Osgood Perkins changed a little detail on The Monkey and the reason was Disney

The Monkey is a blend of comedy and horror from Osgood Perkins, who has a track record of directing films in the same genre. Perkins has written the script, and it's based on the 1980 Namesake short story by Stephen King. Neon released the film on February 21, 2025.

Here's the official synopsis:

When twin brothers Bill and Hal find their father's old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths start. The siblings decide to throw the toy away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.

In a recent interview, the director revealed a minor change he made in the film.

Osgood Perkins reveals minor changes he made in The Monkey

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Osgood Perkins' The Monkey was released on February 21, 2025. The director has made a small change in his film compared to the source material, which is the namesake Stephen King short story. In King's story, the toy monkey has cymbals through which he brings death to everyone.

In the film, Perkins had to find another way to showcase that because Disney has a copyright over a monkey playing cymbals for their film Toy Story 3. In an interview with USA Today, he said about the studio:

“They own Darth Vader and they own the cymbals"

Perkins found his way to create tension by having the monkey play its drum in a beat to increase tension in the scenes. He said that the toy uses a 'Tommy Lee stick twirl' followed by a certain beat to denote that the next person to be killed has been chosen.

Perkins said he used the limitation to their advantage and thanked Disney for it.

“When you're handed a limitation, you can look at the limitation as a bummer, or you can see like, oh, I actually opened this whole other door and it's just better that way. Thanks, Disney. You can keep it.”

Perkins talks about the gory deaths in The Monkey

In the same interview, Perkins spoke about the bloody deaths he showcased in The Monkey.

“All of these deaths would be completely impossible.” But there was some personal inspiration, like Annie getting her head inadvertently sliced off with a chef’s hibachi knife. I took my kids to Benihana for every birthday of their lives, and I went to Benihana every birthday of my life to a certain age. I was like, ‘They got knives there, right?’ ”

The producers include James Wan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Dave Caplan, and Chris Ferguson. The Monkey stars Theo James in the role of twin brothers Hal and Bill Shelburn. Here's a list of other cast members: