The Monkey is the perfect combination of comedy and horror, which is apparent through all the over-the-top death scenes in it. Final Destination dialed up to eleven,The Monkey includes a plethora of unforgettable kills that will incite laughs and screams in equal measure. \
An adaptation of a Stephen King story, The Monkey is directed by Osgood Perkins, who also helmed last year's Longlegs. That film also included darkly humorous moments and this time, the laughs are as front-and-center as the horror. The film follows twin brothers (Christian Convery in the past, Theo James in the present) who discover their father's toy money in the attic, kicking off a string of inexplicable and gory deaths around them.
ScreenRant caught up with Osgood Perkins, Tatiana Maslany, and Theo James at the premiere of The Monkey, where they revealed their favorite kills from the film. Perkins discusses going from a thriller like Longlegs to a horror-comedy like The Monkey while Maslany praises Convery and James talks about his vision for his twin characters.
The Monkey Stars On Their Favorite Death Scenes
Maslany's Favorite Scene Stars Her Best Friend
The kills in The Monkey are brutal and gruesome, but, ittedly, they're also a lot of fun. Maslany details her favorite of the bunch: "My very best friend on the planet since I was seven years old is in this movie. She's the realtor. She has a pretty memorable death, that one's stuck in my head." The kill Maslany seems to be referring to is one featured in the early moments of the trailer, which you can watch above.
James adds his: "I think in The Monkey, it's the cobra kill, because I think the humor of it is funny." He goes on to say, "It's a very small moment. But Hal says are there cobras in Maine? And the realtor says, well, there was one, which I thought was funny."
Osgood Perkins Reveals What It Was Like To Go From Longlegs To The Monkey
"I Wouldn't Know How To Make The Same Movie Over And Over Again."
Perkins' Longlegs is one of the standout films of 2024 and Nicolas Cage's performance has been called one of his best, but that movie is a creepy serial killer thriller. When asked about his transition from that to The Monkey's specific brand of horror comedy, he noted the "privilege" in getting to make both movies.
"Look, the ultimate privilege is to be able to reveal yourself in a lot of different ways," he replies. "If you're an artist, you want to be able to be expressive, and you want to be able to show facets of yourself."
Perkins adds, "I wouldn't know how to make the same movie over and over again. I don't think that's what the game is, and I don't think that's what people want for me. So the best part about this is that it's so different."
How Theo James Approached His Twin Characters
"All Actors Want To See More Of Themselves."
James does a phenomenal job portraying both Hal and Bill. The brothers are completely different, so he had to craft two separate characters. "Oz and I decided that we didn't want to rely on prosthetics or vocal or body or language tics. We wanted to make them as similar as they can be visually, but make them entirely distinct in of their personalities."
"Hal, on the one hand, is this kind of beleaguered every-man with a dry wit. And then you have Bill, who's basically a maniac." He reveals the hardest part about it all way, claiming it was "trying to find, I guess in a cheesy way, a truth to that."
The Monkey's Connection To Stephen King's Misery Explained
Osgood Perkins's The Monkey made a surprising reference to one of Stephen King's most iconic characters, who first appeared as a villain in Misery.
With regard to Hal, he talks about "the way he walks: he's kind of hunched over. His body language is quite different. He stutters quite a lot. When he moves, I wanted him to move not with precision or direction. He was always unsure of where he's going."
As for Bill, "it's the opposite. He's very forthright. He's kind of sleazy. In a way, we wanted him to be like Taxi Driver, a man who's gone into the abyss of darkness and never escaped it." James its that "it was fun and a pleasure for an actor, because all actors want to see more of themselves. So if you can play yourself twice, then f*** yeah."
I didn't want to impose any of my preconceptions about character on him.
James reveals that he did not work much with Convery, who plays the younger versions of these characters, and that the cohesiveness of the characters was "a happy accident slightly heralded by, obviously, Oz is directing us both." He says that he wanted to let Christian do his thing.
"He's a great actor. I didn't want to impose any of my preconceptions about the character on him, and I, by the same token, need the freedom to interpret the character the way I want it."
Tatiana Maslany Forgot The Twin Brothers Were Played By Only One Actor
"He's Unreal In It"
Maslany plays the mother of the Hal and Bill. She has a very peculiar perspective on death, remaining extremely nonchalant about it, which adds to the off-kilter humor of the film. Convery plays the younger versions of the boys and Maslany its she forgot it was just one actor who was playing her onscreen sons.
"So yesterday, I was talking to a friend, and I was like, Oh, I can't wait to see the twins at the movie because they were so good in it, and I can't wait to see them again," she laughs. "Forgetting, completely forgetting. I was like, 'Oh, no wait, I worked with one child.'"
Maslany commends Convery for his performance: "He's unreal in it. He's so incredible. He's so funny and dexterous with his characterizations." She adds, "He's so fantastic. So I'm excited for people to see him."
The Monkey is now playing in theaters.
Be sure to check out our other interviews for The Monkey:
Source: Screen Rant Plus
