Stephen King's delightfully immersive stories make big screen work Since 1976but no adaptation in the last 49 years has been quite like “The Monkey.” This is likely due to the fact that none of the other films feature Oz Perkins, the creative horror mastermind behind such films. Nicolas Cage, who played the main role of the movie “Long Legs”. and “Daughter in the Black Coat,” a terrifying slow-burner behind the camera. Perkins clearly matches the absurdity of the King short story featured in his 1985 book Skeleton Crew. in the year The latest issue of Empire magazinethe director draws direct parallels between the story's cursed toy and his own strange, tragic family life.
Perkins tells the publication that “Monkey” actually had “a very serious script.” when joining the projectone provided by James Wan's production company Atomic Monster. “I felt it was too serious, and I told them, 'This isn't working for me,'” Perkins recalls. He decided to do his own version of the story, emphasizing the inherent comedy of a cymbal-clutching monkey killing everyone he meets in the style of “Final Destination.” Perkins says: ” The thing about this toy monkey is that people around him are dying like crazy.” “So I thought, 'Well, I'm an expert at that. died in headline-making fashion.”
Oz Perkins also endured unexpected family tragedies
The director says that he spent a lot of money [his] “recovering from the tragedy of life, feeling pretty bad” and wondering why his parents died in a way that seemed “naturally unfair”. Perkins is, first of all, the son of famous “Psycho” actor Anthony Perkins and actress and photographer Berry Berenson. The elder Perkins died in 1992, having kept his HIV/AIDS diagnosis a secret until his death. his LA Times obituary. In that memoir, Anthony Perkins is said to be terrified of killing his own father after wishing him dead before suffering a fatal heart attack. The actor, known as Norman Bates, was only 5 years old at the time.
Osgood Perkins' mother also suffered a shocking fate: she was a passenger on the first plane that hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The GuardianBerenson's own work — photography for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, plus roles in films including “Cats” and “Remember My Name” — is overshadowed by the lengthy explanation of Perkins' death. The corner also mentions his grandmother Elsa Schiaparelli, the surrealist Italian fashion designer who worked with Salvador Dali (but thankfully wasn't killed off). All of this undoubtedly contributed to Perkins' unusual engagement with King's source material. “I'm old now and you realize it happens to everybody. Everybody dies,” Perkins tells Empire. “Sometimes in their dreams, sometimes in really crazy ways like I did. But everybody dies. And I thought maybe the best way to approach this crazy concept is to smile.”
“The Monkey” certainly seems willing to smile through the pain, and Perkins says King himself has seen the new film and “loves it.” A new red ribbon trailer it also highlights the strange lightness of the story's premise. “The monkey that likes to kill our family? It's back,” Theo says over the phone to James' brother Bill (also played by James) over the phone in recent clips. He is absolutely dead: “He must be defeated.” We also see footage of some brutal (but darkly funny) kills, from a Scooby-Doo-esque scuba diving suit jumping someone in an antique shop to a scorpion crawling into a coffee cup. “Our time is short, the world is tough, rotten things are happening,” Perkins concludes. “But you have to move on. You have to laugh. What else can you do?”
“Monkey” will be released in theaters on February 21, 2025.
