The Monkey, the upcomingStephen Kingadaptation fromLonglegswriter-director Osgood Perkins, has already received somepositive reviews from critics online, but now the Master of Horror himself has weighed in. Taking to hisThreadsaccount, King shared his opinion of the film, which was also positive.
He wrote,“You’ve never seen anything like THE MONKEY. It’s batsht insane. As someone who has indulged in batshttery from time to time, I say that with admiration.“Quite the positive review indeed. King fans will no doubt delight in the author’s glowing words, raising excitement for the film significantly.
King’sopinions of his film adaptationsrun the gamut. He notoriously hatesThe Shining, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film of King’s third novel starring Jack Nicholoson and the late Shelley Duvall, but he likes the firstChildren of the Cornmovie pretty well. No matter where he stands, King is guaranteed to be outspoken in his views.
The original short story on whichThe Monkeyis based was first published in 1980 and appeared in his 1985 collectionSkeleton Crew. It involves a man finding the titular toy, a windup chimpanzee holding cymbals, and remembering his childhood, in which death seemed to follow whenever the monkey clapped its cymbals together.
The new film more or less follows this plot, but ups the ante in terms of gory onscreen deaths. In this version, the monkey holds drumsticks and plays a snare, but the effect is the same: whenever the monkey bangs his drum, someone dies. And the movie is apparently hilarious to boot, a fact hinted at by the movie’s recently releasedred band trailer, which blends jokes with lots and lots of blood.The Monkeystars Theo James, Elijah Wood, Sarah Levy, and Tatiana Maslaney. It will hit theaters on February 21 via NEON.
King’s Work Is Ripe For a Bonkers Horror Comedy
King isn’t necessarily known for humor in his works, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll find a ton of darkly comedic moments scattered throughout his novels and short stories, many of which have translated well to the screen. One of his most underrated movies, the George A. Romero-ledThe Dark Half, expertly blends comedy and horror.
Another Romero-King pairing, the 1982 anthology filmCreephsow, is another of the author’s works that tickle as well as terrify, particularly the segment “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill,” which sees King playing a backwoods man bedeviled by a mysterious mossy fungus that emerged from a meteorite.
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‘Longlegs’ creator Osgood Perkins' newest film based on a Stephen King story is a bloody blend of two unexpected genres.
Last but not least, one of the author’s best film adaptations, Rob Reiner’s 1990 take onMisery, keeps its viewers on edge by making some of Annie Wilkes’s (Kathy Bates) shifts into sociopathy perversely funny, even if some of the laughter is nervous or uncomfortable in nature. Hearing Annie say “cockadoodie” is hilarious precisely because we don’t know what the character will do next. All we as audience members can do is laugh and brace ourselves for the horror to come.
The Monkey
