Tag: longlegs

The Monkey (2025)

  • Director: Osgood Perkins
  • Screenplay: Osgood Perkins
  • Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, Elijah Wood
  • Cinematography: Nico Aguilar
  • Editing: Greg Ng, Graham Fortin
  • Score: Edo Van Breemen
  • Genre: Comedy horror
  • Runtime: 98 minutes

Coming only 7 months after his last feature, ‘Longlegs’, Osgood Perkins returns with a tale of murder and mayhem all caused by a toy monkey. Y’know, one of those insanely creepy monkeys with the drum kits. It’s not a toy though, it’s a killing machine. Every time someone winds it up, certain death shall follow. And always the most gruesome, chaotic deaths, giving ‘Final Destination’ a run for its money. It’s comedically over-the-top, but that’s the intention.

When their pilot father brings the monkey back from a trip elsewhere, twins Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) discover the curse at the expense of innocent family members. A decent chunk of the movie is devoted to the boys’ childhood living in the shadow of constant expiration, as opposed to a rushed 5 minute recollection of their backstories. 25 years later, the brothers (now played by Theo James), are estranged, meanwhile the monkey is out there…lurking…because evil never dies.

Perkins seems to have an obsession with death but if you research his own parentage, you understand what makes him tick. His dad was Anthony Perkins of ‘Psycho’ fame, who died from AIDS-related pneumonia. His mother, Berry Berenson, an actress and model, was killed in a plane crash – a victim of 9/11, no less. The latter being totally preventable in a ‘sliding doors’ moment, say if Ms. Berenson had woken up late that morning and missed the flight. The movie’s message of ‘accidents happen’ becomes even more significant.

It’s certainly miles better than ‘Longlegs‘, which I found to be dreary and unimaginative. This may be due to the source material; the plot of ‘The Monkey‘ is based on a Stephen King short story. Hang around for a post-credits scene teasing Perkins’ next project, ‘Keeper’, set for release in October. He’s on a (drum) roll.

My rating: 7 / 10

Longlegs (2024)

  • Director: Osgood Perkins
  • Screenplay: Osgood Perkins
  • Cast: Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Kiernan Shipka
  • Cinematographer: Andres Arochi
  • Editing: Greg Ng, Graham Fortin
  • Score: Zilgi
  • Genre: Horror thriller
  • Runtime: 101 minutes

Much like 90s classic ‘The Silence of the Lambs‘ has a young, female FBI agent face to face against a notorious serial killer, ‘Longlegs‘ has Lee Harker (Monroe) hunting Longlegs, a deranged Satanist bogeyman (Cage). But instead of skin suits and fava beans, we’ve got creepy dolls and sinister religious elements as the components.

Lee Harker has a ‘gift’ – she’s supposedly ‘half psychic’ but this is only mentioned in the opening 15 minutes and promptly forgotten about for the rest of the movie. And, similar to all characters who are in any way ‘different’, she’s largely devoid of emotion (and personality) with Monroe turning her head mechanically as if she’s an empty-headed automaton.

Nicolas Cage is prosthetic-ed up to the nines (straggly grey hair, bulbous nose, rubbery chin) – if it wasn’t for his voice I wouldn’t have been able to tell it was him. Pity the efforts of the makeup department are wasted as he gives his usual over-the-top performance. Usually a bit of craziness works well when playing a psychotic character but Cage is way too hammy to take seriously.

‘Longlegs‘ has a kind of experiment feel to it, with lingering visuals of bubbling liquids and snakes randomly thrown in, probably to give it a unique or unsettling quality – perhaps because the director knows the film is hardly original and has little bite to it. You’ve got to question why it was made – maybe Nicolas Cage (listed as a producer) wanted to play some sort of psycho for the fun of it.

I appreciate the ’90s-core’ feeling; grainy camera lenses, wintry woodlands and log cabins but it just comes off as an ‘X-Files‘ episode minus the aliens or again, ‘The Silence of the Lambs‘.

That said, I think it’s the first movie I’ve seen in which the end credits scroll up rather than down but it’s too late for that gimmick to save the film.

My rating: 4 / 10