Writer-director Osgood Perkins knows about horror, having scored last year with his critically acclaimed Nicolas Cage blockbuster “Longlegs.”

Now he tackles Stephen King’s legendary short story, “The Monkey,” where a malignant toy means immediate death for anyone unlucky enough to be in its orbit.

Perkins, 51, has made his reputation filming his original scripts.  Adapting King’s novella, he said in a Zoom interview, “was just one of those ‘right place, right time’ things. Producer friends of mine had this property that was really rich but they hadn’t figured out what the vibe was going to be.

“I was happy to connect with it very quickly, just around tragedy and childhood and parents. Insane events taking place in one’s young life. And needing to reconcile that.”

Anthony Perkins, the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s indelible “Psycho,” is Osgood’s dad.

Also, he added, “There’s the face of the monkey! Something that sparks this uncanny unease in humans. It’s nice to make a movie where that’s already pre-baked into the audience.”

Perkins shifted the story to emphasize it’s all about twins, both played by “White Lotus” veteran Theo James.

“I decided to make it really a story about brothers, because I wanted to explore my own story with my own (younger) brother Elvis.

“That became appealing because twins is a weird thing that sometimes happens in horror movies. I thought, ‘Well, what if they were not creepy kid twins, but regular guy adult twins?’

“There’s the older bully brother and the younger, sensitive brother, which felt resonant to me.”

As for James, “We knew each other as real people, instead of as director and star. When casting came around I had the opportunity to just pick up the phone and say, ‘What do you think about this?’

“He’s got such a movie star quality, a movie star look. Then on top of that, he’s a profanely ridiculous, goofy dirty boy personality. Just very playful. We had a really good time.”

Like Hitchcock, Perkins cameos in his movies.  Like John Ford, he frequently casts a familiar company of actors.

As to what’s essential for a great horror film, “Probably some combination of being honest about some experience the author knows to be true. Or has experienced for themselves. Or has wondered about.

“A curiosity connected to some way of addressing our collective anxiety around the mystery of death.

“Any horror movie promises an attempt at looking at: What is living and dying? What is coming for us?

“That’s why the horror genre remains most consistently appealing to audiences. It offers that little dose of the mystery in a package that you can leave in the theater or turn off your television. Then go back to living.”