Amthermandes

The Monkey is a horror dark-comedy/light-comedy that captures the brilliance of Stephen King's original short story quite well. It's a fun watch, plenty of good death scenes and gory special effects. It does a great job emulating King's storytelling abilities, his quirky humor, and his ability to be terrifying. At times I laughed, and at times I said to myself: "Ok, THAT'S pretty freaky right there."

There are certainly some corny moments, and even though they used a lot of good, practical special effects, the use of CGI when it was used was usually cheap-looking (as most CGI is these days) and took away from the moment a bit. Also, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said, you need to incorporate a "willing suspension of disbelief" for movies like this, but, even after obeying his words of wisdom, there are still some absolutely ridiculous moments that make the movie seem, well, kinda stupid. I guess that may be one of the leading factors why it's not rated higher. And I know the writer/director Osgood Perkins wanted the movie to be over-the-top to be a sort of commentary of the ridiculousness and randomness of death, but still, some scenes just fall flat.

Some of the comedy was hysterical. I laughed out loud at the 4th character death, especially the way they did it. And some of the comedy is rather subtle, like the "Employee Of The Month" photo in the manager's office, that is a photo OF said manager. Random side note: the store manager would fit right into society in the movie "Idiocracy." Some humor is also weird, and most people won't find it funny. But I did. Like, why is "We do" in "We do weddings" in quotes?!? I still find myself chuckling to myself late at night lying in bed as I'm trying to fall asleep, wondering that very question.

And holy crap I am so glad I didn't look too much into the film before watching it, because I LOVED seeing who plays Ted when the character was introduced, what a pleasant, fun surprise!

All in all, it's a solid popcorn flick. Don't take it seriously, and just have fun with it.

Movies that are quite similar (in terms of atmosphere, material, and themes): The Final Destination series (obviously) The Annabelle series Dead Silence Needful Things The It series (original and remakes) Beetlejuice Rubber (in terms of random, absurd humor) Happy Death Day series The Cabin in the Woods The Wishmaster series Death of a Unicorn.

There is no background information, no dialogue. It's just you, as the woman, waking up in a car bound and gagged, being brought to a strange house by some Ed Gein-looking creeper, and forced to experience what it must be like to be one of the very few real-life victims of history's known notorious and brutal serial killers (and probably even some of the unknown serial killers who have never been caught and may never be caught, if you'll excuse the dark thought).

To a hardcore horror veteran, for the most part, it's nothing new to be quite frank. We've seen this stuff often. It's not even all that disturbing. It might be more effective to someone who's not eyebrow-deep in the world of horror. But it's still pretty good. The filmmakers stepped away from the modern, ever-growing trend of "feeling the need to shock audiences as much as possible" in an attempt to bring something more thought-provoking and a bit different.

Sure, it's fun. It's like the previous games, they don't care about user experience, they just want your money. Expect some major bullcrap. It's like Call Of Duty, just re-hashed garbage. They put crushed oyster shells on the product instead of sprinkles, says it's something new, then charge fans a premium. It's a money grab, with even more bugs. The only reason I give it 2 stars instead of one is because it's still fun to play. But you might as well just play 2K21. Or 2K18. Or 2K07.