Exclusive: Osgood Perkins talks about building a "name-above-the-title" relationship with Neon, which originally began with the indie studio seeing a single shot from Longlegs.

Genre filmmaker Osgood Perkins is on a roll after the moderate success of 2020's fairy tale terror Gretel & Hansel, as well as the summer phenomenon that was 2024's supernatural serial killer thriller, Longlegs. Now this week sees him tackling a story by the king of horror himself, Stephen King, with the comedic splatter film The Monkey. It's looking to be another ace in the hole for the rising director too.

The Monkey was partly shepherded by Conjuring Universe impresario James Wan as a producer through his Atomic Monster banner. Wan is one of those guys like Jordan Peele, John Carpenter, and -- quite long ago -- Alfred Hitchcock whose very names became a brand for genre fans. Perkins can already see himself as one of those dependable genre "names above the title," and he says he owes it to his recent benefactors who turned Longlegs into a $126 million global-grossing smash. This is all the more remarkable, too, once you know how that working relationship began...

"That's kind of happening," Perkins admits to us during a recent interview. "It's sort of happening because Neon has treated me so well, right? Neon first called me and my producers when we were still shooting Longlegs and said, 'We want to buy Longlegs, and not only do we want to buy Longlegs, we've never seen it. Can we see any of it?'"

The mid-shoot Perkins said yes... provided they're okay with seeing a single shot of the lead actor.