Despite its creative kill scenes and compact duration, I found myself scribbling questions during my viewing: “When will this movie conclude?” “I’m just not invested.” The issue is that The Monkey lacks depth in its core. It fails to be laugh-out-loud funny, which detracts from the repetitive character stereotypes it employs, and it doesn’t strike an emotional chord with audiences regarding the generational inheritance of fatherly wisdom between brothers.
In the opening scenes, we meet twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery), who serve as a study in contrasts. Hal, our main character, is fragile — constantly hurt and frequently bullied, particularly by his brother Bill. Bill misconstrues rudeness for charisma, swears excessively, and treats Hal harshly, seemingly under the impression that their birth order separates them by years rather than mere moments. Their mother, Lois (Tatiana Maslany), struggles to care for them amidst her turmoil following her husband Petey’s (Adam Scott) mysterious disappearance, a fact hinted at in the opening scene. Their father left behind an unwanted monkey, and so too do Hal and Bill grapple with this burden when they discover it in a neat, robin’s egg blue hatbox in his room. Events rapidly spiral out of control as a series of strange deaths occur in their small town. The brothers eventually relocate to Maine with their Aunt Ida (Sara Levy) and Uncle Chip (Perkins playing the role of an uncouth uncle), and they dispose of the monkey by throwing it into a well.
