The Monkey is the first Stephen King movie released in 2025, and while I enjoyed it a lot, the other two King movies coming out this year are even more exciting. The works of Stephen King have been an endless source of entertainment for artists for decades. Many of his novels and short stories have been adapted to other media, but they have mostly succeeded on the big screen. At the time of writing, there are different film adaptations of Stephen King’s stories, and 2025 is a big year for fans of the King of Horror with three movies based on his works.
First was The Monkey, directed by Osgood Perkins and based on the 1980 short story of the same name. The Monkey follows twin brothers, who find their father’s drum-playing toy monkey in the closet. What they aren’t aware of is that, once the monkey is activated and stops playing its drums, a chain reaction causes someone close to them to die in bizarre ways. Years later, when strange deaths begin to happen again, the twins reluctantly reunite to find the toy and destroy it. The Monkey has succeeded with critics and viewers, but the upcoming Stephen King movies are even more exciting.
The Monkey Was A Really Entertaining But Flawed Stephen King Adaptation
The Monkey Succeeded In Different Things
The Monkey currently holds a 79% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, granting it a “fresh” certificate. The Monkey has been praised for its combination of horror and comedy, the latter being in the bizarre yet creative deaths caused by the toy and how Perkins portrayed these. That’s what I enjoyed the most about The Monkey, along with how it addresses the topic of grief, trauma, and generational trauma, but that’s also where many have found it to be a bit flawed.
Despite the core of The Monkey being generational trauma, it doesn’t fully go into it, and the drama parts of the story feel underdeveloped. The Monkey favored gore and comedy with its shocking deaths, which isn’t bad as it ultimately became one of its strengths, but it definitely fell short on the emotionally heaviest parts of its story. Another flaw critics have pointed out is that The Monkey doesn’t quite deliver as a horror movie, though I would argue that the movie’s scare factor is more psychological than graphic and gory.
Still, even with its flaws, The Monkey is one of the most entertaining Stephen King movies in recent years, with its combination of comedy, gore, splatter, and a story and villain that could only originate in the imagination of the King of Horror himself. Perkins’ take on The Monkey works well, and it will surely stand as one of the best horror movies of the year, but the next two Stephen King movies releasing this year have even bigger potential.
The Running Man & The Life Of Chuck Have The Potential To Be Great Stephen King Adaptations
They Both Have Very Exciting Casts & Directors
The other two Stephen King movies accompanying The Monkey in 2025 are The Running Man and The Life of Chuck. Based on the 1982 novel of the same name, The Running Man is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Glen Powell as Ben Richards. The Running Man is set in a dystopian America, where there’s a popular but ᴅᴇᴀᴅly TV show called The Running Man. It consists of the contestant being declared an enemy of the state and released with a 12-hour start before the TV network sends an elite team of hitmen, called Hunters, to kill him.
The Running Man was published under Stephen King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman.
The contestant earns $100 for every hour he stays alive and avoids capture and $100 more for every Hunter or law enforcement officer he kills. If he manages to survive for 30 days, the contestant wins $1 billion, and there are rewards for viewers who tip the network on the contestant’s whereabouts. The Running Man was adapted for the big screen in 1987 but with many changes to the source, but Wright’s take promises to be a lot more faithful to the novel.
Then there’s The Life of Chuck, based on the 2020 novella of the same name and directed by Mike Flanagan. The Life of Chuck tells the story of Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), from his childhood as he was raised by his grandparents, who kept a disturbing secret in their house’s cupola, and his final days, which have a direct impact on the rest of the world. The novel is told in reverse chronological order, but it’s unknown if the movie will do the same.
Flanagan, in particular, has excelled in the horror genre.
While Osgood Perkins has shown his talent for horror with Longlegs and The Monkey, Edgar Wright and Mike Flanagan are already well-established directors, with Flanagan, in particular, excelling in the horror genre, making The Running Man and The Life of Chuck some of the most exciting Stephen King movies coming up.
The Running Man & The Life Of Chuck Offer Different Sides Of Stephen King Than The Monkey
Three Completely Different Stephen King Stories
What makes The Running Man and The Life of Chuck even more exciting than The Monkey is that they will show different sides of Stephen King. King has rightfully earned the тιтle of “King of Horror”, but he has also shown he can write exciting (and scary) sci-fi, action, fantasy, and drama stories. The Running Man leans more towards sci-fi, with its horrors, at least in the novel, being not just in the game itself but how the media twists information to its benefit.
The Life of Chuck, on the other hand, is a drama instead of a horror story, though it’s still expected to have some horror elements, most likely psychological. 2025 is bringing three different styles of Stephen King stories to the big screen, and fans of the author (and those not familiar with his works) will surely find one or more that will appeal to them.
