Stephen King’s ‘The Monkey’: Everything To Know So Far About The Evil-Doll Story That Originated Long Before ‘M3GAN’
Stephen King has made it his mission to keep an unending supply of novels wherever books are available for purchase, and both the TV and film realms are keeping the spooky spirit alive in kind. In the foreseeable future, we can hopefully expect to see Mike Flanagan’s take on The Dark Tower books, and for sure, we will see a new Salem’s Lot movie as well as It prequel series Welcome To Derry, but there’s more where that came from.
That includes The Monkey, a feature film adapted from an evil-doll story that King originated in 1980 (and later revised for the Skeleton Crew collection), long before the likes of Child’s Play, Annabelle, and M3GAN. Let’s get down to business on what to expect from this movie, which is not to be confused with a 2023 short directed by Spencer Sherry.
Plot
Black Bear International delivers this feature-length movie directed by Osgood Perkins, who will also soon unsettle the world with Longlegs, the cryptic, apparent home invasion movie starring Nic Cage. Perkins has been busy lately, given that he has also directed The Monkey and adapted the screenplay from King’s 1985 Skeleton Crew. The production team also bodes well for horror devotees and includes James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw, Insidious), Michael Clear (M3GAN), and Jason Cloth (Joker).
The story revolves around a set of twins — portrayed by Theo James (The White Lotus, The Gentlemen) and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth, Cocaine Bear) in different eras of life — who discover a relative’s long forgotten, cymbal-clanging toy monkey, who soon appears to set death in motion. Naturally, they attempt to throw the doll into the trash, but you know how well that goes in the horror genre. That monkey isn’t about to be forgotten and reappears to wreak havoc again, which spurs the brothers into crisis mode.
Black Bear Pictures has provided the following synopsis:
When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.
Cast
Spooktacular performances will be coming your way from not only Theo James and Christian Convery but also Elijah Wood, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O’Brien, Sarah Levy, and Rohan Campbell.
Release Date
Filming has wrapped, so there’s a decent chance we could see this movie surface in the fall.
Trailer
We are not fortunate enough to have seen a trailer or any official clips. So, let’s stick with the haunted toy theme and wonder if The Monkey will screw with canon and give a nod to Chucky. After all, The Monkey likely made it possible for Chucky to exist, but the Good Guy doll paved the way for The Monkey movie.