What Is Osgood Perkins Setting Up?

Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for ‘The Monkey’The Monkey is certainly a film you can’t take your eyes off, whether it is the horrific gore or the effective comedy it employs throughout. Some of the images presented throughout the film, such as the opening scene where the original owner of the toy monkey, Petey Shelburn (Adam Scott), witnesses a man’s intestines being pulled out of his gut by a crossbow’s bolt, are disturbing enough to have you sitting through the credits on its own. However, some of you may be made of tougher stuff than me, and may need a reason to sit through the credits. Which may lead you to the question: Does The Monkey have a post-credits scene? The answer is yes, but not in the way you might expect and also in a way I believe is more effective than most stingers given to audiences after the final credits roll.

What is ‘The Monkey’ About?

The Monkey follows estranged twins Hal and Bill, both played by Theo James, in a wonderfully dynamic performance as he switches between the nervous Hal and arrogant Bill, as an evil wind-up monkey kills people around them with every twisted turn of the key. After believing the monkey has been hidden forever, a string of “freak accident” deaths culminate in the reveal that Bill has found the monkey and is attempting to use its destructive powers to kill Hal since he blames him for the death of their mother, Lois (Tatiana Maslany). After the brothers finally come to peace with each other, Bill is killed by a bowling bowl and Petey (Colin O’Brien) and Hal drive away with the monkey. This leads to the roll of the credits, and perhaps the best post-credits scene many will have seen in a long time.

‘The Monkey’s Post-Credits Scene Serves as a Teaser For Osgood Perkins’ Next Film

As the final credits come to an end, we get one last sting of the monkey’s “like life” music playing and a “sh*t man that sucks” audio line, which is a reoccurring line throughout the film, and then we get the real post-credits scene. However, we don’t get the typical sting that is linked to the actual film, such as perhaps a reveal of the future intentions of the monkey. Instead, we get a teaser trailer for Osgood Perkins’ next film, Keeper.

We see a group of women, most of the shots staring at the camera, as we watch them in their seemingly normal lives. Then, we get more and more eerie imagery, such as one of them in a barn on their knees clawing at the walls and many of the women covered in blood screaming at the camera. The camera cuts to black, and we get the line “this place isn’t right for me” before the title, “Keeper” flashes up with the text “A dark trip from Osgood Perkins…soon.”

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On IMDb, the logline for Keeper describes it as such: “During an anniversary getaway at a remote cabin, a wife is left alone after her husband departs, only to confront a sinister presence that exposes the cabin’s chilling past.” This gives us a hint at a cabin in the woods tone, and IMdB also lists Tatiana Maslany as working with Perkins again in this film. Whilst it isn’t what many would expect, personally, I found it a fascinating use of the post-credit trope as it allowed a teaser for a future film without a scene that feels obligatory, unnecessary or expository and makes the time you waited feel well worth it.

It’s not the first time a film has used this method, as Captain America: The First Avenger did the same by showing a teaser trailer for Avengers, and hopefully, it won’t be the last. Many post-credits scenes feel like stale inclusions from the studio, desperate to keep fans interested in the sequel, such as the scene we got in Captain America: Brave New World, or like a comedic gag that makes fun of people for waiting, like in Deadpool or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Instead, Perkins delivered a teaser trailer that, while not wholly unique as a device, gives us a teaser of what is to come from the director, and made Keeper one to keep an eye out for in the future – pun most definitely intended.

The Monkey is now playing in theaters.

The Monkey

Release Date

February 19, 2025

Runtime

98 Minutes

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