The Monkey star still recovering from ‘unbearably gruesome’ scene in hot new horror

Tatiana Maslany is tickled by my description of her messy new horror movie with Osgood Perkins, The Monkey – ‘I want to do something “entertainingly disgusting” – I love that so much,’ she laughs, of her decision to sign on for her role.

The Monkey has been making serious waves prior to its release, having racked up 100,000,000 views of its first trailer in 72 hours – an indie horror record, apparently – before it was later banned from being shown on US TV by major networks due to its ‘excessive violence’ and graphic content.

Perkins is also a filmmaker of exciting stature, coming off the massive hit he had with Longlegs, featuring Nicolas Cage’s terrifying titular serial killer, but The Monkey is something completely different.

Rather than a nerve-shredding sense of doom throughout, this short but shocking movie all-but laughs at death, constantly throwing blood and body matter at the audience with its string of ever-more grisly and inventive slaughters.

And this is what appealed to Emmy-winner Maslany, 39, who fans will know from the likes of Orphan Black and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – and who has already worked with Perkins again on upcoming cabin-based horror Keeper.

‘I was so obsessed with working with him and loved the experience so much – I was reminded of why making movies can be so fun, even if you have a budget of $0, so I just wanted to work with him, no matter what,’ the Canadian-born star enthuses.