The Monkey, released in February of this year, is a thriller/horror movie about the legacy of a murderous toy monkey. It follows a boy/man from his childhood, and the series of unfortunate and bizarre deaths that coincide with the turning on of the monkey. Themes of family inheritance (of property but also of ghosts, sins, and hauntings), repetition of past cycles, and father/son dynamics are prominent. The haunting presence of the past permiates the whole novel, and elements of the gothic aesthetic is seen in an old farm house and the old well that the monkey gets thrown down as a way to "bury" him. Though there is a lot of humor to the movie, seen especially in the way people die and the dialogue, making it less serious than most gothic genre pieces tend to be.
Themes: generational trauma, decay of the family, supernatural forces, fate/destiny.inevitability, dark humor and absurdity.