“The Monkey”, by Spencer Sherry. A.K.A ” The one that made me be afraid of monkey toys”

If there is one thing Stephen King is really good at is making us be afraid of usual objects and common things: he made an entire generation be afraid of a certain red car with his book “Christine” and later with the John Carpenter movie. He made us kind of suspicious of washing machines because of  “The Mangler”, his short story and later with the movie too.

Same thing for his readers for some other short storys of his: we became afraid of paintings, mirrors and frogs! For the new generation, those who use their cellphones like it is an extension of their arms, well, Mr. King made them be a little afraid of these needed objects with a great book called “Cell” and later with the movie that had John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in its cast. I remember the first time I read “Cell”, I was at the Subway and when the apocalypse started in that book I remember that I looked around and saw so many people singing their cell phones around me and I though “man, if this thing would happen now, this chubby nerd that I am would be so screwed. I would not be able to run away, I would never even reach the stairs”. It is like what Steven Spielberg and his movie “Jaws“, did for some people who started to look at the ocean and think twice after they saw this blockbuster when it got released. Yes, I am putting Spielberg and King at the same pedestal, I do consider that Spielberg is like the Stephen King of the movie industry. Or maybe King is the Spielberg of literature.

Although since I consider Stanley Kubrick as “the God of Cinema” and King is my favorite author, maybe it would be better if I would compare these two geniuses. Or maybe not, because we all know that Stanley Kubrick is a delicate subject to Stephen King, so maybe it is better if we keep a King/ Spielberg parallel. They are THAT good.

But do you know who else is that good? A young American filmmaker called Spencer Sherry and I will tell you why. Spencer Sherry is the director of a unique Dollar Baby called “The Monkey“. Why is it unique? No, it is not just because until the present date it is the only official version of this short story for the big screen (I heard that there is a not official old feature movie and now James Wan is about to release a new version of it), but most because this filmmaker also made some crowded rooms be afraid of a common object, in his case a monkey toy.

In the original story King presents us with a cursed cymbal clapping wind-up monkey that every time it claps its cymbals someone dies. Hal Shelburn is a young guy who has 2 kids and has spent his entire life being afraid of that damned Monkey. Now Hal needs to do something about the cursed toy to protect his own family. It is a simple horror story from our favorite author and there are some layers on it, but Spencer Sherry not only added some new layers by adapting this tale for the big screen, but also directed a Dollar Baby that looks like a blockbuster movie.

There are so many beautiful things about this Dollar Baby, but the first thing it caught my attention was its cinematography. At the very beginning, the very first scene we see the camera at low angle and Jim Powers (the cinematographer) took his time at this first shoot. And it was a great choice, because it is such a great shoot.

Powers shows us with this first camera angle how good he is and what we can expect of the cinematography for the rest of this short movie. Jim Powers is an amazing cinematographer, almost every single scene has a remarkable camera angle, but if I needed to choose one scene where the cinematography was really great, well, it would be the 3rd scene at the lake. There are 3 scenes that happens in a lake Crystal Lake, yes we got the reference and I did wait for a long time to see Jason coming out that damned lake) and all 3 are great scenes with great moments, but this 3rd scene has so many powerful things happening at the same time: a storm, a boat falling apart, an almost drowning. Not only Spencer Sherry did a great job directing this scene, but also Jim Powers had his moment to shine at this movie. Because there are so many challenging aspects about shooting a scene such as that, there were a lot of moments that I caught myself thinking “how the hell did they do that? Was it with a drone? Probably. Who is this cinematographer? It has to be a drone!”. Drone or no drone, well, there are a lot of aspects we need to consider if you are shooting a scene outside. In a lake? In the middle of a lake? A small boat? An actress under the water? Every single lake scene was amazing! And to think that they didn’t have such a large budget for the movie, it makes us respect their work even more.

Talking about challenges they overcame at this Dollar Baby, let’s talk about the locations: the lake was amazing, the hospital and other indoor places were beautiful too. But the funerary AND the crematorium really blew my mind. Not just because they are nice places, but also (once again) with a low budget we filmmakers face tons of problems such as transport, catering, having a place so the entire cast and crew can stay during the scenes… And Spencer Sherry shot at a lake. How big was his team on those days? He shot at a real crematorium with a working furnace at the scene. Did nobody die and needed the crematorium services on that day? I have so many questions…

It is amazing what they achieved as independent filmmakers, I stand up and applaud the producers and the location scouts.

Another great thing about this Dollar Baby is the SFX Make Up, the SFX Prosthetic and the Animatronics: Sara Freericks, responsible for the SFX Make Up, did a wonderful job working together with Jared Balog (SFX Prosthetic Artist) at that nightmare scene where we have a pregnant woman and the Monkey toy coming out of her belly while she was on the water!!!! Man, that was so cool and so disgusting. And the Animatronic too, David Bradshaw made us believe that the damned Monkey was really possessed and capable of moving by itself. Thank you, David.

There are two more things I want to talk about this Dollar Baby before I am done: the screenplay and its cast. Let’s start with the cast.

In this movie we have two kids in flashback scenes: Jarem Molinski, who plays Peter as a child; and also Sean Halligan, who plays young Dennis. Sean was great, he had just one scene and he nailed it. Jarem, well, he was ok. Jarem is a really young kid and I do hope he keeps doing some movies because I think he might become even better. But when I say that he was “ok” I am not saying it was bad acting, I am just saying that I do understand that he was too young, so that is understanding.

My daughter is the same age and I am sure if I point a professional camera at her with an intern cast and crew with us, well, she won’t win an Oscar either. But one thing I can say about Jarem’s acting besides “ok”: I do believe that the director did his best with that kid and got the best acting a five years old kid can give. And that is another point to consider before we once again congratulate Spencer Sherry.

Considering that this short movie is Spencer’s first movie as a filmmaker,  man, it is truly amazing for a lot of reasons, but working with kids is something we all should take off our hats for this young director, because working with kids is always a tricky thing to do. Kids got tired, they got bored, they got moody. And that kid, Jarem, had an important role in this movie. He had important lines. And if he was my kid I would be so proud of him, he did good. Spencer was great directing those kids. And  with the grow up cast too, every single actor has good things to say about Spencer Sherry. If you don’t believe me, please read their interviews. Spencer Sherry not only nailed directing those actors, but also nailed choosing them. What a great cast.

Vaden Thurgood is the actor who plays Hal Shelburn in the flashback scenes. And he is the one acting with the young actors, so not only is he a good actor by himself, but I could also sense that is a generous actor because it was pretty clear to me that he helped those little kids so much at their scenes. Vaden and the Jarem were close in such a subtle way that I did believe the bond between Hal and Petey. And this bond is one of the most important aspects of this story. This is a story about a father wishing that his kids never face what he had faced his whole life. That final dialogue between Vaden and the Jarem was so important for the whole movie, it was a father being truly honest with his younger kid in a way that the kid would understand the gravity of the situation but without being too frightened. And later we can see a “mirror scene” of this dialogue when an older Hal (played by the much talented John Romeo) talks to an older Peter (beautifully played by Mark Koenig) through a letter.

Now Hal once again is being honest to his kid, but this time without avoiding to scare him. Hal wants his son to be scared, but also wants his son to forgive him. It is a touching scene Peter reading his father’s letter, interspersed with other scenes and having John Romeo voice over. This letter is John Romeo’s best moment in this short movie. He made me believe in the bond between Hal and Peter for the second time.

But let’s talk a little more about other characters before I get back to the main characters. Lily Moran was a great surprise at this Dollar Baby. She plays Melissa, Peter’s wife. She is pregnant, about to have her baby. And although she has just a few scenes, in every single one of them she steals the spotlight with not only her talent, but also with her charisma. Her character is charismatic and I do understand that a lot of it is because of the way Melissa was written in the screenplay, but most of that charisma is Lily’s talent. I got really curious to watch other works, she had great scenes with her colleague Mark.

And now let’s talk about Mark Koenig. He is the main actor in this Dollar Baby and he is one the best things of this movie. A great actor, I really liked his acting and I want to watch other movies with him in it too. There are tense scenes, tense and delicate dialogues (when Peter is talking to his brother at the bar we can truly relate with that kind of family drama) and we even have some laughs with Peter and his wife when they are on their way to the hospital.

But Mark’s greatest moments are the tense moments: Peter at the nightmare scene, Peter trying to resurrect that old man at the lake scene (that subtle moment when Peter leans over the old man for the third time, he quickly glances and finally sees what killed the old man… dude…), but Mark’s best moments in this movie are the ones he only stares. When Peter is staring at the damned monkey with the fly buzzing around him. And also his final scene, the way his eyes say so many things while he understands that he lost his battle against the cursed monkey. Mark Koenig,  thank you.

Last but not least, I would like to talk about the screenplay. Man. This is one of the best adapted screenplay I have ever seen among the Dollar Babies. Some filmmakers are truly faithful to the original short story, like if it was a sin to change a single comma in a Stephen King story. And, yes, sometimes it is a good thing not changing a single comma, because King is the King, right? But let’s face it: it is kind of fun to watch a movie where we think we know everything that is about to happen, but then we get some surprises in the way, right?

So, (thank Kubrick) some filmmakers add things, some of them change things, and some of them just take the basic key elements of a Stephen King story and give us something entirely new. What did Spencer Sherry do? He did all those things and more! He added things, he changed things and (believe it or not) he made a new story while he was being truly faithful to the original short story. How? 

Spencer Sherry wrote a screenplay out of chronological order and he used the flashbacks to faithfully adapt the original short story. And he also made something new while in the present time he introduced the audience to an older Peter, a guy who now is about to become a father while he is facing the cursed monkey. So, the screenplay uses basic key elements of the original tale so that this old Peter basically lives the same things that his father did.

Spencer Sherry, thank you so much. You showed the audience that not only you knew what you were doing but also that you did understand a lot about Stephen King’s universe: Yes, Spencer,  the audience did recognize the protagonist of Stephen King’s book “Thinner” in the hospital scene. Yes, they also did notice Danny Torrence’s suiter at that attack scene (I promise you that we from SKSM won’t tell Mr. King about this Kubrick Easter egg).

Spencer, you made not only a great Dollar Baby, but a really great Stephen King movie. Constant Readers, I suggest you guys Keep an eye on this director, keep his name in mind for a while, because I got the feeling that Spencer Sherry may be our next Frank Darabont.

The Dollar Baby’s grade? We from SKSM give Spencer Sherry’ s ” The Monkey” five fingers from the dead guy’s hand.  And the monkey clapping cymbals too. (Please Spencer, keep them with you, don’t you dare to give them back to the damned monkey! Please, I am begging.)

That is it for today, Constant Readers. See you next time.

Leonardo Granado