With its gory gags and pitch-black humor, The Monkey brings back a forgotten horror subgenre that was originally pioneered by greats like Sam Raimi and John Landis. Based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, The Monkey stars Theo James as twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn, whose family has been cursed for generations by a toy monkey with the supernatural ability to kill everyone around them. When the gruesome deaths start up again, Hal tries to get to the bottom of who’s causing all the mayhem (and makes a shocking close-to-home discovery).

Longlegs director Osgood Perkins used that high-concept premise to explore real-world themes of grief and sudden loss. Perkins lost both of his parents to extreme circumstances within the space of a decade, so he could relate to the Shelburns on a personal level. The Monkey’s ending conveys the poignant message that death happens to everyone, yet it always feels cruel and unfair. But in approaching this story and its grim themes, Perkins employed a hefty dose of dark comedy and brought back a classic horror subgenre.

The Monkey Revitalizes The “Splatstick” Subgenre

It’s Cartoonishly Gory & Shockingly Hilarious

With gruesomely creative death scenes like a sushi chef chopping off a babysitter’s head and a body exploding on the surface of an electrified pool, The Monkey gives Final Destination a run for its money. It’s a classic example of the “splatstick” subgenre, a type of horror comedy that imbues a blood-soaked supernatural thriller with the zaniness of a cartoon. The subgenre was solidified in 1981 with the release of Sam Raimi’s The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London.

Raimi further refined the splatstick aesthetic with Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ II, which had a mounted deer head laughing hysterically, a gallon of blood bursting through a hole in the wall to drown Bruce Campbell, and a headless corpse wielding a chainsaw. Early in his career, Peter Jackson put his own stamp on this genre with Brainᴅᴇᴀᴅ. The Monkey’s bloodiest scenes tap into the gloriously wacky spirit of those films with gory sight gags like a severed leg flying at Hal across a motel forecourt and a stampede turning his swinging uncle into a visceral mush in his sleeping bag.

The Monkey Manages To Have A Lot Of Fun Despite Its Dark Themes

Perkins Approaches The Theme Of Death With A Wry Smile

Despite dealing with the lofty theme of loss, The Monkey manages to have a lot of fun, because Perkins approaches that dark theme with a wry smile. It’s a cinematic exploration of grief and trauma, but it’s also a laugh riot. It’s common for splatstick movies to use their cartoonish horror to offset a heavy dramatic theme. An American Werewolf in London deals with guilt, xenophobia, and doomed romance; the presence of a werewolf helps the medicine go down.