Osgood Perkins‘ upcoming 2024 serial killer thriller Longlegs may have showcased a satanic Nicolas Cage adorned in putty makeup, using possessed dolls as instruments of murder, yet it intriguingly refrained from diving into comedy. With Perkins’ latest project, The Monkey, the filmmaker is set to fully embrace the absurd and outrageous. The narrative follows twin brothers who stumble upon a mischievous monkey toy, and every time the monkey’s crank is turned to play its drum, hilariously grotesque deaths ensue. This new horror film, inspired by a short story from Stephen King originally penned in 1980, expands the boundaries of what Dead Alive-era Peter Jackson referred to as “splatstick comedy,” delivering a wild ride of entertainment.
Osgood Perkins Fully Embraces Absurdity in ‘The Monkey’
While Perkins has previously tackled visual effects in his earlier films—such as the eerie fairy tale adaptation Gretel & Hansel—the new film The Monkey presents a variety of uniquely elaborate sequences that challenge both the director and his lead visual effects supervisor, Edward J. Douglas, who heads UFX Studios located in Vancouver. Expect spectacular moments like bodies exploding like piñatas filled with dynamite, a babysitter’s severed head ending up on a hibachi grill, and an excruciating two-minute-long kitchen stove immolation, all delivered with a cartoonish flair. Perkins, known for his unique filmmaking style, takes a hands-off approach when managing the technical complexities involved in executing these high-stakes VFX moments.
“I’m never sitting over anybody’s shoulder,” Perkins explains. “I express my vision, and then Ed has to work hard to practicalize whatever nonsense comes out of my mouth and turn that into something tangible, full of zeros and ones… and he does it with a smile.”
Douglas contributes, “With Oz Perkins, the magic begins in production meetings where we brainstorm, saying, ‘This is the vision. What is the plan for this shot? Are we using stunts, special effects makeup, or visual effects?’ This collaborative effort turns into a seamless handoff from one team to the next.”
“With Ed, it’s all about dividing labor,” Perkins agrees. “He wants to understand the philosophy behind a shot, or the concept behind a monster, or the theoretical and poetic aspects of what I’m describing. Then he figures out which of his team members to assign the task to.”
Transitioning from Chilling Thrills of ‘Longlegs’ to Outrageous Kills of ‘The Monkey’
Fortunately, the filmmaking team—including Douglas’ fellow VFX supervisors Chris van Dyck from Niche VFX and Tom Rolfe from CoSA VFX, along with Special Effects (SFX) coordinator Greg Pyne of Pyne FX—had previously collaborated on Longlegs. A standout moment from that 2024 film inspired some of the bloody violence in The Monkey: Nicolas Cage‘s character, a Satanist, violently smashing his bleeding head against a table until death ensues.
“That scene was intense even without the visual effects,” van Dyck recalls. “What we did was fairly straightforward: modeling a collapsed nose cavity. As he lifts his head, we gradually reveal a 3D model of the collapsed nose and add pools of blood. It was clinical, focused on performance matching to Nicolas Cage, while The Monkey was more about exploring wild territory. We incorporated a lot of creative animation that felt playful and reminiscent of ‘Looney Tunes.’
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Perkins describes the most challenging monkey kill as a climactic scene where the punk Ricky (a.k.a. Thrasher), portrayed by Rohan Campbell, is assaulted by a swarm of hornets that buzz into a car through a bullet hole in the windshield. The hornets swarm into Thrasher’s mouth, gruesomely tearing away his face and jawline from within. This sequence is a nightmare for trypophobes, yet the humor is accentuated by the fact that Thrasher resembles a lost member of The Ramones (a specific detail mentioned in the script).
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Production still provided by Neon
“The only one that was particularly challenging, that I couldn’t visualize on the day, was the hornets,” Perkins admits. “The hornets are heavily reliant on VFX, but that’s due to the fact you can’t direct hornets.” Regarding the hornet sequence, Douglas recounted, “On set, we had the actor performing, and we also had a Thrasher dummy. Everything had to be inspired by the dummy, yet created by Chris and his team.”
Van Dyck adds, “When the hornets emerge, we’re amplifying the madness of the moment. The hope is that the audience perceives chaos. Before you know it, it’s over… and then it transforms into a gruesome spectacle as hornets start burrowing out of the skin. We’re animating and simulating the entire jaw being ripped apart or eaten away. It was amusing because we initially aimed for realism in our builds, but in the end, it became about shock value and fun.”
“How many hornets can fit inside a man?” Douglas jokes. “All of them. All of them. Every last hornet.”
Why Choose Comedy When the Horror Is This Entertaining?
This kind of intentionally outrageous scene likely deterred the original studio where producers James Wan and Peter Safran had The Monkey in development. Perkins recently shared with THR about Hollywood’s decision-makers: “The terms ‘horror’ and ‘comedy’… they are reluctant to embrace that combination.” Yet, it’s these very scenes that make The Monkey a delight to experience, primarily because many studio executives fear the unrestrained moments of joyous insanity that even the simplest horror films often lack. Filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright have always adeptly balanced humor with horror, as it’s simply a matter of executing both effectively. For Perkins, a significant aspect of achieving his desired tone involved departing from realism and venturing into Looney Tunes territory. Frequent references to classic films such as An American Werewolf in London, <em>Gremlins</em>, and <em>Death Becomes Her</em> were crucial to his vision.
“My role involves observing and articulating ideas. A multitude of people are working to bring what’s within the frame to life, so my responsibility, at a certain juncture, is not only to dictate but also to mold how everyone’s contributions come together. It’s about guiding that vision, steering it away from the edge,” Perkins elaborates.
“When we finally arrive on set, it’s the first time we see it in real life with the actor,” Douglas notes. “We discover, ‘Alright, we won’t see it under the neck because the costume covers that. He has hair everywhere, so hornets won’t be visible coming out of his eyeballs.’”
Perkins was particularly concerned about taking such a substantial leap into the realm of CGI for this scene, stating, “You’re asking your actor—specifically the great Rohan Campbell, who is acting with a ludicrous wig and embodying an entire character—to interact with things that aren’t physically present. You really empathize with actors who worked on The Phantom Menace when they faced similar challenges. Trusting that it’s going to work out… so much of it hinges on trust. Trusting that the hornet will appear organic in any way, and it ultimately looks fantastic.”
To ensure a realistic appearance, a practical Thrasher dummy was utilized on set, which Greg Pyne later had to retrieve while filming additional VFX plates. “I had to go pick up Thrasher,” Pyne recalls. “When I did, I placed him in my pickup truck… in the passenger seat, of course, right? As I drove down the highway with this guy with holes in his face, people were staring at me.” Van Dyck adds;
“We then took that asset back to our studio for reference. It was a full-body dummy with gaping holes in his face and blood everywhere… quite gruesome. Many times we forgot to cover the head, and people would walk into the office completely terrified. Cleaners came over the weekend, and we received a call asking, ‘What’s in the back room?’”
The final hornet scene in the film is a shocking surprise, yet it manages to deliver a rousing and comedic moment that is likely to elicit cheers during screenings. The trust Perkins placed in his team ultimately yielded significant rewards.
“When you’re acting with hornets that aren’t actually there, it becomes a trust exercise,” Perkins insists. “Surrounding yourself with talented individuals makes that trust fall effortless.“
Oz Perkins Places His
