Movies adapted from Stephen King works have been either cursed or blessed. For every unforgettable one — Stanley Kubrick’s“ The Shining” (King despised it), Rob Reiner’s “Misery,” Brian DePalma’s “Carrie,” Rob Reiner’s “Stand By Me,” Andy Muschietti’s “It” and Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption” — there are the terrible ones — King’s godawful “Maximum Overdrive,” Lawrence Kasdan’s dumb “Dreamcatcher,” Nikolaj Arcel’s lame “The Dark Tower” and so on.

How does “Longlegs” director Osgood Perkins fare with his cheeky adaptation of a King short story? Quite well. It falls short of being a grand slam because of tonal shift slips, this gory black comedy rates as a solid triple. The reason it succeeds is it surrenders to King’s macabre humor, which is peppered throughout his work from the morbid clown scares of “It” down to the consumer feeding frenzy of “Needful Things.”

The film, in theaters this week, definitely merits a viewing this weekend, along with Pixar’s new series “Win or Lose.”

“The Monkey” is classic King material. A creepy windup childhood monkey doll that plays cymbals and bears a stressed-out psycho smile re-enters the lives of two very different twins (Theo James). A prologue with Adam Scott establishes how this demonic toy entered the family lair and then got stuck in the attic. The dreaded simian figure gets associated with a string of horrific, very gruesome deaths, including the twins’ mother (Tatiana Maslany). With the twins now in their adult years, the monkey returns and it’s hard to get the evil entity off their backs.

“The Monkey” is no means as scary nor nightmare-inducing as “Pet Sematary” or Mike Flanagan’s underrated “Doctor Sleep,” a sequel to “The Shining.” But it’s overrun with some of the most inventive what-the-hell kills this side of “Saw.” James is perfectly cast as both the sort-of loser Hal and the sort-of wild man Bill, while a cameo from Elijah Wood is so hilarious you wish he had more screentime.

As anyone who’s seen “Longlegs” can attest, Perkins is a good match with King, juggling the frights with the right laughs. Those King fans thirsting for authentic scares will go away hungry and bummed, but for anyone looking for tongue-in-cheek horror that’s drenched in gore, you’ll go bananas over it.