Summary

Director Osgood Perkins reveals the upcoming Stephen King horror story adaptation,
The Monkey
, is family-friendly despite a murderous curse.
The movie will seemingly balance extreme deaths with dark comedy. It aims to be nostalgic and funny for all ages.
Perkins targets a family audience, hoping kids and parents can enjoy the unique, entertaining film, but it won’t be an easy feat to pull off.

Director Osgood Perkins has opened up about his upcoming Stephen King adaptation of The Monkey, explaining how the movie is family friendly despite also being a horror film. Based on King’s 1980 short story of the same name, the upcoming The Monkey movie follows twin brothers (Theo James) who discover a cursed monkey toy that causes a multitude of deaths during their childhood. Now grown up, the pair decide to rid the world of the toy once and for all, attempting to end the curse that haunted them in their youth.

Speaking with Bloody Disgusting on their Boo Crew Podcast, Perkins explained how The Monkey is somewhat a family friendly movie, despite being a horror film about a murderous curse. The director explained how the presentation and themes of the movie can be a good time for families to attend, hinting at some darkly comedic moments throughout as well. Check out what Perkins had to say about the film below:

It’s gonna feel more like Misery or Creepshow or Gremlins or American Werewolf. It couldn’t be LESS like Longlegs. To me, if you’re gonna make a movie about a toy monkey, you can be serious about it. But so much of King is funny and nostalgic feeling. So we tried to make a movie that felt a little bit more like something from the late ’80s – ’90s. It’s sorta like, if Robert Zemeckis had just like a LITTLE bit of acid and made a Stephen King picture about a monkey toy.
For me, ideally it’s the movie that kids and their parents wanna go see together. People blow up, people explode; it’s very extreme but it’s very funny. It’s very father-son redemption, it’s very touching, it’s very nostalgic, it’s very Stephen King.

Will The Monkey Really Be Suitable For All Ages?
Custom Image by Dalton Norman

While Stephen King’s best adaptations are aimed at older audiences, Perkins considers his rendition of The Monkey to be more accessible to families. However, the premise doesn’t mean all younger viewers will enjoy it, as a loved one dies every time the monkey toy plays its cymbals. This is a rather dark story, as it embraces the idea of older relatives dying in various tragic ways. However, the goal of the movie is to stop this from happening, meaning some younger viewers might understand the movie more than others.

Given the nature of the film and the types of deaths Perkins has teased, though, it might be a stretch to say the movie is intended to be viewed by families. While a family audience could still enjoy the movie, children who aren’t easily scared would end up having a better time than those who are more frightened by the concept of death. It seems that, depending on the family audience being engaged with, the film could live up to what the director says it will be like.

If the movie does manage to expertly balance itself to appeal to all ages, it would likely be one of the more unique movies based on King’s works to be put to screen. Given that Osgood’s upcoming movie, Longlegs, will be anything but kid-friendly, it remains to be seen how he’ll tackle The Monkey so a much wider audience can engage with it. Given the surety he exudes for his plan, it will probably prove to be an interesting presentation of the decades-old short story.

The Monkey
will arrive in theaters in 2025.

Source: Bloody Disgusting

The Monkey Adapted from the story of the same name by Stephen King, The Monkey is a horror mystery film that follows twin brothers Hal and Bill, who discover a mysterious monkey toy in their father’s attic that seems tied to several grizzly deaths. After years apart, the twins learn that similar deaths have begun again and must reunite to destroy the monkey.Director Osgood Perkins Studio(s) Atomic Monster Cast Theo James