When you make a good film, people want to work with you. It’s a simple truth that director Osgood “Oz” Perkins has experienced more than once during his career in indie horror, most recently with the Maïka Monroe– And Nicolas Cage-fronted Long legs from the beginning of this year. “It was proven that my weird material could be worth money,” said the filmmaker behind Gretel and Hansel (2020) and I’m the pretty thing that lives in the house (2016) remarks during an interview with Weekly Entertainment.
This was also the case for The monkeyPerkins’ adaptation of Stephen KingThe 1980 short story about a cursed toy and the horrors inflicted on the twin brothers.
Actor Theo James (Netflix The GentlemenHBO The White Lotus) and Michael Clear, production manager at James Wanfrom the company Atomic Monster, both researched it separately due to The girl in the black coat (2015). James first wanted to explore a television project: a gothic tale based on a true story about a witch hunt in the north of England during World War II, as “a reflection of human nature surrounded by the building in ruin of Britain,” the actor said. said. This particular series never saw the light of day, but in another sect of Hollywood, Clear and fellow producer Peter Safran owned the rights to The monkey and a script that didn’t work. Perkins, however, made it work with a pitch that seemed out of the ordinary, even to the folks at Clear’s, the company behind the Conjuring movies, M3GANAnd Mortal Combat.
“What if it was a comedy?” Perkins applies. “Here’s this monkey who doesn’t do anything. It’s not M3GAN. He doesn’t attack. It’s evil just in its existence. Things happen around her for no better reason than they do. His presence causes people to die senselessly. »
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Perkins found a more personal connection when reflecting on his own life story. His father was Psychology star Anthony Perkins, who had relationships with men until undergoing conversion therapy. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992. His mother was photographer Berry Berenson, who died as a passenger on hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001. “I’ve seen people die in truly and profoundly insane.” Perkins continues. “Everyone dies, whether there’s a monkey or not. What if you could do that with a smile – accept the fact that everyone dies? And what a crazy, surreal idea, man! You will die; GOOD all die. This is crazy, dammit. Doing this as a comedy seemed very apt. »
“He wanted to make a family movie, but an R-rated movie,” said James, who recently saw a cut of the film. “It’s super dark, but it also has heart, and it’s really funny.”
Child, played by Christian Convery (Cocaine Bearthat of Netflix Gourmand), Hal and Bill live with their mother (Black OrphanIt is Tatiana Maslany). Their father, an airline pilot, went out to get the proverbial pack of cigarettes and never came back, as the saying goes. The children decide to rummage through his old things, trinkets from his international travels. Among the bonsai trees, clogs, boomerangs and other family heirlooms is a small toy monkey with black, void-like eyes and an unsettling smile. When they use a wrench to put it back together, “things start happening,” Perkins teases. “It’s going very badly for them. They are very directly affected and in a terrible way.”
One such bad thing happens during dinner at a hibachi grill, a scene inspired by nights in Benihana with the Perkins family. It’s a perfect example of the tone that the director wanted to give, this mixture of horror and comedy. Perkins References Death suits him And American Werewolf in London. “Without saying what’s happening, it’s ridiculous and it’s funny,” he teases of that hibachi sequence. “The kids in the movie talk all the time. My 15-year-old daughter says every second fucking word. It’s just a way of saying that the design of this whole thing is supposed to make people smile. It shows up on your face.”
The twins try to destroy the monkey, but they are unsuccessful. They try to contain it, but cannot do so either. Eventually, they manage to get rid of it, and for 25 years, they think they are safe. As adults (now played by James), Bill is estranged from his brother, while Hal refuses to see his own young son most of the year, for fear that the monkey will resurface and harm his family . Of course, the only time Hal plans a father-son road trip is when the monkey rematerializes, forcing Hal and Bill to come together to deal with the situation.
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James wanted each portrayal of the brothers to be as opposite as possible. For Hal, his touchstone was early Tom Hanks. “Someone you trust completely (and who) may make mistakes along the way, but essentially (is) a good person,” he explains. Bill, who is four minutes older, “has been hyper volatile probably since birth, bordering on sociopath, and all the delusions of grandeur that go with that.”
In even simpler terms, “Bill is an asshole,” Perkins adds. “He’s a braggart and a bit stupid. Hal is gentle, sensitive.”
Yellow vests And Lord of the Rings star Elie Bois also appears in The monkey like Ted Hammerman, who is married to Hal’s ex-wife and threatens to adopt Hal’s son. Perkins says the character writes “pedantic books about being a father.” James calls him an “alpha intellectual asshole.” Sarah Lévy from Schitt Creek plays Hal and Bill’s aunt, who raises the boys as children and also appears in the later timeline. “She meets, should we say, a particularly terrible ending, probably the worst ending in the entire movie,” James teases.
Perkins found King’s original short story conceptual, but there were touchstones he could draw on to direct a feature film – authorship being one. “I’m a father of three. It’s a very important part of my life,” he says. “My relationship with the memory of my father and the impact of my father is a very important part of my psyche.” Brotherhood was another. The source material downplays the sibling dynamic, but Perkins partly used his own relationship with his brother, Elvis Perkins, the folk-rock musician, to add just a touch of inspiration for Hal and Bill. “We went through the same crazy shit,” he says of Elvis. “We reacted to this senseless madness… very differently. We are very different people. Part of the process of life is finding our way back.”
“Oz described it as the monkey on your back, literally and existentially,” James remarks of the entire film. “There’s a literal monkey, a toy monkey, who’s trying to massacre everyone. At the same time, it’s a bit of a dissection of family history and family trauma. There are many layers to this story .”
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Between Long legs and now The monkeyJames hopes Perkins will be able to do essentially whatever he wants. “I had watched each of his films and I loved them all,” he says happily about his director. “Long legs brought him into the mainstream, but he still made really good material.”
It turns out that Perkins started making another film between Long legs And The monkey. When he speaks with EW, it’s the day after he filmed additional photos during a night shoot. Guardianwhich returns Maslany as a woman who must face unspeakable evil in a remote cabin in the woods after her husband leaves their romantic anniversary weekend early. “She’s truly amazing,” Perkins exclaims of the actress. “There’s nothing she can’t do.”
As for his own mainstream notoriety, he benefits from it. “The dynamo that is me is running at full speed,” he says. “I don’t need anyone’s equipment. I created my own thing. We now have two films in theaters (coming out) in six months. It’s hard to do, and it seems to work. I’m going to put it together . out.”
The monkey will premiere in theaters on February 21, 2025.