The Monkey is a 2025 film by Osgood Perkins that centers on a magical monkey that bangs his drum, which causes a Final Destination-Esque death to happen. 

The movie begins with a man frantically running into a store and saying he wants to sell a monkey, but before he can sell it, the monkey bangs his drum, and the man behind the counter is disemboweled. The movie then cuts to that man’s sons, who have grown up believing that their father abandoned them and are being raised by their mother. They find the monkey hidden, and the cycle continues.  

As I was watching the movie, I realized that the monkey was a metaphor for generational trauma, in the sense that it’s something that separates brother from brother and father from son, and the movie ends with Hal, the son of the father from the opening scene, accepting the monkey will always be there and that they just need to acknowledge that the monkey is a part of them.  

 I liked the movie and its exploration of the bonds between father and son and brother and brother, but the movie isn’t scary, so don’t go in thinking it will be. I would label it closer to somewhat of a comedy. The monkey takes multiple victims, and each brutal death seems to become more and more ridiculous and less and less scary. By the time some of the final murders are on the screen, I found myself laughing more than anything else.  

I would give the monkey a 3.5/5. I would just make sure that you don’t expect a typical horror movie and expect closer to a Scream, just a horror comedy.