Black Bear has just shared a new trailer for filmmaker Osgood Perkins' next movie, The Monkey, starring Theo James (X-Men '97), Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), and Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings).
Based on the Stephen King short story, and produced by James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw), The Monkey is a new trip from Longlegs writer/director, Osgood Perkins. When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart.
Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
We get to see some of the madness which ensues when the monkey is unleashed in this latest sneak peek and it's clear the movie won't be for the faint of heart. Between this and Until Dawn (we also got a trailer for that today), the first few months of 2025 are shaping up to be very exciting for horror fans.
"The Monkey is like Robert Zemeckis on ecstasy or something," Perkins, who helmed last year's Longlegs, said in a recent interview. "It's a very playful comedy with a lot of really excessive gore, language. It's a kids' movie that's rated R."
"I wanted to embrace the humor of Stephen King," he continued. "I wanted to be more on the side of Creepshow and Misery, and I wanted the movie to feel like a Stephen King movie to really honor the guy. I mean, he's the most significant writer...ever? In any genre, prolifically, just in terms of impact."
"Certainly for the horror genre, whether it be literature or movies, there's no one who's contributed more. So it's time to really honor the dude. I really made a movie that I hoped he would like," Perkins concluded.
Stephen King adaptations have been very hit-or-miss in the past, but Perkins definitely feels like the right filmmaker to bring this quirky story to the big screen. This has a very different vibe to Longlegs and should deliver laughs and scares in equal measure based on what's shown here.
Based on the short story by Stephen King and produced by James Wan, The Monkey will be released in theaters on February 21. You can watch the trailer (via FearHQ.com) in the players below. A A A A A