Stephen King is one of history’s most prolific horror writers, a feat he’s accomplished by constantly shifting genres and tones. Aside from his classic chillers like It or Carrie, he’s explored existential horror in The Shining, coming-of-age drama in Stand By Me, science fiction in the Dark Tower series, and even his ever-demanding fans in Misery.
One underappreciated aspect of his work, however, is how goofy some of it can be. Horror has the potential to take a silly premise and turn it into a deadly serious story, and that’s a trick he’s pulled often. Now, one of King’s strangest short stories is getting a movie adaptation, and it looks as off-the-wall as its source material.
Longlegs director Osgood Perkins is following up his horror hit with The Monkey, based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King. Check out the trailer below:
The movie follows two boys who find a cymbal-clapping monkey toy in their great-uncle’s attic and learn about its reputation as a harbinger of brutal murder. In this adaptation, the cymbals have changed to a drum (probably because a drumbeat sounds far more ominous), but otherwise the original story is largely unchanged.
James Wan, known for directing horror hits like Malignant and Saw, serves as executive producer, while Osgood Perkins directs and writes. The movie stars Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, and Elijah Wood, but the trailer focuses mainly on James’ character.
Longlegs was a dark thriller, but it still managed to find some goofiness in Nicolas Cage’s heavy prosthetics and unhinged performance. Now, The Monkey will allow that element to take center stage. Much like a slasher movie, it appears the emphasis has been placed on the wildly elaborate murders, only instead of a knife-wielding maniac, the perpetrator is just a toy.
It may not be your typical horror story, but anything from Stephen King is worth taking a chance on. Perkins, meanwhile, spun a story about a pale guy murdering girls with similar birthdays to please the devil into an instant horror classic. Together, the two could make bizarre magic happen.
