can enjoy the film for exactly what it is will find something fun, funny, and disturbingly enjoyable.

I think, deep down, Perkins understood that a film about a killer toy monkey (but don’t call it a toy) is inherently silly, and so he leaned into it. That was the right call because this is going to be one of those black comedies that will likely live on for a while. It’s dark and nasty but in all the right ways, and I left the theater with a smile on my face. That’s, really, all I could have asked for, and more.