Are you ready for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey? The first reactions to the upcoming Stephen King movie suggest that you are not. The social media embargo for the new horror comedy lifted this past weekend in advance of the film’s arrival in theaters this February, and I was part of the chorus of voices lauding the feature for its pitch black sensibilities, extreme gore, and bizarre sense of humor. Sadly, I can’t yet expound upon my specific thoughts about the work (look for my CinemaBlend review in the coming weeks!), but what I can do is help you get ready for it by suggesting a collection of titles to prepare your palate.
Those suggestions lead this week’s new edition of The King Beat, but that’s not all I have for you, as there is also a brand new Stephen King short story in publication, and I highly recommend picking up a copy. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s dig in!
Getting Ready To Check Out The Monkey On The Big Screen Next Month? Put These Titles On Your Watchlist
The first of as many as six Stephen King adaptations arriving in 2025 is now just a few weeks away, and I’m happy to see that the hype train is already rolling. The Monkey is a hilarious and bloody time at the movies made with a super specific vision, and it’s a wonderful surprise arriving in the early months of the year. The new film will be hitting theaters on February 21, which means that now is the perfect time to start getting your brain prepared for the experience, and in aide of helping you do exactly that, I’ve assembled a list of six titles that you should watch/rewatch to get ready.
Final Destination (2000)
In The Monkey, the titular creepy toy unleashes horrific deaths whenever the key on its back is turned… but it doesn’t break laws of reality. Instead, it’s methodology is reminiscent of Rube Goldberg machines, as natural circumstances and events unfold in special succession that result in bloody mayhem. In this way, the movie shares some DNA with the titles in the Final Destination franchise – though I’ll note that the Stephen King movie is way more extreme.
Child’s Play (1988)
Tom Holland’s Child’s Play wasn’t the first horror movie about a killer toy (for what it’s worth, I also considered including Stuart Gordon’s underrated Dolls on this list, which came out one year prior), but it certainly is the most iconic title in the subgenre. Chucky and The Monkey have different styles as killers, but there’s no question that they have matching tastes.
The Addams Family (1991)
The Addams Family may seem like a strange inclusion for this list given that it’s far more family-friendly than The Monkey, but it actually slots in perfectly here thanks to its tone and mood in regard to elements of the macabre. An important part of what makes the Barry Sonnenfeld movie (and its source material) so special is the way in which characters treat death as a natural part of life, and that is an attitude that is richly represented in Osgood Perkins’ latest feature.
Spontaneous (2020)
I will take any and all opportunities to laud and recommend Brian Duffield’s Spontaneous, an underseen gem from 2020, and this is most definitely one of them. Like The Monkey, it’s a movie that not only bluntly confronts the realities and shock of death, but pairs it with extreme gore that inspires a whole lot of dark chuckles.
Longlegs (2024)
To be honest, Longlegs and The Monkey are two wholly different cinematic experiences, with the former designed to dig its knuckles into the folds of your brain and infect your nightmares… but I’ve opted to include it on this list as a means of celebrating the talent of Osgood Perkins as a filmmaker. While his movies to date have been of the dark and disturbing variety, his Stephen King adaptation is a brand new flavor for him tonally, and it’s a tremendous demonstration of creative range. Watching his 2024 feature before checking out his 2025 release will only enhance your appreciation.
Creepshow (1982)
I felt somewhat obligated to include a Stephen King movie on this list somewhere, but the truth is that we’ve never seen one quite like The Monkey (I’ve previously dubbed it both the funniest King film and the goriest). I’d say that the closest we’ve seen is George A. Romero’s Creepshow, which takes some similar bold horror swings that are a touch too big to be really scary and delightfully veer into comedy territory. Osgood Perkins’ movie doesn’t play with the same kind of horror comics aesthetics as the brilliant 1982 anthology feature, but the two titles do share some tonal similarities.
Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend in the coming weeks for a lot more about The Monkey – including my spoiler-free review, feature coverage, and a lot more.
Stephen King’s New Short Story “The Extra Hour” Is A Haunting And Spine-Chilling Tale
In 2024, Stephen King fans around the world were delivered an incredible omnibus of terrific short stories in You Like It Darker – one of the author’s best collections ever. From the terror of “The Dreamers” to the mystery of “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream” to the intense drama of “The Answer Man,” the book has something for Constant Readers of all sensibilities. But if you finished the tome all too quickly and need a fresh blast of King, there is a solution for you available now in the form of “The Extra Hour.”
It was actually around this time last year when it was announced that the 79th issue of Cemetery Dance magazine would feature a new short story from Stephen King, and after 12 months of waiting, the tale is finally available. My pre-ordered copy of the literary magazine arrived in the mail this week, and I’m happy to report that it was worth the wait, as “The Extra Hour” is a nightmarish tale that may inspire you to appreciate a good night’s sleep a little more after you read it.
Without giving away too much, the story centers on a lawyer named Soames who finds himself having a strange appointment with a client named James Danton. Upon first seeing Danton, the protagonist is sure that the man has heart disease or cancer and wants to update his will, but it turns out that’s not what is going on. Instead, Danton is disheveled because he has spent years suffering from extreme insomnia. Not only does he find that he is only sleeping 45 minutes per night, but he has found that his brain has tapped into an existence outside of time that he calls The Extra Hour where everything in the world pauses and all of reality is shaded with an eldritch darkness. Soames at first isn’t sure what to make of Danton’s revelations… but then he starts experiencing symptoms of his own.
Although there are no monsters or big moments of explosive terror, “The Extra Hour” is a tale that very much gets under your skin and successfully sends a chill down your spine as you read through its sinister conclusions. Given its subject matter, it also co-exists perfectly with some of the aforementioned tales included in You Like It Darker, as it’s another creepy angle on what happens to our minds in the darkest hours of the night. The magazine issue includes a brief interview with Stephen King, and there is a brief discussion with the author about the connective tissue between the material and his thoughts on dreaming. He says,
My dreams are seldom outright nightmares (I’ve had a few, as that odious Paul Anka song says), but they usually have a narrative flow. They come in bunches when I'm not working. I guess there's a machine in my head that doesn't want to be shut down. Dreams, at least in literature, can be prophetic. What I tried to say in ‘The Dreamers’ is that if there is another world, dreams are where the barrier between our world and that other one are thinnest.
(If you haven’t already read it, “The Dreamers” is the best and freakiest story featured in You Like It Darker, the title from the book that I most want to see adapted, and alone makes it worth it to pick up a copy).
For those of you who are curious about checking out the latest bit of fiction from Stephen King, Cemetery Dance #79 is currently available to order from the Cemetery Dance website (the paperback version is immediately available for $9.95, but there is also a limited edition hardcover version that is still on the way and will run you $75). If nothing else, it should help you be a little extra patient for even more new King, as we’re still a few months away from the release of the new Holly Gibney novel Never Flinch (which is scheduled to arrive in stores this May).
That brings us to an end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but fear not! The flow of news and updates about the works of Stephen King never stops, and I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with my latest column rounding up all of the biggest tidbits and headlines. While you wait for the feature, you can explore the long history of King’s stories in film and television with my series Adapting Stephen King.
