Stephen King’s Next Horror Film Has a Huge Advantage After 2024’s Divisive Salem’s Lot Remake

Among the upcoming adaptations of works by Stephen King and The Monkeyand already has a huge lead after the divisive 2024 remake of Salem Lot. Stephen King’s short stories and novels continue to be a source of inspiration for many filmmakers, and there are always adaptations in the works. 2024 finally saw the release of the long-awaited remake of Salem Lotdirected by Gary Dauberman and based on King’s 1975 novel of the same name, which has faced many obstacles and delays after having an initial September 2022 release date.

Salem Lot takes audiences back to the 1970s to follow Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), a writer who returns to his hometown of Salem’s Lot in search of inspiration for his new book. When a young boy mysteriously disappears, Ben becomes the prime suspect, but subsequent deaths and disappearances reveal the shocking truth: Lot is being attacked by a thirsty and cruel vampire named Barlow, and more vampires are being born. Unfortunately, Salem Lot has been quite divisive, but this highlights a huge advantage that The Monkey already have.

Unlike Salem’s Lot 2024, The Monkey is the first film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 short story

The monkey was waiting for his big chance

As one of Stephen King’s most popular and beloved works, Salem Lot received different adaptations over the years. In 1979, Salem’s Lot was adapted into a three-hour, two-part TV miniseries, with David Soul playing Ben Mears. THE Salem Lot The miniseries was a critical and viewer success and had an impact on the vampire genre. In 1987, the miniseries received a theatrical sequel entitled A return to the Salem lotdirected by Larry Cohen, but was not as successful as the TV series. In 2004, Salem Lot got another miniseries adaptation with Rob Lowe as Ben Mears, and it was also a success.

Because of this impeccable track record on TV, there was a lot of expectation around 2024 Salem Lotbut it didn’t live up to that. At the time of writing, Salem Lot has a 44% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoif, of course, there were many comparisons to the 1979 and 2004 TV adaptations. However, The Monkey will not face this problem as this is the first time it has been adapted for TV or cinemaso there’s nothing to compare it to other than the source material.

The Monkey is a short story published in 1980 as a booklet included in Gallery revised and later revised and published in the 1985 collection Skeleton Crew. The Monkey tells the story of two young brothers who find a toy monkey playing a cymbal in the attic of their great-uncle’s house. The monkey belonged to their father, who saw his family die while the monkey is cursed: every time he beats the mechanical cymbals, someone close to him dies.

Ape Has Another Big Advantage After 2024’s Record-Breaking Nicolas Cage Horror Film

The Monkey has an acclaimed horror director in charge

In addition to being the first feature film adaptation of The MonkeyThe upcoming film also has another big advantage: its director. The Monkey is directed (and written) by Osgood Perkins, who recently brought the horror film Long legs. Also written by Perkins, Long legs takes viewers back to the 1990s to follow an FBI agent who investigates an occult serial killer responsible for the deaths of several families in Oregon without being physically present at the crimes. Long legs was played by Nicolas Cage, whose performance was praised by critics.

Long legs was a critical and commercial successwith an 85% critic score on Rotten tomatoes and grossing US$108.9 million against a budget of approximately US$10 million. This gives The Monkey a greater chance of success than the 2024 adaptation of Salem Lot had, possibly becoming one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King history in recent years.