Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for The MonkeyEven in a genre so famous for iconic figures like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, Stephen King is arguably every bit as much a hot IP as the Nightmare or Friday franchises. Adaptations of his works like The Shining (even if King himself hated the film), Carrie, and Misery are almost unanimously seen as holy texts for horror fans, and there’s no contemporary figure who’s proven quite as influential on the genre. Even nowadays, King’s impact can be felt in Stranger Things and the work of filmmakers like Robert Eggers.
But despite being such an iconic figure, don’t think that King doesn’t have a sense of humor about himself. Again, putting aside his public disagreements with Stanley Kubrick, King has regularly welcomed the countless adaptations of his books and short stories, often agreeing to cameo in them. Whether it’s for the TV miniseries take on The Langoliers or a mega-blockbuster like It: Chapter Two, King’s brief on-screen appearances always prove a delight for his legion of fans. And while he personally may not have cameoed in the latest adaptation of his work, The Monkey nonetheless carries on this meta tradition.
The Monkey
4
/5
- Release Date
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February 19, 2025
- Runtime
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98 Minutes
- Director
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Osgood Perkins
- Writers
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Osgood Perkins
- Producers
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John Rickard, Natalia Safran, Ali Jazayeri, Chris Ferguson, Fred Berger, Giuliana Bertuzzi, James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, John Friedberg, Jason Cloth, David Gendron, Michael Clear, Jesse Savath, Peter Luo, Dave Caplan
Who Secretly Cameos in ‘The Monkey’?
Horror fans may be surprised to see The Monkey’s director, Oz Perkins, briefly appear near the end of the film’s first half. He plays Chip, the uncle of twin protagonists Hal and Bill Shelburn, who relocate to live with him in Maine (a common setting for King’s stories) after their mother dies at the hands of the titular wind-up monkey. Chip and his wife Ida become the twins’ new guardians, but it’s not long before the monkey returns, leading Bill to test their suspicions that activating it will kill a random person.
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Ignoring Hal’s protests, Hal winds up the toy, and in what’s already one of the single funniest cutaways of 2025, we immediately cut to Chip’s funeral. We learn that, while on a hunting trip, he was stampeded to death by a herd of horses while resting in his sleeping bag; a eulogizer even likens what remains of his body to cherry pie. It’s a hilarious sequence, largely in how it allows Perkins to make a Hitchcock or Shyamalan-esque cameo without feeling like he’s being self-indulgent, as he gets one of the most gruesome deaths in the film.
Oz Perkins Honors a Stephen King Tradition
However, there’s another, more interesting layer to Perkins’ unexpected cameo. King’s appearances in adaptations of his work have always been meant as a way for the filmmakers to express their gratitude towards a master of horror while subtly reminding viewers that he’s the true “author” of the story. As for King himself, it functions as a clever way to express his approval of the filmmakers and to allow him to participate in his stories in a way he never could when writing a book.
Since Oz Perkins has spoken openly about the changes he made to King’s short story when writing The Monkey (mostly regarding the tone), he’s arguably just as much the “author” of the final film as King in this instance. As such, his brief cameo works for many of the same reasons that King’s appearances do, in that he allows himself to join in on the mayhem he unleashes onscreen while reminding audiences that he isn’t taking his growing reputation too seriously. The same could be said for the film itself, which largely sidelines the eerie classicalism that Perkins displayed in Longlegs and instead allows him to simply have twisted fun with an inherently ridiculous setup.
However, Perkins’ cameo could also arguably be seen as a subtle hint of where his career could go, assuming his stock keeps rising. While he’s acted before, he’s never appeared in one of his own films until now. Since his profile only continues to grow with each passing day, does this mean he could follow in the footsteps of fellow horror maestros like Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan, who also regularly cameo(ed) in their movies? Perkins has another film coming out later this year, so we’ll see if he appears in that one as well, but as of right now, it’s nice to see him honoring a typical Stephen King tradition. The Monkey is now playing in theaters.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
