The Jolly Monkey is the kind of movie that almost dares you to take it seriously, then laughs when you try. Produced by The Asylum, a studio famous for its cheeky low-budget knockoffs, it takes inspiration from recent horror buzz about haunted toys and cursed creatures. Here, the menace comes not from something supernatural but from a masked figure dressed in a gaudy monkey costume. The result is part slasher flick, part haunted-motel mystery, and part self-aware gag. It isn’t a prestige horror film, but for the right crowd, it has enough charm to be worth a late-night watch. The plot is set in motion when siblings Jenny and Marshall return to their family’s rundown roadside motel, affectionately (or ominously) called The Jolly Monkey. They hope to renovate it after their mother’s death, but almost immediately the place feels wrong. Shadows hang heavy in the hallways, whispers of past tragedies echo, and locals warn them about what really happened to the families who stayed there years...