The Monkey
word of advice : This article contains SPOILERS for The Monkey ( 2025 )
I ca n’t shake the musical theme that the nominal scourge fromThe Monkeysomehow control itself in one scene from the Stephen King adaptation , but I ’m not sure if I ’ve got that right . With 2024 ’s sleeper hitLonglegs , manager Oz Perkinsproved that he was more than a factious indie horror auteur . His early crusade likeI Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in this HouseandGretel and Hanselleft audiences stale judging by theirRotten Tomatoesscores , and these ascetic , intellectual repugnance did n’t fare much better with critics . However , Longlegswas a monolithic mainstream hitting .
Now,2025 ’s Stephen King adaptationThe Monkeyhas shown that Perkins can make a genuinely funny , scary , and unexpectedly life - assert repulsion movie that doubles as a mainstream hit at the multiplex . The Monkeymade back more than its $ 10 million budget in its hatchway weekend alone and fared well with critics who mostly sanction of the movie ’s anarchic , Sam Raimi - inspired repugnance - comedy . However , while I foundThe Monkey ’s bloody death scenesas inspired and entertaining as everyone else , I ’m still confused by one game hole that seemingly has no solution .
Bill Didn’t Kill Aunt Ida In The Monkey
Aunt Ida’s Death Precedes Bill’s Rediscovery Of The Monkey
The eponymous villain ofThe Monkeycan’t kill multitude unless someone bend its keystone , which is pivotal to the adaptation ’s plot . Although this seems to be the case in both King ’s original news report and the motion-picture show , Perkins ’ version ofThe Monkeyattaches more narrative significance to the key . In King ’s taradiddle , the toy is cursed and death seems to follow it around , particularly if it is wound up by an unsuspecting exploiter . In the movie version ofThe Monkey , Bill and Hal explicitly recognize and state that the rascal is supernatural , and they sympathize how it operate .
Aunt Ida ’s death befall before the monkey is happen at the estate sale and Bill gets his hands on it .
However , the rascal ’s key is n’t turned before one major last . The events ofThe Monkey ’s twist endingare arrange in movement when Aunt Ida dies , thus bringing Hal back to his hometown of Casco . There , he learns that Bill has been compulsively look for for the monkey for decades , eventually buying it from Rohan Campbell ’s dim - witted Ricky before using it to entice Hal and Petey to his lair . However , Aunt Ida ’s death take place before the rapscallion is found at the acres sale and Bill get his hired hand on it . The doubtfulness is , who rick the monkey ’s key to kill Aunt Ida ?
How Did The Monkey Kill Aunt Ida?
The Monkey Seemingly Turned Its Own Key In This Instance
We have sex that Aunt Ida get word the music since the monkey ’s drumming is what wake her up initially . The monkey ’s music proceed to play lightly until the minute she go down to the basement and her elaborate demise aspect then starts in earnest . As such , Aunt Ida ’s ridiculous last is clearly linked to the scamp ’s takings , which would seem to suggest that someone twine it up before her death . However , Bill had the key , and on the face of it no one else had the scallywag before that point .
The scamp appears to have some autonomy since , as both Bill and Hal bitterly notice at different point in the storey , “ It does n’t take requests . ” The scamp seemingly chooses who and when to kill after its key is turn wound , butThe Monkeynever explains whether the miniature can fully operate on its own without the key . WhenHal and Bill ’s sire come along inThe Monkey ’s opening scene , the monkey seems to set itself off key to bolt down the pawn shop operator , but it is n’t exonerated whether he turned the key before entering the storehouse .
There is a possibility that either Hal or Bill wound the rascal before they threw it in the well .
There is a Brobdingnagian time jump between 1999 and 2024 , so viewers have no room of lie with exactly what happened to the imp in the interfere 15 years . There is a possibility that either Hal or Bill wound the monkey before they make it in the well , and it never killed anyone until Aunt Ida , but this seems like something they would cite during their eventual reunion . Similarly , while it is potential that someone else could have had a Florida key to the scalawag , this is another idea that would have warranted a subplot of its own .
The Monkey Book Gave Aunt Ida A Different Death
The Original Stephen King Story Features A Less Absurd Demise
In terms of how the scalawag got to Aunt Ida ’s farmhouse , the Stephen King adaption ’s storyadds up . The monkey can canonically teleport , and it was most probable already somewhere near the farmhouse since it disappear from the nearby well . However , the question of who turned the keystone before her dying is left overt from what I can tell . The monkey seemed to have more government agency over clapping its own cymbals in the original King story , so this twist could be read as the monkey setting itself off to get back to Bill .
The imp toy dog in Osgood Perkins ' young movie is doubtless terrifying , but it is in reality dissimilar from Stephen King ’s story for one round-eyed reason .
In the short story , Aunt Ida pass of a cam stroke not long before the rascal return . There is no further explanation of how the monkey works , and her death is less explicitly linked to the plaything ’s return , although it is heavily implied . The monkey seems to deform its own samara to toss off Aunt Ida and subsequently make for Bill and Hal back together , but this is neither corroborate nor denied within the movie itself .
The Monkey’s Plot Hole Bothers Me, But The Movie Is Still Great Fun
The Monkey’s Unclear Rules Don’t Dim The Movie’s Successful Storytelling
While this sound like a plot of land hole , and it does n’t have an obvious answer that I can discern , The Monkey ’s inscrutable Aunt Ida death does n’t detract from the movie ’s success . The unexplained destruction does n’t ruin the plot by any means or spoil any of the use , becauseThe Monkey ’s outrageous revulsion - clowning is built more on its creative kills and a surprisingly affecting story about kinsperson and death than any cohesive lore . If anything , The Monkey ’s enigmatic Aunt Ida death might reaffirm the moving-picture show ’s broader perspective on aliveness and death .
By getting hang up on how exactly the imp operates and whether its rules make sensation , viewer hazard missing the broad message .
When Hal seesDeath inThe Monkey ’s ending , he decides to go dancing with his estranged boy Petey . He oppose to the senseless loss of life with a newfound joie de vivre , the same living - affirming attitude his mother tried to instil in him in his puerility . By getting flow up on how exactly the rapscallion operates and whether its rule make gumption , watcher hazard escape the broader content . Hal accepts that he ca n’t empathise the vagary of expiry , andThe Monkey ’s unsolved plot jam encourage witness to embrace the same attitude of take the laughable and incomprehensible with a smile .
seed : Rotten Tomatoes
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