Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round Review: A Disturbing Children’s Show Turned Psychological Horror

A monkey puppet with human hands should’ve been enough warning for everybody involved.

Well, I wasn’t expecting a creepy kids show horror movie to become etched into my brain, but Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round managed to do it.

Plot

A children's TV show host, ensnared in a case of amnesia, must confront his missing memories as his puppet co-stars turn on him.

Good Points

• Michael Gilio

• The puppet designs are genuinely disturbing

• Strong atmosphere without relying on jump scares

• The children’s TV setting stays unsettling throughout

• Practical effects work well

• Balances humour and horror well

Bad Points

• The story stretches itself a bit too thin

• The mystery is a bit obvious early on

• A few ideas work better in theory than execution

My Thoughts on Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round

Nobody hosting a children’s TV show should look that stressed

James “Jimbo” Jensen, played by Michael Gilio, hosts a colourful children’s programme filled with puppets, songs, fake smiles, and lessons about kindness, and right away, you know it all feels a bit wrong, quietly off in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable before anything has actually happened.

The set itself looks like one of those forgotten educational shows you vaguely remember from your childhood, except somebody left it sitting in a damp basement for twenty years, but this show is certainly not a parody or anything to be fond of, as this is a serious show, where the host, Jimbo, goes hard with every song and every lesson.

Every interaction he endures with these puppets feels like this is his entire life, but underneath all that smiling and singing, Jimbo clearly looks exhausted, and then we also have the monkey puppet added into the mix, which has human hands…

Whoever designed that thing knew what they were doing

Human hands on a puppet monkey probably should not have bothered me as much as it did, but every single time it appeared on screen I found myself feeling a little bit more uncomfortable, and while the film never overuses it, it’s the fact the puppet even exists in the first place which is bothersome, with your brain doing the rest.

The story also slowly introduces memory problems into Jimbo’s life, where he forgets conversations, loses track of details, and starts reacting to situations like somebody waking up halfway through a dream, and the film handles this part pretty well because it never overexplains it - Jimbo is confused, so we, the audience, stay confused with him.

You also have people around him behaving like they know more than he does, but nobody actually helps him understand what’s happening, as they just want to keep the show moving.

Watching somebody mentally unravel is quite stressful to watch

Michael Gilio is brilliant as Jimbo, and while I do often say a certain actors presecence really carries a certain film, but here, it really does, and while early on, his movements feel rehearsed and controlled, we start to slowly see small cracks appear.

There’s a certain scene I won’t spoil, but involves him making a puppet, where it’s all very very weird, but nobody questions it, so the show just continues, all very odd and a bit disturbing, but also quite funny.

It does all deserve credit too for not overdoing the horror, because it doesn’t throw constant scares at the screen trying to prove how dark it is, as most of the discomfort here comes from atmosphere and contrast - bright colours, cheerful songs, smiling puppets, before suddenly something feels deeply wrong without warning.

The practical effects are pretty solid too, nothing massive or flashy, just enough to slowly make the children’s show feel slightly rotten underneath the surface, and as Jimbo’s mental state gets worse, the set itself starts looking and feeling like a prison built out of cardboard and old paint.

There’s a really strong shorter version of this film trapped inside

I do think the film probably would have worked better as a short, as the middle section does drag a bit, because the film just keeps circling the same emotional point - Jimbo forgets something, gets confused, acts strangely, then moves on - and while the atmosphere stays good enough to hold your attention, the pacing starts wobbling hard once the mystery becomes obvious.

And that mystery isn’t that difficult to figure out either, because the film drops enough clues early on that the big reveals don’t exactly hit like a truck, but thankfully, the movie works better as a character breakdown than as a mystery anyway, a film with a quiet sense of desperation lying beneath everything.

Final Verdict

Good atmosphere, creepy puppet work, and Michael Gilio’s performance make it worth watching - strange, uncomfortable, occasionally funny, and way too committed to that horrifying monkey puppet.

Trailer

Directed by - Aidan Leary

Written by - Aidan Leary and C.R. Thompson

Cast includes - Michael Gilio

Runtime - 91 Minutes