All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

23. THE MONKEY (2025)

Released on February 21, 2025, and streaming on Hulu from Studio NEON!
Directed by Osgood Perkins.
Written by Osgood Perkins, from a short story by Stephen King.
Check out the trailer here!!

As children, twin brothers Bill and Hal (both played by Christian Convery) inherit a drum-playing monkey toy from their estranged father. They soon realize that when the monkey is activated, someone near the twins dies. After a number of deaths caused by unfortunate accidents, the boys decide to throw the monkey down a well. But twenty-five years later, the monkey finds its way back into the lives of Bill and Hal, now adults (both played by Theo James). Each of the brothers have different ideas of how to deal with the monkey and its murderous rampage with Bill wanting to get rid of it while Hal embraces its dark ways.

The prolific Osgood Perkins returns with a new film loosely inspired by Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” and produced by James Wan. That’s a pretty potent combination and though both Wan and King have delivered some stinkers in their day, I have yet to be burned by the often opaque, but always entertaining Perkins. Perkins simply sees the world differently than most and I feel he’s the closest thing to David Lynch as we are going to get these days. His films are dream-like, can be interpreted in unusual ways, and deliver sights, sounds, and ideas that make them feel unique. Watch any of his films, from I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE, to THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER, to GRETEL & HANSEL, to LONGLEGS, and while all of them are strange and unique from anything you’ve seen before, but they all feel outside of the mainstream. Well, THE MONKEY is probably Osgood Perkins’ most mainstream film yet and it’s a hell of a good one at that.

The biggest surprise of THE MONKEY is how downright funny it is. While you can say a lot about his previous films, Perkins is not known for his comedy. Most of his films are morose and overly serious, maintaining a level of tension and dire overtones that never let up or give the viewer a sense of relief with a laugh or even a mild chuckle. But THE MONKEY makes up for that big-time. It’s pitch-black humor from beginning to end, never making fun of the serious tone of the curse the twins are dealing with but still highlighting the ridiculousness of it all and somehow it all hilarious. Now, comedy being subjective and all, I can’t guarantee you’ll laugh as much as I did at THE MONKEY. My appreciation of the darkest of humor runs pretty deep. But if you can acknowledge that something amusing can be plumbed from even the most serious of situations and subject matter, then this is going to be the gory comedy for you.

Now, if there’s a weakness to THE MONKEY it is that Perkins does try to sell some tender moments and I think because the dark humor is so thick and tangy, some of those tender moments, such as the special time the boys got to spend dancing with their mother (played by a very funny Tatiana Maslany, who we last saw in the SHE-HULK travesty), just don’t hit as hard as I think those involved were trying to deliver. So while Perkins is trying to say something about parents and their children, most of the time about absent fathers and their sons, but also during the moments Maslany and the boys get to spend together, these heavier themes just don’t land as they are drowned out by the over the top death sequences.

But just because THE MONKEY fails to resonate on an emotional level doesn’t mean it doesn’t deliver on everything else the film promises, namely shocks and gore. While some of the Rube Goldbergian sequences are highly reminiscent of the FINAL DESTINATION series, Perkins delivers some truly original and gnarly sequences of violence and gore. Blood is spattered to and fro like it is hooked up to a sprinkler system. Body parts are decimated and dislocated. Simple household appliances and harmless tools become deadly weapons in Perkins’ hands, and the kill count this little monkey makes is enough to make an 80’s horror fan get misty.

I haven’t seen Theo James before this film, but he does a fantastic job in this dual role. He looks a little like a lost Franco brother, but don’t hold that against him. He handles the more outrageous aspects of this film realistically. As Bill, his reactions to the deaths reflect the way the audience is to feel, not really believing the carnage this monkey is capable of and somehow, being right within the splash zone every time it occurs. As Hal, James embraces his more sadistic side, though still playing everything straight, no matter how ludicrous his actions. Adding to the fun was the forementioned Tatiana Maslany, whose hilarious take on life’s difficulties skew the boy’s understanding of reality. It’s a perverse role and she has to say some extremely wrong things, but she delivers them with sincerity and really sells them. I also was impressed with young Colin O’Brien, who plays Bill’s son Petey. O’Brien has to deal with some pretty complex situations on this road trip with his father to find the monkey and is able to do so convincingly where other child actors often fail to do so. Hell, even Rohan Campbell gives a fun performance as a typical Stephen King-style bully kid. It almost makes me forgive him for HALLOWEEN ENDS…almost.

I laughed at THE MONKEY from beginning to end and while it might miss the boat selling the feels, it was a damn fun movie to experience. Perkins shows that he can dabble in the mainstream or maybe the mainstream has caught up with this devilish and skewed view of life and death. Either way, see this one. It’s a gory good time.

Worth Noting: THE DAMNED (2024)

Released on January 3, 2025, and streaming on Hulu from Vertical Entertainment!
Directed by Thordur Palsson.
Written by Jamie Hannigan, Thordur Palsson.
Check out the trailer here!!

His young widower named Eva (Odessa Young) inherits the responsibilities of a fishing outpost after her husband perished along the rocks in the treacherous waters off coast of a 19th century Icelandic village. Since her husband’s demise, the fish have been scarce, and the crew are tired and hungry. When a foreign ship crashes along the very same rocks that killed her husband, Eva makes the hard decision to leave them to die as rushing to their aid would only make less food and supplies for the crew. But making this decision may have evoked a primal curse which causes madness and death to spread across her small village like the plague.

But man is this a bleak one. The overpowering force of THE DAMNED lays in its atmosphere. Even if you aren’t experiencing winter chills right now, you’re going to feel the bitter cold these fishermen and two women have to endure. The frozen muddy beaches. The layers of clothes the actors wear and the way they cling desperately to them ensured that this was a pretty miserable shoot. The wear and tear of this cold climate can be seen on the weathered faces of the entire cast. This is no glamor flick with polished actors. This is a swarthy and dismal time director Thordur Palsson has captured with every frozen frame of THE DAMNED. The chill becomes a character in itself, ever present and ever threatening.

THE DAMNED isn’t a thrill a minute. It’s one of those slow starters, letting the story seep in like the cold under a cabin door. THE DAMNED is much more about superstition and paranoia and those are details best left not rushed to. These people are at their wits end, famished, and exhausted, now heap on the guilt of leaving an entire crew out in the cold to die, and this makes for the darkest of psychological horrors. It’s that same kind of feelings of paranoia and peril that permeated the pinnacle of snow-covered horror, John Carpenter’s THE THING. It is cold outside, forcing one to stay inside and in close quarters with one another that pushes that paranoia to the max. Whatever it is, it works its magic in THE DAMNED as well.

THE DAMNED keeps the true threat concealed for most of the film while the crew become more paranoid and end up dying one by one. The superstitious crew blame a monstrous curse, but the true horror comes in the decisive moments. It’s a really intriguing way to end the film, saying much about the power of suggestion and shared psychosis in perilous situations.

Beautifully shot with a whole lot of scenes of gorgeous landscapes of places I don’t ever want to go, THE DAMNED is a moody and dismal movie that deals with some deep and dark psychosis. There are some extraordinarily strong acting turns, especially from the lead Odessa Young, DOWNTON ABBEY’s Siobhan Finneran as the elder caretaker of the crew, and GREEN ROOM’s Joe Cole as one of the fishermen. But the cold takes center stage. You’ll want to bundle up for THE DAMNED. It’s a nippy one, for sure. But it’s also damn fine psychological and gothic horror reminiscent of those moody Hammer films of old.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2024-2025
#31 – GET AWAY (DARK MATCH)
#30 – PABRIK GULA (#MISSINGCOUPLE)
#29 – YULE LOG 2: BRANCHIN’ OUT (THE LAST VIDEO STORE)
#28 – FREWAKA (THE SURRENDER)
#27 – FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES (V/H/S/BEYOND)
#26 – ALMA AND THE WOLF (CUSTOM)
#25 – LOOKY-LOO (THE CREEP TAPES)
#24 – DANGEROUS ANIMALS (THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN)
#23 – THE MONKEY (THE DAMNED)