The Monkey director shares how Guillermo del Toro has kept the director humble after previous films’ success 

Osgood Perkins is enjoying success with his horror flick The Monkey, which is currently running in theaters. Based on Stephen King's novel, the film revolves around the unsettling horror that comes in from an inanimate monkey toy and how it places a curse on the family it belongs to.

Perkins has achieved worldwide acclaim with his film Longlegs before, and as the director confessed in an interview with Hollywood Reporter, he takes help from his good friend Guillermo del Toro to put away any feelings of superiority he goes through to make sure he remains humble.

Talking about Guillermo, Perkins said

Guillermo is a friend who I call for the occasional pep talk, when things seem a bit murky and especially when I start to feel the creep of self-congratulation. It’s when I start to feel like, “Hey, I’m doing really great and the critics love it. This is going really well and I’m succeeding. Oh, Jesus Christ, I better call Guillermo, so Guillermo can pop that balloon.” When you start to believe your own shit, that’s when stuff starts to slip. So it was useful for me when Guillermo said, “If everything gets fucked up and you fail, it’s all fine. It’s when you succeed that I start to worry.” So that’s just a beautiful way of keeping you honest and humble, which is the only place you can really operate from in this business anyway.

The Mexican director is also known for being a household name in the genre of horror, having created The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, Frankenstein, and Hellboy.

As for Perkins, he has previously worked on films like The Blackcoat's Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and Gretel & Hansel. Perkins previously worked as an actor before making a breakthrough in the industry with direction.

What is The Monkey about?

The horror flick revolves around Theo James portraying twin brothers Hal and Bill, who have a toy monkey in their house that belongs to their father. However, instances of evil creep around their lives, and unsettling incidents occur, with all of them having one thing in common: it is somehow related to the toy monkey.

As they grow up and return to their childhood home, they find the monkey again and everything evil makes a return as they attempt to put an end to the curse once and for all.

Stephen King himself has given the project his seal of approval, as the author praised the project for being batsh*t insane.

The Monkey is available in theaters now.