The Gentlemen star’s hit Stephen King movie is on TV tonight

Though it's not for the faint of heart, we think it's a scary, funny, good time.

The comedy horror thriller comes from a trilogy of horror masters. Not only is The Monkey based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King (IT, The Shining), but it was also written and directed by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs) and produced by James Wan (The Conjuring).

The story follows twins, Bill and Hal (played as boys by Christian Convery and as men by James), who are cursed by an innocuous-looking, killer wind-up drum-playing toy monkey. Every time the toy monkey bangs its drums, someone around it dies in a bizarre, Rube Goldberg-esque manner.

After throwing the sinister object down a well as children, Bill and Hal go decades without death but are still traumatised by what happened to them and have grown estranged. When the monkey returns and begins a new killing spree, however, it forces the brothers to team up and confront the cursed toy once again.

Upon release, The Monkey drew comparisons to Final Destination, as both horrors are structured around a string of gruesome killings that the viewer knows are about to take place. That said, the audience never knows who will be killed or how or when, creating tension.

Indeed, whenever the titular toy is onscreen in The Monkey, it creates a pit of dread in the viewer's stomach that it will start drumming and thus imminently cause a gory death.

Watch the trailer for The Monkey right here:

It's also worth noting, however, that Perkins' movie is also surprisingly funny. Not only are the film's killings hilariously over-the-top, but the writer-director finds plenty of ghoulish humour around the awkwardness of death, as well as the cruel fact that it inevitably comes for us all.

Also co-starring Tatiana Maslany (Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed) and featuring several fun cameo performances, The Monkey is airing on TV tonight on BBC One at 11.40pm. It's also available to rent on Apple TV for the low price of €1.99.

Here are the other movies airing on TV tonight (Wednesday, 28 October):