The Monkey (2025) review

Identical twin brothers Hal and Bill (both played by Christian Convery) uncover a "toy" organ grinder monkey their missing father (who's supposedly a pilot) kept among his belongings, activate it by turning a key in its back and then figure out it's cursed (and chuck the object into a well) after their babysitter Annie (Danica Dreyer) and mother Lois (Tatiana Maslany) die gruesomely - twenty-five years later, the twins (Theo James) are estranged from each other, Hal is trying to reconnect with his only son Petey (Colin O'Brien) and Bill suddenly resurfaces.  Perkins takes the short story by horror maestro Stephen King (collected in 1985's Skeleton Crew) and goes his own way with it, (unwisely) expanding the tale and sprinkling in black humor, but the choices that were made to alter the narrative are terribly misguided and it starts to disintegrate into rubbish following a passable opening act.  Although I do understand the director's mindset regarding the "randomness" of death, with his real-life parents passing away in unusual ways (his mother Berry Berenson was killed on 9/11 and his father Anthony died of AIDS-related pneumonia), presenting that on-screen in a thought-provoking manner requires a bit more tact.