Stephen King’s ‘The Monkey’ first-look teaser delivers blood-drenched Theo James

Theo James and Theo James are getting into some serious monkey business.

The White Lotus Emmy nominee, more recently getting attention for The Gentlemen and X-Men ’97, is pulling double duty in the first-look teaser for The Monkey, the film adaptation of Stephen King‘s 1980s short story.

The footage, featuring a bespectacled James drenched in blood, initially rolled out in theaters alongside showings of horror film Cuckoo over the weekend. The actor plays the adult versions of twin brothers Hal and Bill, while Sweet Tooth and Cocaine Bear actor Christian Convery plays the two siblings in childhood.

As kids, the boys discover their dad’s old toy monkey in the attic, an event that seems to kickstart a series of mysterious, gruesome deaths. Panicking, they throw the monkey away and attempt to move on with their lives. Years later, the now-distant twins are thrust back together as adults when these deaths start up again. They must then find a way to destroy the monkey for good.

Filmmaker Osgood Perkins, who’s riding high from the release of his buzzed-about Satanic serial killer movie Longlegs, starring Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage, wrote and directed The Monkey. “The Monkey is like Robert Zemeckis on ecstasy or something,” Perkins previously teased to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a very playful comedy with a lot of really excessive gore, language. It’s a kids’ movie that’s rated R.”

Surrounding James and Convery is a cast comprised of Tatiana Maslany (She–Hulk: Attorney at Law), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (The Hardy Boys), and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek).

“I wanted to embrace the humor of Stephen King,” Perkins explained. “I wanted to be more on the side of Creepshow and Misery, and I wanted the movie to feel like a Stephen King movie to really honor the guy. I mean, he’s the most significant writer…ever? In any genre, prolifically, just in terms of impact. Certainly for the horror genre, whether it be literature or movies, there’s no one who’s contributed more. So it’s time to really honor the dude. I really made a movie that I hoped he would like.”

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Filming on The Monkey wrapped last March, and Neon will now release the film in theaters Feb. 21, 2025.