The Monkey 4K Review (Decal Releasing)

The Monkey is a 2025 horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Gretel and Hansel, The Twilight Zone, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, and LongLegs). It’s based on the short story from the legendary Stephen King (Castle Rock, Maximum Overdrive, Silver Bullet, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, IT, Pet Sematary, The Outsider, The Dead Zone, The Stand, Misery, Cujo, Children of the Corn, Christine, Stand By Me, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Carrie, and Creepshow). It was produced by film maker James Wan (Saw franchise, M3GAN franchise, The Nun franchise, Insidious franchise, Malignant, Annabelle franchise, Swamp Thing, Mortal Kombat, and The Conjuring franchise). The budget was $10,000,000 and it grossed $68,869,853 worldwide at the box office!!!! When twin brothers (played by: Christian Convery from Cocaine Bear, Sweet Tooth, and Playing with Fire) discover a mysterious wind-up monkey, their curiosity gets the best of them. A series of outrageous gruesome deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a brand new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers Hal and Bill (played by: Theo James from Divergent, Insurgent, X-Men 97, The Gentlemen, The White Lotus, and Underworld franchise) to come together after all these years to confront the cursed toy!!!! The Monkey is the best Stephen King adapted film since 2019’s Doctor Sleep. The son of the iconic Anthony Perkins. Osgood Perkins returns with another visual nightmare after this previous wild project LongLegs. The Monkey takes King’s short story and it turns it into something even better than it’s original source material. Twins will always be linked to horror and this is a quality entry for that sub-genre. Rising actor Christian Convery does a fantastic job as the younger versions of Hal and Bill. They may be twins but both twins have a completely different personality to them. Theo James knocked it out of the park with this dual performances of the older Hal and Bill in The Monkey. I’ve seen him a few things over the years but I didn’t realize he had this type of acting range in him. Like I said before, these siblings might be twins but they are nothing alike. James showed you both sides of them with ease. He has a bright future if he gets more stuff like this in his career. The supporting cast has more than a few familiar faces which includes Adam Scott (Krampus), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings franchise), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends), Sarah Levy (SurrealEstate), Osgood Perkins (Dead and Breakfast), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Tess Degenstein (Space Janitors), Danica Dreyer (Silk Road 2), Kingston Chan (Creepshow), Zia Newton (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), Katie Stuart (X2: X-Men United), and Scott Nicholson (Succession). It had Final Destination vibes at times, you basically what crazy stuff was about to happen before it did. The Monkey almost goes into slasher territory with it’s high body count. I didn’t expect to see so many people getting slaughtered in this which was a nice surprise. It’s loaded with brutal gore and very creative kills. The special fx is excellent by all of it’s skilled artists lead by Carolyn Williams (Snowpiercer, LongLegs, Batwoman, Channel Zero, ABCs of Death 2, Critters Attack!, and The Belko Experiment). The Monkey is non stop bad luck and pure mayhem. It has a solid balance of dark comedy, drama, suspense, and horror. It keeps tense as Hal does whatever it takes to save his son Petey while looking for his mysterious brother to fix all of this before it’s too late to end the curse. The Monkey is very entertaining and so much fun with loads of violence to satisfy any die hard horror fanatic. It’s currently my personal favorite horror film of the year, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Decal Releasing! This 2160p (2.00:1) transfer with HDR10 looks amazing in HD for it’s 4K debut in the states. The stylish cinematography and special fx stand out for The Monkey. It’s sharp and detailed gruesome kills will keep your eyes glued to the screen. It has a few different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English: Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks on the disc. The audio is awesome for The Monkey. It’s packed insane moments and deaths which are backed up by some thunderous sounds to add to them. All of the dialogue is crystal clear, the killing is elevated, and the music has big boost to it. It has English SDH and Spanish subtitles. It has the little over 3 minute “Outrageously Gory and Thoroughly Gratuitous”. It has interviews with the director and cast. They chat about the concept. They talk about the comedy and horror balance. They go over some of the more fatal moments from the horror feature. It has the little over 4 minute “The Cast of The Monkey”. It has interviews with the cast and director. Various cast members chat a little bit about their characters and experience on this movie. They all show their appreciation for each other. Osgood Perkins brings up that he almost never acts in stuff that he writes but he had to do this one. It has the little over 3 minute “Becoming Hal and Bill”. This focuses on lead actor Theo James that plays dual roles in this. He breaks down what separates the twins. He goes over his process of performing two different characters on the same production..It has the “Announcement Trailer”, “Teaser”, and the “Trailer” for The Monkey. It has a really quick “Funeral Gallery” for some of the unlucky victims here. It has a variety of Decal Releasing related “Trailers”. It comes with a slipcover and a Blu Ray copy of the release. The Blu Ray is also an option for home video, you can check out my review for that one here. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!