Film Preview: The Monkey (2025)

Film Poster

Page Revisions:

(August 18, 2024) Original
(October 20, 2024) New Trailer (#2) — New Poster (#1)
(January 26, 2025) New Trailer (#3) — New Poster (#2)
(February 16, 2025) New Posters (#3-#4)

Release Date:

February 21, 2025

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.”

Poster Rating: C+ / C / C- / C-

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Review: (#1, C+) Reminiscent of the cover used to sell the Monkey Shines short story, for a film poster, the lack of shadow and background detail is overbearing.

(#2, C) If it weren’t for the long-winded text on the design, this could easily have been a throwaway effort. There’s a lot of empty space and very little to hold the viewer’s interest. The text is an intriguing way to sell the film to a horror-invested audience and let’s face it, they are the only ones who won’t be turned off by the bloody knife here.

(#3, C-) There’s an attempt here to take the viewer back to the 1970s when such stark, black-and-white efforts were commonplace. However, they weren’t that exciting then so they don’t do much to bolster the excitement now. (#4, C-) While this does a better job minimizing the empty space, the limitation of color to red only reminds of the tepid uses of this color palette of recent vintage.

Trailer Rating: C+ / C+ / C+

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Review: (#1, C+) Teasers are seldom well done and while there are moments in the trailer that are most interesting, they are ultimately weighed down by the plodding nature of the trailer itself.

(#2, C+) Presenting more of the narrative this time around, the audience gets the impression of a film exceptionally violent and for King fans, that’s a terrific selling point. That said, it’s not going to sell beyond those pre-interested viewers. Getting new ones will be so easily done with this trailer.

(#3, C+) The suggestion of violence and death is an interesting way to push forward this trailer. We don’t get a lot of new things to see but we certainly get an understanding of what’s going on. That said, it gives away perhaps too many of the film’s more creative kills and that’s disappointing especially for an audience who likes to be shocked and thrilled.