Podcast: ‘The Monkey’ Gets Uncertified

For years, the only thing that Certified Forgotten founders Matt Donato and Matt Monagle could agree on was that they would never agree on Osgood Perkins as a filmmaker. But after finding common ground with Longlegs, it may just be that the winds of change are upon our hosts. Will The Monkey break the curse forever? The answer is yes, but go ahead and listen to our new podcast episode anyways.

As a boy, Hal Shelburn (Christian Convery) and his brother came face-to-face with evil, and his life has never been the same. What started with two brothers rummaging through the junk closet of their runaway father turns deadly when Hal and twin brother Bill stumble upon an unbreakable wind-up monkey. Turn the key and the monkey springs to life, picking a person seemingly at random to die. Now, 30 years later, adult Hal (Theo James) must once again stop The Monkey before it kills everyone he loves. An equal mix of Osgood Perkins and Stephen King, The Monkey is a shining example of black humor done right.

In this short excerpt from the episode, Matt Donato explains why The Monkey is a shining example of horror-comedy done right:

"It is brutal and disguesting and the gore is great, and that is all true, but it's in the delivery. I think a horror comedy is more about the vibe. It's more about what you're feeling, because Oz Perkins absolutely could have made the Oz Perkins-coated The Monkey if he wanted to. But because of the approach he takes, and how he carries the film, he lifts it up and makes it lighter despite it being such a fucking dark, dark piece."

Our very special The Monkey episode of the Certified Forgotten podcast is now available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or the podcast platform of your choice.