The following contains spoilers for The Monkey, now playing in theatersThe Monkey makes some pretty big changes from the original short story that inspired it, including changing the main villain and why they’re trying to kill Hal. The Monkey focuses on the titular cursed object, a seemingly benign drumming monkey toy that causes people to suffer sudden (and often) violent deaths. The Monkey‘s main character is Hal, who encountered the object as a child and now struggles to to stop the curse before it can spread to impact people like his son Petey. Along the way, the darkly comedic horror film leaves a massive trail of bodies wherever Hal goes.