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The Monkey is both a 2025 supernatural horror-comedy film and a Stephen King short story. The film was written and directed by Osgood Perkins, stars Theo James as twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn, and adapts King’s story as a much larger tale about family trauma, grief, guilt, and the randomness of death.
In the movie, a wind-up toy monkey plays its drum before someone nearby dies in a grotesque accident. Twenty-five years after Hal and Bill first encounter the toy, it returns and forces the estranged brothers to confront their past. The result is not a solemn, scene-by-scene King adaptation: it is a colorful, extremely gory horror comedy with elaborate death set pieces and an intentionally incomplete supernatural mythology.
The Monkey at a glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Film | The Monkey (2025) |
| Director and screenwriter | Osgood Perkins |
| Based on | Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” |
| Lead performance | Theo James as Hal and Bill Shelburn |
| Also starring | Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott, Elijah Wood, and Osgood Perkins |
| U.S. theatrical release | February 21, 2025 |
| Runtime | 98 minutes |
| Rating | R for strong bloody violent content, gore, language throughout, and some sexual references |
| Distributor | NEON |
| Production companies | Among the credited companies are C2, Atomic Monster, and Black Bear |
The official film synopsis and credits are available from NEON and C2 Motion Picture Group. The film’s runtime and rating information are listed by Rotten Tomatoes.
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What is The Monkey about?
Hal and Bill Shelburn are young twins when they discover an antique wind-up monkey connected to their missing father, Captain Petey Shelburn. The toy has a key in its back. When the key is turned, the monkey drums, and a person nearby soon dies in an elaborate and usually horrific accident.
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The danger is not presented as a conventional monster attack. The monkey does not chase its victims or explain itself. It sits in one place, performs, and seems to bring about a chain of events involving ordinary objects, bad timing, and catastrophic consequences. That detached mechanism is central to the film’s dark comedy: the toy looks absurdly harmless while the results are often extremely bloody.
The boys’ childhood is permanently damaged by the monkey and by the family’s inability to deal with what it has done. As adults, Hal and Bill are estranged. Hal has a son, Petey, and has tried to distance himself from both the toy and the past. After the monkey resurfaces 25 years later, new deaths begin, and the brothers are pulled back into the same unresolved conflict.
The movie combines supernatural horror, family drama, black comedy, and splatter. Its central question is not simply how to destroy a cursed object. It is whether people can stop turning grief and fear into blame, resentment, and attempts to control death.
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The film establishes several recurring patterns, but it deliberately refuses to provide a complete rulebook.
- The object is a mechanical monkey with a winding key in its back.
- Turning the key makes it play its drum.
- A death follows the activation, often through an apparently unrelated chain of events.
- The person who turns the key appears to be spared from that particular activation.
- The toy does not reliably kill a specific person chosen by the operator.
- Attempts to use it against an intended victim can result in somebody else dying instead.
- The film never fully explains where the monkey came from, whether it is intelligent, or whether it is controlling events itself.
That last point matters. The monkey should not be described as a wish-granting object or as a device that punishes only bad people. Bill repeatedly activates it and believes he can weaponize it against Hal, but the consequences do not follow a clean, controllable pattern. The film’s recurring idea is closer to random death than moral punishment.
Some viewers will find the incomplete rules unsettling because the toy cannot be reduced to a puzzle with a final solution. Others may find the lack of explanation frustrating. Reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes and the Associated Press both discuss this tension between the film’s thematic purpose and its limited supernatural explanation.
Is The Monkey scary or funny?
The Monkey is much gorier and more openly comic than a conventional supernatural mystery. Its deaths are frequently constructed as suspense sequences that end in grotesque visual punch lines. The film uses dismemberment, crushing injuries, sudden deaths, disturbing images, child endangerment, sexual references, and crude language.
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The comedy is not incidental. The movie often treats the contrast between the toy’s cheerful performance and the resulting carnage as the joke. Some scenes play as black comedy or absurdist slapstick; others are designed as full practical-effects splatter set pieces. The tone can shift rapidly from family trauma to an outrageous death gag.
A useful expectation guide is:
Watch it if you enjoy inventive practical-effects deaths, absurdist horror, pitch-black humor, and Stephen King adaptations that take major liberties. Skip it if graphic bodily harm, child peril, deaths played for laughs, or unexplained supernatural rules are deal-breakers.
It is also important not to approach the movie expecting another Longlegs. Perkins’s earlier films are often associated with slow-burn dread, austere imagery, and oppressive atmosphere. The Monkey is more colorful, more direct, and substantially more playful in its violence.
Is it like Final Destination?
The comparison is useful, but it only describes part of the film.
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Like the Final Destination movies, The Monkey builds deaths out of chains of ordinary events. A small object or everyday action can become the first link in a sequence that ends in a fatal payoff. The audience may understand the danger before the characters do, and the death scenes are major attractions rather than incidental plot events.
The difference is that Final Destination generally presents Death as an impersonal force pursuing survivors according to a recognizable pattern. The Monkey is less orderly. It does not establish a dependable sequence or a clear list of targets, and its deaths are often more absurd and openly comic.
The emotional center is different as well. Final Destination is primarily about escaping or delaying death. The Monkey is about what happens when people try to assign responsibility for death, use grief as a weapon, and mistake survival for control. The family relationship between Hal, Bill, Lois, and Petey carries more weight than any fixed supernatural chronology.
So the fairest description is Final Destination-style accident construction inside a family-centered, blackly comic Stephen King adaptation—not a conventional Final Destination entry.
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| Actor | Character | Role in the story |
|---|---|---|
| Theo James | Hal and Bill Shelburn | James plays both adult twins. Hal is withdrawn and guilt-ridden, while Bill is more aggressive, resentful, and willing to use the monkey. |
| Tatiana Maslany | Lois Shelburn | The twins’ mother and one of the most important figures in their childhood trauma. |
| Christian Convery | Young Hal and Young Bill | Plays both twins as children. |
| Colin O’Brien | Petey | Hal’s teenage son and the emotional link between Hal’s past and his present responsibilities. |
| Rohan Campbell | Ricky | A local figure who becomes involved with the monkey. |
| Sarah Levy | Aunt Ida | A relative connected to the family’s later history. |
| Adam Scott | Captain Petey Shelburn | The twins’ father, whose disappearance helps create the family’s central wound. |
| Elijah Wood | Ted Hammerman | Hal’s former partner in the present-day storyline. |
| Osgood Perkins | Uncle Chip | A supporting figure in the family’s past. |
The film’s most unusual casting challenge is Theo James’s dual role. Hal and Bill are not merely the same character with different moral choices. Their differences are communicated through posture, clothing, hair, voice, facial performance, and behavior. The result is a relationship built around physical resemblance but psychological separation. Critics highlighted James’s two performances as one of the movie’s strongest elements; see the reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes and the RogerEbert.com review.
Is The Monkey based on a book?
It is based on a short story, not a novel. Stephen King’s “The Monkey” was first published in 1980 and later included in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. King’s official bibliography identifies the story and its characters, including Hal Shelburn, Bill Shelburn, Petey, Dennis, and the monkey. The publisher’s page for Skeleton Crew confirms the collection information.
There is also a separate 2023 Dollar Baby short-film adaptation directed by Spencer Sherry. That project should not be confused with Perkins’s 2025 NEON feature. Information about the short adaptation is available from Stephen King Short Movies.
How different is the 2025 film from Stephen King’s story?
The movie is best described as a loose but recognizable adaptation. It keeps the cursed wind-up monkey, the connection between its performance and death, Hal Shelburn, Petey, and the story’s anxiety about mortality. But Perkins turns a compact, serious horror story into a feature-length family tragedy with a much larger cast, a different structure, and a deliberately comic tone.
| Element | Stephen King’s short story | 2025 film |
|---|---|---|
| Emotional focus | Adult Hal, his son, and Hal’s memories of the monkey’s earlier appearances. | The damaged relationship between twin brothers Hal and Bill, with Petey connecting the family’s past and present. |
| Bill | Present, but not developed in the same way as the film’s principal antagonist. | A central character whose resentment and desire for revenge drive much of the plot. |
| Monkey mechanism | The toy is associated with clashing cymbals. | The toy plays a drum. |
| Tone | More serious, ominous, and conventionally unsettling. | A horror comedy with conspicuous splatter, absurdity, and comic death set pieces. |
| Structure | More compact and focused on memory, dread, and the attempt to dispose of the toy. | Moves between a 1999 childhood timeline and the brothers’ adult return to the town 25 years later. |
| Lois | Not the same central emotional presence as in the movie. | Her death and memory become central to the twins’ trauma. |
| Ending | Hal attempts to dispose of the monkey in Crystal Lake, followed by a grim aftereffect involving dead fish. | Hal and Petey leave with the monkey instead of permanently destroying it. |
| Death scenes | The story relies more on dread, implication, and memory. | The film expands the premise into numerous elaborate and often comic accidents. |
Perkins has described the story as a premise that needed substantial expansion to become a feature. In an interview with TheWrap, he also discussed the freedom King gave him to make the material his own. The movie should therefore be judged as a transformation of the story, rather than as an attempt to reproduce every scene.
Full plot summary and ending explained
Spoilers for the entire film follow.
Captain Petey and the antique monkey
The story begins with the family’s connection to Captain Petey Shelburn and the antique wind-up monkey. The object is not introduced as a talking or visibly active monster. Its threat comes from the simple act of turning the key: the monkey drums, and death follows somewhere nearby.
Young Hal and Bill encounter the toy during the period that establishes their family trauma. The boys’ relationship is already shaped by rivalry and fear, while their mother, Lois, is left to deal with the consequences of the family’s disintegration and the monkey’s appearances.
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Lois’s death and the twins’ separation
Lois’s death becomes the defining wound of the brothers’ childhood. It is not simply another horror spectacle; it explains why Hal and Bill carry such different forms of guilt and resentment into adulthood. Their inability to process what happened helps drive them apart.
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The monkey returns
Twenty-five years later, the toy resurfaces. Hal is forced back into contact with the object and with the people connected to his childhood. As the monkey is activated again, a new series of deaths spreads through the town. Ricky, Aunt Ida, and other characters become involved in the chain of consequences.
Hal’s son Petey becomes especially important because he is both a person Hal wants to protect and a reminder that family damage can be passed from one generation to the next. Hal’s former partner Ted Hammerman is also part of the present-day storyline.
Bill’s revenge plan
Bill has repeatedly been winding the monkey’s key. He believes the object can be used against Hal, but he cannot command it with the precision of a conventional weapon. His motivation is connected to an old childhood wound: Bill knows that Hal once wished for him to die.
Bill treats the monkey as a way to punish Hal indirectly. The deaths around the town become part of his revenge, but the film repeatedly shows that the object does not offer clean control. Bill can activate it, yet he cannot guarantee that the person he wants to hurt will be the one who dies.
The chaotic confrontation
Hal, Petey, and Bill eventually confront one another. Bill attempts to make the monkey play without properly winding it, as though he can force the object to carry out his intention. Instead, the monkey drums chaotically and a wave of deaths and destruction moves through the town.
The sequence is the film’s largest expression of its central idea: once people try to manage death for personal reasons, the results become even less controllable. The destruction is not a tidy punishment system, and it does not establish that the monkey follows a moral hierarchy.
How Bill dies
Bill eventually gives up his attempt to use the monkey against Hal. The brothers briefly reconcile over the damage caused by their childhood and their mother’s death. Then the monkey plays again.
Bill is killed when a bowling ball bearing the name Lois decapitates him. The immediate mechanism is a grotesque accident, consistent with the monkey’s broader pattern. The name on the ball gives the death an emotional association with the brothers’ mother, but the film does not establish that Lois’s ghost is literally directing the event.
Why Hal and Petey keep the monkey
Hal and Petey survive and leave town with the toy. They do not destroy it. Their plan is to keep it under their control so that nobody else can wind the key.
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This is not presented as a triumphant defeat of evil. The characters have learned that the monkey is difficult or impossible to destroy, and their decision is an attempt at containment. It is also a change in Hal’s relationship with fear: rather than pretend the object and mortality can be erased, he accepts responsibility for preventing someone else from activating it.
Hal begins repairing his relationship with Petey and suggests that they go dancing, an activity associated with Lois. The moment gives the ending an emotional note of possible healing, but it does not cancel the deaths that came before it.
What does the ending mean?
The monkey represents random death
The strongest interpretation is that the monkey is less a conventional villain than a physical embodiment of death’s randomness. It appears to be at the center of events, but it does not explain why one person dies rather than another or why a particular accident occurs.
That indifference challenges the human desire to find a cause that feels morally satisfying. Bill wants a target. Hal wants distance from the past. Neither approach gives them genuine control. In this reading, the monkey represents the temptation to believe that suffering must have a comprehensible design.
Why Bill’s death is not simply a moral punishment
Bill has caused or enabled many deaths, and his final death has an unmistakable poetic association with Lois. But the film’s rules are too arbitrary to support the claim that the monkey is merely punishing an evil person. The movie has already shown that innocent people can die and that intended victims can survive.
Bill’s death therefore works on two levels:
- Literal level: the monkey activates another deadly chain of events, and the bowling ball kills Bill.
- Symbolic level: Bill’s revenge has kept him trapped in the childhood trauma associated with Lois. His death under her name gives the conflict a grim emotional closure without proving that she literally caused it.
Who is the pale rider?
As Hal and Petey leave town, a pale, black-eyed rider on horseback passes them. The image strongly evokes the personification of Death riding a pale horse, but the film does not stop to identify the rider as a literal supernatural character.
The safest reading is that the rider is an apparent embodiment or visual allusion to Death. It may suggest that death is still present beyond the immediate story, but the movie does not confirm that the rider is the Grim Reaper, one of the Four Horsemen, or a character from a larger Stephen King mythology. Ending coverage from Radio Times and SlashFilm treats the image as an interpretive connection rather than fully explained plot lore.
What does the final cheerleader death mean?
After Hal and Petey leave, the film delivers one more mass-death gag involving a bus full of cheerleaders and a passing vehicle. The scene is deliberately excessive, but it has a clear structural purpose: it prevents the ending from suggesting that the curse has been defeated.
Death continues after the brothers’ reconciliation. Hal and Petey have survived the immediate crisis, but they have not conquered mortality or understood the monkey completely. Keeping the toy is an attempt to contain the danger, not proof that they have escaped it forever.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the film leave unexplained?
The Monkey does not conclusively answer several questions:
- Where did the monkey originate?
- Does it possess independent intelligence?
- Does the toy itself cause the deaths, or is it a conduit for a larger force?
- Why does the person who turns the key appear to survive that particular activation?
- Why do some intended victims live while other people die?
- Is the pale rider literal, symbolic, or both?
- Is the destruction of the town part of a larger supernatural event?
Those omissions are part of the film’s design, although they will not work for every viewer. The object can be read as an evil artifact, an embodiment of death, a conduit for random catastrophe, or a deliberately unexplained mechanism. None of those interpretations is confirmed as the complete answer.
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Is there a post-credits scene?
There is no clearly established narrative post-credits scene that confirms a sequel to The Monkey. Reports from some theatrical screenings indicate that additional end-credit material was connected to preview or promotional footage for Perkins’s later film Keeper, rather than a direct continuation of the monkey’s story.
Because attached promotional material can differ between theatrical screenings, digital releases, streaming versions, and physical editions, viewers should not treat every reported post-credit clip as part of the film’s story. The safest conclusion is: there is no confirmed post-credits story scene setting up a sequel.
Will there be a sequel?
No confirmed sequel should be treated as announced on the evidence available here. The ending leaves the monkey in Hal and Petey’s possession, so a continuation is possible in the fictional world. But the surviving toy, the pale rider, the final death gag, and promotional footage for another Perkins film are not proof that a sequel is planned.
Where to watch The Monkey
United States availability checked August 10, 2026: The Monkey is listed as streaming through Hulu. Eligible subscribers may also access Hulu content through Disney+ under the applicable Hulu-on-Disney+ arrangement. JustWatch’s U.S. listing additionally identifies Kanopy availability and provides current rental and purchase comparisons.
- Streaming: Hulu; eligible Hulu content through Disney+.
- Digital: Rental and purchase options are listed by current digital-retail aggregators; availability and prices vary.
- Physical media: NEON lists standard HD Blu-ray and 4K UHD editions on its official store page.
Streaming rights are territory-specific and can change without notice. Readers outside the United States should search by country rather than assume that a U.S. Hulu listing applies to their region. For the latest U.S. options, check Rotten Tomatoes’ Where to Watch section or JustWatch immediately before watching.
Reception and box office
The critical response reflects the film’s unusual blend of tones. Supportive reviews praised the inventive gore, visual confidence, black humor, and Theo James’s dual performance. Less enthusiastic responses found the narrative thin or the movement between family drama, existential horror, and slapstick comedy uneven. Another frequent criticism is that explanatory narration and thematic statements sometimes reduce the mystery the film has built.
As displayed by Rotten Tomatoes when checked, the film had a 77% critics’ score from 301 reviews and a 55% audience score from more than 2,500 verified ratings. Scores change as additional reviews and ratings are added, so those numbers should be treated as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent verdict.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThe film earned approximately $39.7 million in the United States and Canada. Worldwide totals differ by tracking database: Box Office Mojo lists approximately $68.9 million, while The Numbers lists approximately $63.7 million. Because those figures are not identical and profitability also depends on production, marketing, distribution, and exhibitor costs, the box office alone does not establish whether the film was profitable.
Who should watch The Monkey?
The Monkey is a good choice for viewers who want:
- Graphic, inventive practical-effects gore.
- A horror-comedy rather than a consistently grim supernatural film.
- Elaborate accident-based death scenes.
- A Stephen King adaptation that preserves a central image while rebuilding the story around it.
- A more playful and colorful side of Osgood Perkins.
- A family story about grief, resentment, guilt, and mortality.
- A showcase for Theo James playing two physically similar but psychologically distinct brothers.
It is a poor fit for viewers who want a faithful adaptation of the short story, a fully explained curse, sustained slow-burn dread, or a film that treats every death with solemn seriousness. The most important expectation is to approach it as a bloody, absurdist horror comedy loosely inspired by King—not as a literal screen version of the story in Skeleton Crew.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Monkey a Stephen King movie or a book?
It is both a 2025 film and the title of a Stephen King short story. Osgood Perkins’s movie is based on the short story, which was published in 1980 and later collected in Skeleton Crew; it is not based on a Stephen King novel.
Does Hal destroy the monkey at the end?
No. Hal and Petey leave with the monkey and intend to keep anyone else from winding its key. The decision is containment, not a confirmed destruction of the curse.
Is the pale rider the Grim Reaper?
The rider strongly evokes the personification of Death on a pale horse, but the film never definitively identifies the figure as the Grim Reaper or another literal supernatural character.
Does The Monkey have a sequel scene after the credits?
There is no clearly established narrative post-credits scene confirming a sequel. Some theatrical screenings reportedly included promotional footage for Keeper, a separate Perkins film.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: The Monkey is a loose Stephen King adaptation built around a wind-up toy that turns random death into grotesque spectacle. Its biggest strengths are the inventive gore, Theo James’s dual performance, and its unusual mixture of family drama and black comedy. Its biggest risks are the unstable tone and deliberately incomplete rules. Watch it for splatter, absurdity, and a mortality-focused family story—not for a faithful or fully explained version of King’s short fiction.
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