‘The Monkey’ Stephen King movie is like a comedy where ‘people die in crazy ways’ (Exclusive)

When you make a good film, people want to work with you. It’s a simple truth director Osgood “Oz” Perkins experienced more than once in his career in indie horror, most recently with the Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage front. Long legs from earlier this year. “It proved that my weird material can actually be worth a penny,” the filmmaker behind Grete and Hans (2020) and I am the beautiful thing that lives in the house (2016) notes during an interview with Weekly entertainment.

That was also the case OpenPerkins’ adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 short story about a cursed toy and the horrors inflicted on twin brothers.

Actor Theo James (Netflix’s GentlemenHBO’s The white lotus) and Michael Clear, the production manager at James Wan’s company Atomic Monster, both approached him separately because Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015). James first wanted to explore a television project: a gothic tale based on a true story about a witch hunt in northern England during World War II as “a reflection of human nature surrounded by the crumbling edifice of Britain,” the actor. says. The series in question never came together, but in another sect of Hollywood, Clear and his co-producer, Peter Safran, had the rights to Open and a script that didn’t work. However, Perkins made it work with a pitch that felt left of field, even for the folks at Clear’s banner, the company behind Magic art film, M3GANand Mortal Kombat.

“What if it’s a comedy?” Perkins claims. “Here’s this monkey that does nothing. It’s not M3GAN. It doesn’t attack. It’s evil just in its existence. Things happen around it for no better reason than they do. Its presence causes people to die in crazy ways. ”

Perkins found a more personal connection when he reflected on his own life story. His father was Psycho star Anthony Perkins, who had relationships with men until he underwent 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 had people die in really, really crazy ways,” Perkins continues. “Everybody dies, whether there’s a monkey or not. What if you could do this with a smile – process the fact that everybody dies? And what an insane, surreal notion, dude! You will die; well everyone dies. That’s crazy sh–. Doing it as a comedy felt very apropos.”

“He wanted to make a family film, but an R-rated one,” says James, who recently saw a clip of the film. “It’s hyper dark, but it also has heart and it’s really fun.”

As children, played by Christian Convery (Cocaine bearNetflix’s Sweet tooth), Hal and Bill live with their mother (Orphan Black‘s Tatiana Maslany). Their father, an airline pilot, went out for the legendary pack of cigarettes and never returned, 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 familiar artifacts is a small toy monkey with black, void-like eyes and an unsettling laugh. When they use a key to pull it open, “things start happening,” Perkins teases. “It’s going pretty bad for them. They’re very directly affected in horrible ways.”

One such bad thing occurs during a dinner at a hibachi grill, a scene inspired by nights at Benihana with the Perkins family. It’s a perfect example of the tone the director wanted to strike, that mix of horror and comedy. Perkins references Death becomes her and American Werewolf in London. “Without saying what happens, it’s ridiculous and it’s fun,” he teases of the hibachi sequence. “The kids in the movie sh– talk all the time. My 15-year-old daughter says f— every other word. It’s just a way of saying that the design of the whole thing is meant to put a smile on your face .”

The twins try to destroy the monkey, but they can’t. They try to limit it, but they can’t either. Finally they manage to get rid of it and for 25 years they think they are safe. As adults, Bill (now played by James) is estranged from his brother, while Hal refuses to see his own young son for most of the year, fearing the monkey will reappear and harm his family. Of course, the one time Hal plans a father-son road trip is when the monkey rematerializes, forcing Hal and Bill to reunite to deal with the situation.

James wanted each performance as the brothers to feel as opposite as possible. For Hal, his touchstone was early Tom Hanks. “Someone you endemically trust (who) may make mistakes along the way, but basically (is) a good person,” he explains. Bill, four minutes older, “is hypervolatile from probably birth, bordering on sociopathic and all the delusions of grandeur that come with that.”

Put even more simply: “Bill is a dick,” adds Perkins. “He’s tough and a little stupid. Hal is gentle, sensitive.”

Yellowjackets and The Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood also appears in Open as Ted Hammerman, who is married to Hal’s ex-wife and threatens to adopt Hal’s son. Perkins says the character writes “pedantic how-to-be-a-dad books.” James calls him an “alpha intellectual asshole”. Sarah Levy by Schitt’s Creek plays Hal and Bill’s aunt who raises the boys as children and also appears in the later timeline. “She meets, shall we say, a particularly horrible end, probably the worst end of anyone in the entire movie,” teases James.

Perkins found King’s original short story to be conceptual, but there were touchstones that he could expand on to make a full-length film—fatherhood being one. “I am the father of three children. It is a very important part of my life,” he says. “My relationship with my memory of my father and my father’s influence is a very important part of my psyche.” Brotherhood was another. The source material downplays the sibling dynamic, but Perkins used in part his own relationship with his brother, Elvis Perkins, the folk-rock musician, to add just a splash of inspiration to Hal and Bill. “We went through the same crazy sh–,” he says of Elvis. “We reacted to that crazy sh– very differently. We’re very different people. Part of the process of living is finding your way home.”

“Oz described it as the monkey on your back, literally and existentially,” notes James 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 multiple levels to this story.”

Between Long legs and now OpenJames hopes Perkins is able to do what he wants. “I had seen every single one of his films and loved them all,” he says of his director. “Long legs broke him into the mainstream, but he’s always made really good material.”

As it happens, Perkins started making another film in between Long legs and Open. Speaking to EW, it’s the day after he filmed additional photography at a night shoot Keeperwhich brings Maslany back to play a woman who must deal with an unspeakable evil in a remote cabin in the woods after her husband leaves early from their romantic anniversary weekend. “She’s f—ing amazing,” Perkins says of the actress. “There’s nothing she can’t do.”

As for his own mainstream notoriety, he capitalizes on it. “The dynamo that is me is spinning at full throttle,” he says. “I don’t need anybody’s material. I’ve created my own thing. We now have two theatrical films (to be released) in six months. It’s hard to do and it seems to be working. I want to ride it out .”

Open will premiere in theaters on February 21, 2025.