Director Osgood Perkins promises his upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Monkey” will deliver extreme gore and mess. In a recent interview, Perkins said, “If you’re going for comedy then you’re going for extremes. Not subtlety.
We are guilty of putting far more blood in our human bodies than is really in a human body. When someone explodes in this movie — and a couple of people do — there’s a lot of mess.”
The film follows two brothers, Hal and Bill, who discover a cursed toy monkey linked to a series of gruesome deaths. As adults, they must confront the curse again when inexplicable deaths occur once more.
Gory promises from director Perkins
Theo James portrays the twin brothers, with Tatiana Maslany as their mother and Elijah Wood as Ted Hammerman. Perkins described the death scenes as challenging to execute, saying, “All the death set-pieces were hard to do.
They all have a Rube Goldbergian connectivity — this happens, then this happens, then this happens…” He expressed excitement about the film’s uniqueness, calling it a “morbidly surreal horror comedy that’s also heartwarming and redemptive and stars a bona-fide movie hunk.”
“The Monkey” is set to premiere in theaters on February 21, 2025. The cast also includes Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy. James Wan is producing the film under his Atomic Monster banner.
Perkins’ previous horror film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $127 million worldwide on a moderate budget. With “The Monkey,” he aims to surprise audiences again by embracing the absurdity and randomness of death with cartoonish abandon.