Every kill in The Monkey, ranked

It’s death after death in Osgood Perkins’ adaptation of The Monkey, but from the harpoon gun intro to the fishing hook nightmare, we’ve ranked all the kills.

Anyone who’s seen Longlegs (or any Stephen King adaptation for that matter) should have anticipated that The Monkey might be a little violent. But never in our wildest dreams did we think this little animal could cause so much damage.

By the time you’ve cleared the blood from your eyes, you might have lost track of all the gruesome deaths that take place in the new movie. But no worries: we’ve kept track of them all and ranked them according to how disturbing they are.

Here’s all the kills in The Monkey ranked. (Warning: major spoilers ahead!)

12. Harpoon gun intro

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The first of many killings takes place in the opening scene, when Hal and Bill’s dad (Adam Scott, mind you), stumbles into a kooky store. Desperate to return the monkey (not a toy!) he’s met with confusion and amusement from the store owner.

After pointing out their return policy, the monkey crashes its little drum and sends forward a chain of events that results in a harpoon gun firing off. Adam Scott dodges out of the way, but the storeowner winds up with a hook right through his chest. Strong start.

11. Bowling ball redux

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There are two bowling ball kills in The Monkey, both of them belonging to Bill. The second is the only one that truly sticks. Just as Hal and Bill have reunited and made up after years of conflict, Bill’s own warehouse booby trap comes to get him.

The pipes above shift, and a trap bowling ball (their mother’s, just for a touch of drama) comes tumbling down, shooting into his head and completely reducing his brain and face to pulp. An apt end for someone who brought about so much death and destruction, if you ask us.

10. Estate agent shooting

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An estate agent getting shot by a forgotten rifle might be one of the simpler deaths on this list, but it’s still pretty memorable. When Hal is being shown around his childhood home, he has one goal: locate the monkey before it can hurt anyone else.

Unfortunately for him, he’s standing right next to the preppy estate agent when she opens a locked cupboard, causing a rifle to fall down and shoot her right between the eyes. As she explodes (there’s a lot of exploding in this movie), Hal is covered in her blood as his teenage son waits downstairs, none the wiser.

9. Aneurysm while baking

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Some kills are more heartbreaking than entertaining, and Hal and Bill’s mom Lois is one such case. While making a cake upstairs in the kitchen, Hal runs downstairs and pleads for the monkey to kill his brother. But this mechanic primate has other ideas, and just as Bill arrives home from school, he watches his mother twitching in the kitchen, holding an icing bag.

As she turns around, blood streams from her eyes and ears, signaling something very wrong. Then, an explosion happens, and between the icing and the blood, it’s hard to tell what happens. But, as we’re later told, she suffered from a sudden aneurysm. A simple but effective death.

8. Hibachi dinner gone wrong

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One of the most hypes kills (as featured in the trailer) remains one of the strongest. After Hal and Bill first encounter the monkey, they’re taken out for dinner by their babysitter, Annie Wilkes. (No, not Stephen King’s famous Annie Wilkes.)

At the hibachi restaurant, things go wrong when the chef gets a little too excited about his skills. Slashing his knife, he manages to effortlessly decapitate poor Annie’s head, which then falls onto the hotplate, effectively putting everyone off their expensive dinner.

7. Town massacre

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One of the best kills earns its place purely because of the scale. When Bill gets frustrated and tries to force the monkey into banging its drum (bad idea, Bill), the monkey reacts tenfold. Essentially, it kills everyone in town.

Planes fall from the sky, fires break out, and the sounds of distant screams can be heard all across the local area as Hal watches in horror. There may not be as much detail, but knowing the size of the damage and number of casualties really highlights just how powerful this little drumming monkey can be.

6. Time for a dip

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Another classic trailer moment here. As Hal wanders outside his motel, listening to Bill’s creepy phone call, he witnesses an air conditioning unit fall from the roof and onto the ground. As the electricity connects to a puddle, he watches in horror as a beautiful woman prepares to dive into the pool.

His calls can’t stop her in time, and she takes a dive into the electrocuted water. This itself is already a great set-up for a death, but it’s the woman bursting into teeny-tiny fleshy pieces as soon as she hits the water that’s really the pièce de résistance of this moment.

5. Cheerleader accident

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As the final kill in the movie, the cheerleader bus incident packs a punch. Hal and Petey have escaped, and are driving through what remains of the town after the monkey did its business. Everyone is dead, corpses are everywhere, and things are looking pretty dire. (At least Hal and Petey’s relationship is okay, though.)

After they drive away, a busload of cheerleaders (who we’ve seen earlier in the movie) come driving past, cheering out of the windows. But a truck some speeding by, cutting off their joyful cheers just as it does their bodies. Nasty work.

4. Fish hook fire dance

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After being left without a husband and after Hal and Bill move away, Aunt Ida is left to live on her own. After she hears a sound one night, she stumbles down to the basement with a gun, where one old step causes her to fall into a box of fish hooks below.

If a face of fish hooks wasn’t enough, then just wait. Ida fixes up her wounds with some rubbing alcohol just before leaning over the stove to listen to what sounds like a leaky hob. Soon, she’s alight in a ball of flames, running from her house, stumbling, and falling directly onto a “for sale” sign like a chicken on a kebab skewer. Oh, Aunt Ida. That looked like it hurt.

3. Bowling ball wishes

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One of the most shocking kills doesn’t actually happen. While young Hal dreams about how much nicer his life would be without his crass older brother, he fantasizes about killing him.

We simply see what he wants to see: Bill sleeping peacefully, as Hal drops a bowling ball (the same one from kill no. 2) onto his head. His head explodes in a bloody mess, and Hal is left standing over him… until he wakes up from his daydreaming, of course. Bill is a nightmare, sure, but kid-on-kid violence will never cease to shock.

2. The bee’s knees

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Oh man. Bee stings are awful on the worst of days, but could you imagine a whole hive’s worth flying into your mouth? That’s exactly what happens to Ricky, who kidnaps Hal and Petey in order to get his hands on the monkey again. While he and Hal wait in the car, a bee’s nest falls from a tree above and onto the car.

The entire hive, seeing a hole in the windshield, quickly rocket themselves straight into Ricky’s mouth, causing him to choke on the bees and their stings. By the time they’re done, they’re crawling back out of his skin and jaw, making for a truly horrific image. It’s nightmare fuel.

1. Wild horses

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Winner winner, Oz Perkins dinner. The Monkey’s own director (who plays Uncle Chip) takes top place on the list, purely for how ugly and horrific his death looks. After the death of their mother, Hal and Bill move in with their aunt and uncle, and after Bill sets the monkey off again, it’s the latter who meets the worst fate of all.

It doesn’t get its own scene, but voiceover and a brief glimpse of the death in question tell us everything we need to know. Chip went on a camping trip and was trampled to death by stampeding wild horses while he slept in his sleeping bag.

There’s flashes of a bloody, fleshy sleeping bag on the ground, with tiny pieces of Chip’s body flicking around the screen as he continues to get stomped on. This scrambled egg nightmare is far more bloody and realistic than anything Final Destination could conjure up.

The Monkey is playing in theaters now.

For more, check out The Monkey ending explained. You can also learn more about the book it’s based on, and see what other 2025 horror movies we’re most excited about.