The Monkey’s Director Gave Himself The Grossest Death In The Entire Movie

Characters die in many bizarre ways in The Monkey, but I still can’t stop thinking about one specific death in the film. The Monkey sets itself apart from other horror movies by featuring some of the most grotesque deaths I have ever seen in a film. The most disturbing scenes in The Monkey include Annie getting decapitated at a restaurant, a woman exploding after being electrocuted in a motel pool, and Barbara getting her head blown off by a shotgun. However, there is one death scene that has stood out to me more than the others.

The cast of The Monkey includes Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O’Brien, and Elijah Wood. However, director Osgood Perkins also casted himself in the film. Osgood Perkins’ best movies include The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel, and last year’s critically acclaimed horror film Longlegs. Throughout his filmography, Perkins has proven that he is capable of accessing a dark and disturbing part of his mind. Now, Perkins has once again proved this by giving himself the grossest death scene in The Monkey.

Who Oz Perkins Plays In The Monkey

Osgood Perkins Plays Uncle Chip In The Monkey

Hal and Bill discovering the monkey as children eventually leads to the death of their mother. Early in the film, a young and naive Hal turns the monkey’s key, hoping that it will kill his brother. However, his mother, Lois, ends up dying from a rare aneurysm instead. After the death of their mother, Hal and Bill go to live with their Uncle Chip and Aunt Ida in Maine. In The Monkey, Perkins actually plays Uncle Chip, who openly admits to Hal that he and Ida probably won’t be good guardians.

Early in The Monkey, it is evident that both Hal and Bill truly love their mom. This made her death by far the most heartbreaking death in The Monkey. After she dies, I believe that both Hal and Bill lost part of themselves. It is clear that neither of them care much about their Uncle Chip or Aunt Ida, which is why they decide to turn the monkey’s key to see if it will result in death. Of course, it does, and Uncle Chip is brutally killed about halfway through The Monkey.

Oz Perkins’ Chip Has The Monkey’s Grossest Death Scene

Uncle Chip Is Trampled By Horses In The Monkey

Not long after Hal and Bill move into Chip and Ida’s home in Maine, Chip is tragically killed while on a hunting trip. Chip is sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground when he is trampled by a horde of 67 horses in the middle of the night. Only a brief shot of Chip getting trampled is shown during the actual movie, but the aftermath of his death results in by far the grossest moment in The Monkey. When the sleeping bag is opened following his death, Chip’s body is nothing but a bunch of mush.

If someone saw this brief shot in the film without any context, they would probably think a bunch of raw ground beef was placed in the sleeping bag. This proves how unrecognizable Chip’s body truly was. Chips’ death may not be the most absurd death in the entire movie. I would probably have to give that honor to hundreds of bees flying into Ricky’s mouth at the end of The Monkey. However, the shot of Chip’s body is undoubtedly the grossest moment in the film.

The Monkey’s Gross & Absurd Deaths Are A Clear Highlight Of The Movie

The Monkey Features Various Bizarre Deaths

The tagline for The Monkey is “Everybody dies. And that’s f***ed up.” Therefore, it is clear that this movie’s marketing was preparing audiences for how gory and disturbing it would be. However, I think I still underestimated just how elaborate and creative most of the death scenes in The Monkey would be. Perkins and the rest of the creative team behind The Monkey clearly had tons of fun coming up with the most horrible ways to kill its characters.

Related

Why The Monkey Is So Divisive With Audiences Despite Its 78% Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score

Though 2025’s The Monkey has been praised by critics, director Osgood Perkins’s horror-comedy has gotten less than favorable reviews from audiences.

Without a doubt, The Monkey is at its best when it showcases the bizarre ways that its characters die. In fact, the movie starts to drag slightly when it focuses too much on its actual story. The relationship between Hal and Bill is somewhat intriguing, but the gross and absurd deaths are defintiely the highlight of the movie. It is these deaths that make The Monkey one of the most entertaining horror movies to come out in recent years.

Movie

My Favorite Movies
My Watchlist

The Monkey

6/10

Release Date

February 19, 2025

Runtime

98 Minutes

Director

Osgood Perkins

Writers

Osgood Perkins

Producers

John Rickard, Natalia Safran, Ali Jazayeri, Chris Ferguson, Fred Berger, Giuliana Bertuzzi, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, John Friedberg, Jason Cloth, David Gendron, Michael Clear, Jesse Savath, Peter Luo, Dave Caplan