The Monkey Teaser Has The Director Of Longlegs Taking On A Stephen King Story

Osgood Perkins is riding high after the box office success of "Longlegs," the hit horror movie that featured Nicolas Cage going bonkers as a Satanic serial killer. "Longlegs" was Perkins' biggest hit, and now he's following it up with his biggest movie so far, at least in terms of budget. That film is "The Monkey," based on the Stephen King short story of the same name. Now, when I say this is Perkins' "biggest" movie in regards to budget, I don't want you to think the filmmaker is working with hundreds of millions of bucks. According a profile in Vulture, "The Monkey" was made "with a budget in the $10–$11 million range," which is pretty high for Perkins, a horror filmmaker who has solely made lower-budgeted indie fare so far. "The Monkey" is also coming from Neon, who distributed "Longlegs." 

But they're not the only folks involved with the project: horror filmmaker James Wan is also on board as a producer. The combination of Stephen King, Osgood Perkins, and James Wan will no doubt be catnip to horror fans, and that includes me. I'm a fan of Perkins's work (although I'll admit I wasn't as gaga over "Longlegs" as everyone else seemed to be), I've long been a James Wan stan (where are my "Malignant" heads at?), and I've been a Stephen King fanatic since I was a little nerdy kid reading books that were way too mature for my age. With all that in mind, I'm chomping at the bit for "The Monkey." Sadly, we'll have to wait until next year to see this thing. For now, though, we can have some fun with the first "The Monkey" teaser, which you can watch above. 

In King's short story, which was first published in 1980 and then collected in his 1985 anthology "Skeleton Crew," two brothers find a toy monkey in the attic of their great-uncle's house. The brothers soon learn the monkey doll belonged to their father, and that the dang thing is cursed: whenever the monkey bangs the cymbals it holds together, someone dies. It is, admittedly, kind of a silly story, but King is able to make it work thanks to the gift he has for creating memorable characters. Perkins' film will be following the story's premise, following twin brothers (both played by Theo James) who discover a cursed monkey doll that causes a series of gruesome deaths.

In the Vulture profile, Perkins says that while "The Monkey" is an R-rated horror movie, it will also be going for a comedic tone, one that leans into the absurdity of the fact that we're all doomed to die someday, along with everyone we know. "That everybody, including yourself, dies is such an absurd thing," Perkins said. "Even for people like me, who've been through death plenty, the notion that we all die is still f**king nuts. But what are you going to do about it? Not get out of bed?"

To be fair, despite all its doom and gloom, Perkins' "Longlegs" was also frequently, and intentionally, funny, so it's clear that the filmmaker knows how to mix humor and horror to great effect. As for this teaser, well, it's very much a teaser. The majority of the footage is comprised of close-ups of the cursed monkey toy before cutting to a shot of a blood-drenched Theo James. And honestly, that's more than enough. This brief teaser does a great job of selling the film's seemingly absurdist-horror atmosphere — James removing his glasses after the blood-splatter is a funny little detail. 

In addition to Theo James, "The Monkey" also stars Tatiana Maslany and Elijah Wood. Look for "The Monkey" in theaters on February 21, 2025.