Osgood Perkins Explains ‘The Monkey’s Brutal Dipiction of Death

The Monkey director Osgood Perkins has commented on the film’s singular views about death. Perkins’ latest opened on Friday, but those who were lucky enough to catch a preview know that it depicts death as the end of the journey under a frame of absolute mayhem and satire. If you have a problem with people dying on screen, you should probably skip The Monkey. It gets… messy.

Perkins spoke to Cinema Blend about The Monkey, and while not many horror films feel thought-provoking, the director thinks you should be more aware of the inevitability of death. He also believes that his movie is no different from any other horror feature in terms of what the characters ultimately face:

“In a sense, every horror movie is essentially about that, right? Like, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna see how – by chainsaw, or a ghost is gonna get you, or you’re gonna get possessed or something. So it’s kind of like, ‘Take your pick; pick a card, any card.’ So just wanting to highlight that and make a horror movie just about the most elemental truth felt like it was just low-hanging fruit…

It’s something that’s on our minds sometimes – maybe should be on our minds more – and as a horror movie to come and almost lampoon the idea that of course everyone’s gonna die, that’s the rule, felt like a good way in.”

The Monkey is based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name published in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. While you probably remember the book cover to have a wind-up monkey toy with cymbals, Perkins made a few changes to the story. This time, the monkey plays the drums, and every time someone turns the key and the monkey starts playing, people die in horrific ways.

The dark horror comedy is a complete shift in tone in regard to Perkins’ previous movies. It’s not a slow-burn piece of tremendous dread. Instead, it’s a hilarious comedy with extreme gore and deaths that seem to be drawn from a Final Destination catalog of kills. Nevertheless, it’s also a film that evokes the very essence of death as something elemental that we have failed to accept. This is what drew star Theo James (who plays Hal and Bill Shelburn) to accept the role in the Stephen King movie:

“That, for me, reading the script was the most interesting thematic thing that underlay the insanity of the deaths is this rumination on mortality. The human race has achieved so much in our evolution, but one thing we haven’t really come to terms with is death, really. I mean, we are constantly trying to escape death and aging and pretending that it’s not gonna happen, but it’s the one thing that we all share.”

‘The Monkey’ Is a Different Kind of Stephen King Adaptation

Trust us when we say you have never seen a Stephen King adaptation like The Monkey. Perkins has pushed his limits before with unique takes on serial killer stories and children’s fairy tales with Longlegs and Gretel & Hansel. But this time, he adapts the sacred work of a master. A short story that many would have deemed untouchable in terms of tone. Who would have the guts to make any changes?

Nevertheless, he does exactly what sometimes needs to be done with horror: He adopts comedy and absurdity as a perfect relief valve, and it works. It’s a tone not often seen in King’s movies and a complete twist to his style of horror. If you happen to see it in theaters, you will see that there will be far more laughs than you expected from a King adaptation by Osgood Perkins.

The Monkey

4
/5

Release Date

February 19, 2025

Runtime

98 Minutes

Director

Osgood Perkins

Writers

Osgood Perkins

Producers

John Rickard, Natalia Safran, Ali Jazayeri, Chris Ferguson, Fred Berger, Giuliana Bertuzzi, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, John Friedberg, Jason Cloth, David Gendron, Michael Clear, Jesse Savath, Peter Luo, Dave Caplan