Longlegs vs The Monkey: A Tale of Two Horror Movies

A Tale of Two Horror Movies: Longlegs and The Monkey

Longlegs is a tough act to follow—the deliberately peculiar marketing; the next-level Nicolas Cage freak show; the shockingly abundant box-office. But Osgood Perkins has chased his breakout with The Monkey, a film as grisly as it is gleeful, not to mention far more accessible than the occasional overly obscure Longlegs.

The Making of The Monkey

For that you can perhaps thank producer James Wan—of his many horror credits, the Saw series and its fondness for creative kills is maybe the most relevant here—and source-material author Stephen King, whose short story “The Monkey” is in his 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. It reads like a misprint (shouldn’t that be “life-like”?), but it is indeed like life. The monkey randomly decides who it’ll eliminate next, because death is random. And everybody dies. It’s grim, but it’s the truth—and to have a movie with so much outrageous death also be about accepting death as something both mundane and inevitable feels like The Monkey’s most clever achievement.

The Release of The Monkey

The Monkey hits theaters February 21. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.