The Monkey

These events included the fatal fall of Hal's childhood friend Johnny McCabe from a treehouse and the death of Aunt Ida's cat, which was run over by a car.

[2] Leonard G. Heldreth wrote in Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts that the short story explores time parallels and the connection between past and present through the reappearance of a toy monkey.

[3] Joe Sanders, writing in Extrapolation, says the story portrays a father's struggle with a malevolent toy that seems to cause violent deaths.

Douglas Winter views the monkey as an external force of chance, while Tony Magistrale connects it to Hal’s unresolved guilt and subconscious mind.

[4] Marta Miquel-Baldellou analyzes the story as a narrative influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

[5] Miquel-Baldellou says Hal confronts suppressed childhood trauma through the monkey toy, which symbolizes repressed fears and unresolved influence.

The analysis also references Harold Bloom’s "anxiety of influence", portraying King's struggle to reconcile Poe's legacy within his own literary development.

Biographical similarities between King and Poe, including the absence of a father figure, reinforce their shared thematic exploration of unresolved fears and creativity.

The hour-long short film, written and directed by filmmaker Spencer Sherry and shot in the Capital Region of New York State, premiered in May 2023.