Stephen King calls Longlegs director Osgood Perkins’ new film The Monkey ‘batshit insane,’ and fans are eating it up
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The Monkey, out in theatres Feb. 21, is based on a Stephen King short story of the same name which was first published in 1980 and was later included in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.
King recently gave the film a resounding endorsement on social media.
“You’ve never seen anything like THE MONKEY. It’s batshit insane. As someone who has indulged in batshittery from time to time, I say that with admiration,” King wrote on Threads on Jan. 25.
As reported in Deadline, data from WaveMetrix said The Monkey trailer in its first 24 hours amassed 43 million viewers. After 72 hours, it had already managed to earn over 100 million. No non-MPA (Motion Picture Association) independent horror trailer has ever earned more viewers in such a short time frame. It surpassed Smile (2022)’s 100 million viewer count and 2024’s Nosferatu’s 74 million count. The two minute and 12 seconds long trailer was dropped on Jan. 16.