Much cartoonish gore ensues.
My Dad was a really avid paperback novel reader.
I guess he traveled a lot and had a lot of downtime.
He was an extremely smart dude.
During all those travels and well-worn paperbacks, one cover in particular caught young Osgoods imagination.
Theres something about that thing I dont like.
Its just a totem, but that is one place where the films dark humor springs.
It felt like the leer ofGremlins, he muses.
Perkins drew from many tragedies in his own life.
Learning to cope with those tragic events helped him process the lighter side of mortality.
The Monkey just happens to be there when people die in insane ways.
I connected to The Monkey as being, Oh, its just how life goes.
I was like, Oh, well, Im an expert on that.
Life sometimes goes into this insane place of death.
When these things happened when I was younger, it was bad.
But as time goes on things change and you adapt, you heal, and your life changes.
Another is the main characters lifetime connection to a small town since King is a lifetime Bangor Maine-er.
I wanted it to be called Stephen Kings The Monkey.
That was on the title page.
Since completing the film, the director muses about recently revisiting KingsOn Writingmemoir.
Says Perkins, I was surprised by how much I had taken unconsciously, like the babysitter.
The relationship with the babysitter is foremost in the first couple chapters.
He had this crazy babysitter who used to sit on his head and fart.
The fact that this trickled down made me think I really did reflect him more than I even thought.
If you dont bow at the altar of that, who are you?
I tend to be a little bit more like, What does the universe want for me?
As opposed to call my agent and get all these books.
I want to option all this shit.
I just dont think about that.
The Robert Zemeckis Santa Claus one is so good.
The energy of the little shot, like a short story, may be the answer.
I would love to do a collection of King short stories, an anthology.
The Influence of Barry Sonnenfeld… and Batman?!
King wasnt the only artist he was trying to pay tribute to though.
The way Perkins and his cinematographer Nico Aguilar shot the film only enhances that darkly comedic vibe.
Sonnenfeld was absolutely something that Nico and I talked about.
The kinetic, playful nature of the camera.
Zemeckis does it also.Death Becomes Herhas a couple really great examples.
We set that intention for ourselves.
That appreciation also extended to another filmmaker who has had dealings withThe Addams Family, namely Tim Burton.
I also wanted to bring back the canted angle, the Dutch angle, said Perkins.
Osgood Perkins The Monkey opens in theaters everywhere on Friday, Feb. 21.
