Neon / Courtesy Everett Collection Longlegs - 2024] Perkins is also a filmmaker of exciting stature, coming off the massive hit he had with Longlegs, featuring Nicolas Cage’s terrifying titular serial killer, but The Monkey is something completely different.
After realising this drummer monkey is linked to a string of horrifying deaths, killing the moment it bangs its sticks, they try to rid themselves of it, but the monkey won’t be silenced easily – as Hal (played as an adult by Theo James) finds out 25 years later.
Tatiana Maslany is tickled by my description of her messy new horror movie with Osgood Perkins, The Monkey – ‘I want to do something “entertainingly disgusting” – I love that so much,’ she laughs, of her decision to sign on for her role.
As Maslany already has another collaboration in the can with Perkins, 51, she clearly enjoys working with the actor-turned-writer and director, who many will recognise as Elle’s dorky friend David in Legally Blonde, or for playing a young version of his father Anthony Perkins’ infamous villain, Norman Bates, in Psycho II.
There are also plenty of funeral scenes in The Monkey – a by-product of that many deaths – although Perkins keeps it humorous in a slightly outrageous way with a questionably qualified priest and some perfectly judged shots and cuts.
