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NEON is already teasing Osgood Perkins' February 2025 movie, The Monkey, a James Wan production based on a Stephen King story. Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood,

brundlefly wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2024 4:41 pm

brundlefly wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2024 4:13 pm NEON is already teasing Osgood Perkins' February 2025 movie, The Monkey, a James Wan production based on a Stephen King story. Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood,

Not going the Longlegs route with the marketing.(NSFW)

Impressively fun trailer

The Monkey (Osgood Perkins)

I can see why Perkins made this movie. Longlegs is the coldest, loneliest film in a career full of cold, lonely films, a grotesque shout of despair whose brief moments of comedy were there seemingly to make you feel even worse. I loved it. But Perkins clearly felt like he had to exorcise that experience with an out-and-out good time, taking the brutal reality of loss and grief in a world of random pointlessness and turn it into a glib splatstick comedy.

It's just...Perkins has no lightness to him. So the comedy is arch, heavy, and winking. And while this did amuse me for maybe half an hour, I finally grew tired, especially once we entered the present day and a silly plot emerges. I'm thinking Perkins isn't the best at constructing plots. If the film had stayed in the childhood section like the movies it's taking influence from, it might've been an ok time. But even then, there's only one joke here, really.

I wasn't even particularly struck with the visual style, which is weird as Perkins is primarily a stylist. I'm guessing he reined himself in. The movie still looks good; it just doesn't suggest the guy who made The Blackcoat's Daughter and Longlegs.

Perkins' weakest effort. I think he'd benefit from a writing partner, someone who can bring more narrative and character heft while Perkins constructs the style and themes.

The Monkey might have been fun if Osgood Perkins had any grasp of pacing, tension, suspense, characterisation, or how to land a decent gag. Unfortunately, he doesn’t, so instead, we’re left with a disjointed string of random events and deaths, all desperately trying (and failing) to seem cool and irreverent.