Fresh off adapting a Stephen King short story with The Monkey, writer-director Osgood Perkins reveals his favorite Stephen King works in the video below.
“Creepshow was always something that I found really delightful and playful and sort of profane in a really charming way. I love the original comic book with the Bernie Wrightson illustrations, of course,” the filmmaker says.
“Misery always struck me as a really fun book, a really fun read. That was one of the first things that I remember reading of Stephen King’s as a kid. I was probably about 15 or 14 or so, and I read Misery and really got a kick out of that.
“And then the way the movie was treated too, with a lot of humor. Misery is a very amusing– It’s dark, but it’s played with a light touch, and I really appreciated that.”
He continues, “My father [Psycho star Anthony Perkins] read a lot of paperback books. He was not big on television, and so he read a lot. So there was always books around, and the iconic cover — the Pet Sematary cover with the cat’s face and misspelled kid’s handwriting — always made an impression on me.”
From producer James Wan, The Monkey opens in theaters on February 21 via Neon.
Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, and Sarah Levy star.
When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. 25 years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “With brisk storytelling efficiency and a playful spirit, The Monkey delivers a Stephen King adaptation like no other. Perkins pushes back against logic in favor of entertaining midnight madness, and death has never been funnier or gorier as a result.”
The Monkey short story was first released as a booklet included in Gallery magazine in 1980. It was later revised and published in King’s 1985 collection Skeleton Crew alongside The Mist, The Jaunt, The Raft, Survivor Type, and more.
