“You’re going to regret that.”
Did you know that those windup monkeys that clash the cymbals are called jolly monkeys? I did not .. .that was until I came across a low-budget slasher film called The Jolly Monkey. It’s the feature film debut of writer/director Ryan Ebert. The film was obviously put together fast to capitalize on Stephen King and Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, which hit theatres early this year. It doesn’t really share anything other than having a monkey in the title. Put together fast, it was. They shot this film in six days with a budget somewhere just under a hundred grand. I found the film also takes a little bit from last year’s Imaginary by Jeff Ladlow. You really have many of the same story beats but with much less money than either of the other two films. That’s going to be a problem. Let me tell you about it.
Forty years earlier a family stops at a secluded hotel that appears to be themed around these jolly monkeys. But this place is like a roach motel or the Hotel California. You will check out, but you won’t be leaving. Maybe Don Henley should be getting royalties from this film. What do you call a guy who goes around in a really bad big jolly monkey suit and does a little whopper choppin’ with the guests? I know what I’d call …Well, never mind that for now. Let’s just take our cue from the movie, shall we? And jump ahead to that Hollywood undefined now.
A group of family members are showing up at the hotel because someone just died and they have now inherited the haunted joint. Maybe they could just sell out to the Bates Hotel chain and call it a day. No. They are all just getting on each other’s nerves and arguing the next step. Grandma and Grandpa might be taking their dirt naps, but what ever happened to that guy in the jolly monkey suit? Whatever happened to that guy? I’d warn you not to ask, but it doesn’t matter. Yeah, the ol’ chap is still kicking, or at least something is, and this family is going to find less and less partners in their new hotel business.
The patriarch of the family is Steven Blythe, and he’s played by Star Trek: Enterprise’s security guy, Dominic Keating. He’s trying to mediate this mess, but when it’s time to count the votes, they may find themselves a few “bodies” short of a quorum. No, they’re not running away to Chicago; they’re getting some face time with the Jolly Monkey. So who is behind that really bad mask?
The movie follows lines from Imaginary as they hint there’s some kind of portal somewhere, but that never truly enters into it. This film is trying to hint at these other films, but it’s really just following the traditional slasher format. Unlike Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, there’s no real solid substance to this guy. He’s just not scary, and knocking off some characters we never really got to know isn’t going to make him any more scary. I love the old slasher films, and every now and then someone comes up with a clever new angle from Chucky to satire on the Scream franchise. But Jolly Monkey has no presence, and the CGI blood and gore isn’t going to help. CG blood looks bad. It’s amazing how much practical f/x people like Tom Savini and the others can continue to give us a good dose of fright with a few simple tricks. I’m not sure if CG is just cheaper these days, but Romero made better films on a shoestring budget.
You may have noticed I didn’t really give you a rundown on the cast. There are a couple of good reasons for that. The first is that you won’t know most of these actors, and thy’re basic slasher fodder anyway. What I’d like to believe that Ebert had in mind here was more of a spoof than an actual slasher. There are certainly moments that bring the laughter. The problem is that I don’t necessarily if those laughs are intentional. I suspect at least some are not. I also think there was a very different story that got hijacked by The Monkey need to crib. I would love to talk to Ebert and find out what his real intent was here. He leaves in a scene where family members claim to see a portal or something along that line. It’s never revealed and doesn’t even come up again. Is Jolly Monkey from another planet or dimension? Let me know, Ryan. I can’t help but think that something dramatic changed in the structure of the film somewhere along the way. Without that, I’m left with a film that has few scares and really cliche dialog. In the end I don’t care about these folks, and so watching them get slashed doesn’t really do anything for me. Was this film really supposed to be this bad? Was it intended to be so bad it’s good? Was he going for an Ed Wood vibe here via Stephen King? “That’s just the kind of conversation we’re trying to have here.
