What a deadly combination this is! Stephen King, James Wan and Osgood Perkins; surely have high expectations from The Monkey whose official full-length trailer just released.
The movie is based on Stephen King’s short story, which was first published in Gallery magazine in 1980. In 1985, it was added to King’s collection Skeleton Crew.
The story is almost the same but the film has a comedic touch- all thanks to Osgood Perkins. The original plot revolves around twin brothers who found a cursed cymbal-banging monkey toy in their father’s storage closet and soon found that it was the reason for several deaths they witnessed around them.
Decades later, the monkey reappears out of nowhere and Hal, one of the twins, resolutes to finish it once and for all, for which he takes the help of his son Petey.
The Monkey trailer
The trailer stands true to the essence of the story. Of course, we see a lot of blood, which sets the narrative of how cruel a mere toy could be. How could we unsee Theo James standing all covered in blood when the lady opened the closet door where the monkey was placed? Have a look:
The trailer shows Hal and Bill’s current lives; when they were in school and how they discovered the merciless monkey, and at present, when Bill calls Hal, telling him that the monkey is back.
The rest of the trailer continues to show the gore and a full embrace of terror, and we are ready for it! After all, it is a lethal combo that we might not get any time soon again.
It is quite evident that the trailer gives Final Destination vibes, still, the monkey gives some sort of alarm before death actually arrives through his cymbals. The trailer portrays that the monkey is not a subtle manslayer, he is excessively thirsty for blood and is demonically gruesome in his own way.
A twist in The Monkey
However, there is a twist. Oz Perkins blended the dreadful wrath of The Monkey with some touch of humour. No way he was to take chances on his own, and he thought it better to get permission from the 'King of Horrors' himself.
Stephen King gave him a mighty green light when he came to know Perkins was up for a horror-comedy fusion, which is Perkins’ first in this genre. Stephen King said, “It’s f**king great!”
Next was another controversial move that Perkins was ready to take; making James Wan say yes to the horror-comedy fusion since Wan’s previous work does not show any comedy anywhere. Do you remember The Wailing? An unmatched masterpiece!
Now that the trailer explicitly shows that it is going to be a dark journey of life and death, and that is the entire doing of James Wan.
Expectations from Theo James in The Monkey?
Theo James takes the lead in the film. His previous roles, particularly in a similar genre, Underworld: Awakening (2012) and Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) were an evolution. He played a vampire where he was naive in the beginning but showed maturity as he moved deeper into the story.
It would be interesting to see the same, whether younger Hal and Bill (both twins played by Theo James in The Monkey) would be naive during their childhood when they first discovered the abominable toy or mature enough to handle the disaster when they have grown older.
Cast and release date
The other cast of the movie includes Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek) and Colin O’Brien (Mr. Harrigan’s Phone).
The Monkey will premiere worldwide on February 21, 2025.