Longlegs was a sensation in 2024. Legitimately. It dominated online discourse, and Nicolas Cage's unhinged performance became a film Twitter meme, but the horror film played just as well with broad audiences. It grossed over $100 million on a $10 million budget.
The film's director, Oz Perkins, is not resting on his newfound laurels, though. He decided to get right back at it, and the trailer for his new film, The Monkey, is now available to watch on YouTube. The film is seemingly in the Longlegs, in that it is a horror film predicated on tension and an overall sense of dread.
The Monkey is based on a Stephen King novella
The Monkey revolves around two brothers who discover a monkey toy left behind by their late father. The toy initially appears harmless, but gruesome deaths begin to occur in its presence. The brothers ditch the toy, but when the deaths continue to unfold around them, they set out to recover the titular Monkey and destroy it.
If the premise and/or title sounds familiar, it's because it's based on the novella of the same name by Stephen King. The novella is one of the rare King properties that has yet to be adapted for the screen so it was only a matter of time before it get dusted off and repurposed by Hollywood.
The film shares similarities with Longlegs
Oz Perkins' style is perfectly suited to the paranoia of The Monkey, though. Longlegs, for those who saw it, was largely predicated around dolls that caused havoc to the families they were gifted to, so it's by no means a stretch to assume that Perkins can deliver the goods.
The trailer does an excellent job of setting up the premise without giving too much away. A big issue with modern trailers is that they effectively compress all three acts of the film down to 90 seconds, which makes the viewer feel like they've already seen the film. The Monkey keeps its surprises close to the chest, and the viewing experience will be all the better for it.
The Monkey releases in theaters on February 21, 2025.