I am what you might call a very dedicated Stephen King collector. It’s not just that I have first editions of just about all his books, or that I have every film and television adaptation that is available in physical media; I also fill my shelves with all kinds of ephemera including action figures, prop replicas, promotional items, and more. I am a true geek when it comes to my everlasting effort to build the ultimate Stephen King collection – and I am stoked to add the new AMC popcorn bucket for The Monkey to my library.
Since the NSFW Dune popcorn bucket went viral last year, specially designed snack containers have been a significant part of the movie-going experience, and following on the heels of the Roman coliseum made for Gladiator II and the shield for Captain America: Brave New World, we now have this creepy wonder to celebrate the newest Stephen King adaptation (which arrives in theaters on February 21):
It’s admittedly obvious, but it’s also perfect in its obviousness.
For those of you haven’t been paying attention, the titular evil in The Monkey (and what the popcorn bucket is modeled after) is an evil wind-up toy that kills a person whenever the key in its back is turned. In the Stephen King short story on which the movie is based, the cursed object is a classic cymbal-banging monkey, but the design was changed up for the film due to rights issues. Instead of clashing cymbals, it holds a pair of drumsticks and beats a snare that it holds between its legs.
The film centers on a pair of twin brothers who discover the monkey in the closest of their absconded father. After the vicious toy rips through their family like tissue paper, they are able to successfully contain it for a while, but years later, when the siblings are estranged adults, it makes a horrible return.
The popcorn bucket’s likeness to the prop in the movie is impressive… but if fans really want to go the extra mile, they’ll plan ahead and bring some red food dye with them to their screening of The Monkey to apply it to the contents before they start munching. After all, part of what makes the upcoming horror film so special is the fact that it has a good shot of going down in history as the goriest Stephen King adaptation, which is an aspect well-highlighted in the trailers and previews.
Directed by Longlegs‘ Osgood Perkins and starring Theo James, Christian Convery, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Colin O’Brien, and Rohan Campbell, The Monkey is one of the buzziest movies of February (I explain why without spoilers in my four-star CinemaBlend review), and it will be in theaters everywhere on February 21.