The Jolly Monkey

It started so promisingly. The opening segment from The Jolly Monkey Motel set 40 years in the past is amusing and almost shocking.

Then the movie moves to present day, introduces it's main characters, and it doesn't take long for everything to fall firmly into "mid" territory.

The plot is that the owner of The Jolly Monkey Motel has recently died and left the property to be evenly distributed amongst the remaining members of his family. So the 7 family members meet up to discuss what will be done with the property. But the hotel has a mysterious and murderous past, and bad things happen to people who check in.

The film utilizes good camera angles and establishing shots of the exteriors of the motel to create a mildly foreboding atmosphere, the cinematography in general is good throughout. The sound is absolutely fine and dialogue 100% clear.

I think what destroys the movie early on are the tedious and long scenes filled with the family talking about the "family business" and "Dad's Legacy". I understand a good horror movie needs to establish a story through characters to make events worthwhile, but it's executed so poorly.

Aside from the Sister & Brother Jenny and Marshall (who actually have good on screen chemistry) everyone else is really boring to listen to, or even just to look at! The dynamic between the father and mother is dreadful, and in particular the father character delivers escalating levels of cringe dialogue.

When the movie gets past the 45 minute mark it becomes a mess. Our characters are constantly re-grouping and then running off in different directions and making dreadful decisions.

You know in a horror movie where characters say to each other "OK, we've gotta go Now!" and another character replies "No, you go, I'll stay here and we'll do this"? Well, The Jolly Monkey fills up 40% of it's runtime with variations of those sentences, and it is absolutely excruciating to get through as a result.

"We should stick together! No I'm coming with you! We're all coming! Wait, you stay here!" OH MY GOD Enough.

Unsurprisingly my DVD has No subtitles. No-one involved in the creation of the DVD wanted the unenviable task of writing down every word of dialogue!

The best thing about this movie would definitely be the character Jenny played by Courtney Fulk, she does what she can with the dreadful script, gives it her all and makes for an awesome "final girl".

Overall, The Jolly Monkey is just characters making stupid decisions over and over, an obvious serial killer who is Obvious, and the worst dialogue you'll hear in 2025. And i haven't even mentioned the ridiculous Monkey mask!

Every single character has such stiff and awful line delivery and acting. Also the dialogue just generally sounded so unrealistic, no one talks like this. The camera was constantly panning and changing angles, like pointing at whoever was talking in a conversation despite them being literally right next to each other. Just have the camera zoomed out so they fit in frame. On top of that the camera was constantly shaking. General premise of the story with what the motel was for and the killers motive had potential but how it was actually carried out was awful. Movie kind of seems like it was just trying to ride the tail coat of "The Monkey" movie that came out recently. Also movie, you did not have to have the thimble clapping during the *entire* credits. Should've had it fade out after the screen fades to black to the credit music.

Honestly? The Jolly Monkey completely surprised me. People call it a knockoff of The Monkey, but I actually enjoyed it way more. It's faster, creepier, and doesn't waste time with forced drama. The design of the monkey is seriously unsettling, and the movie knows exactly what it is - fun, intense horror that doesn't pretend to be something else. Even the ending hit the right tone for me. Way more effective than expected. I had a great time watching this. The practical effects were surprisingly solid, and the atmosphere kept me hooked all the way through. The only minor downside was that some of the kill scenes felt a bit simple and awkward, but it didn't take away from the overall experience.

This is just a cheap, and very bad rip off of The Monkey (2025) which is based on a Stephen King story.

This copy is written by a guy who seems to take a look at what big-budget movies Hollywood is gonna make, then write a cheap knock-off version of his own and clobber it together as quickly as possible to cash-in on, what can only be assumed as viewers confusing it for the bigger budget, better written release.

It's a real pity that some writers can only seem to create anything when they['re ripping-off other people's ideas, but here we are!

If I were you, I'd save your time and just go watch The Monkey (2025) instead!

Stumbling upon the 2025 horror movie "The Jolly Monkey" by random chance, and given my love of all things horror, of course I had to check out the movie. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I virtually didn't know what I was in for. But the movie's cover was actually interesting enough to make me stop and take notice.

Truth be told, I thought that this was going to be a mockbuster from The Asylum, cashing in on the recent Stephen King movie "The Monkey".

The storyline in the movie, as written by Ryan Ebert, was watchable for sure, but it was also a rather generic script. The narrative was a bit sluggish, and writer Ryan Ebert didn't really bring anything particularly grand to the horror genre.

Of the entire cast ensemble, I was only familiar with Patrick Labyorteaux and Anthony Jensen. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

The effects in "The Jolly Monkey" were nothing outstanding. In fact, the movie didn't really make much use of special effects in general.

My rating of writer and director Ryan Ebert's 2025 movie "The Jolly Monkey" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.