List of adaptations of The Monkey's Paw

W. W. Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw (1902) inspired many adaptations and parodies; some are listed here. For presentations of the actual story see The Monkey's Paw.

Film, television or theatrical adaptations

• The segment "Wish You Were Here" from the 1972 film Tales from the Crypt is an adaptation.
• Bob Clark's Deathdream is inspired by the short story.
• Michael Scott directed and starred in a short film version.
• The Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Twisted Claw" is based on the story.
• The story also inspired an episode of Brandy & Mr. Whiskers.
• Short film directed by James Henschen. Filmed in 2003. Tribalfilm
• A variant of this story, using a genie in a bottle, was featured in the The Twilight Zone episode "The Man in the Bottle".
• In an episode of The Monkees, titled "The Monkee's Paw", a nightclub magician sells the band a cursed monkey's paw in revenge after they unwittingly force him out of a job.
• The Ripping Yarns story "The Curse of the Claw", first broadcast in 1977 and starring Michael Palin, is a spoof in the style of Monty Python, and is loosely inspired by "The Monkey's Paw".
• The main idea was used in a season 5 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Forever" in which Spike and Dawn Summers attempt to revive Joyce Summers
• Treehouse of Horror II - In the 1991 Halloween episode of The Simpsons, one of the stories is about how Homer gets a monkey's paw that grants him four wishes. Each member of the Simpson family (except for Marge) makes a wish, which have terrible consequences.
• The Cartoon Network show, I Am Weasel featured an episode in its fourth season entitled "The Baboon's Paw" in which Weasel's sidekick, I.R. Baboon, has the power to make his wishes come true through the use of his own paws, having been told they are lucky after attempting to buy a monkey's paw at China Town
• Bhusan Dahal's 2008 film Kagbeni is based on the story, but with a few changes made to adjust with the locality.
• Five Superb Tales of Horror and the Macabre, 1972, Story Four, "Wish You Were Here" is an adaptation of The Monkey's Claw featuring Richard Greene.^[1]
• The anime TV series/light novel Bakemonogatari story arc, Suruga Monkey, contains an oddity explicitly (albeit incorrectly) stated to be the monkey's paw, with references to its twisted wish-making powers backfiring at the person wishing. However, in contrast to the monkey paw the wishes are not fulfilled in a way contradicting the intentions of the wish-maker, but actually obeying them.
• The 21st episode of the seventh season of the X-Files, Je Souhaite, is a remake of the monkey's paw myth in which Mulder seems to solve the puzzle.
• The book Prom Nights From Hell: a novel consisting of 5 short stories written by Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe and Lauren Myracle. Myracle's The Corsage is an adaptation of The Monkey's Paw.
• The anime TV series xxxHolic episode 08. It's an episode about Monkey's Paw, an adaptation of the manga.
• The K-Horror movie Wishing Stairs recasts the story with the family replaced by a trio of students at an all-girls school and the monkey paw replaced by the eponymous stairs.
• The first episode of the second series of British comedy The League Of Gentlemen contains a reference to the monkeys paw in the shape of a magical toad which when squeezed will grant the squeezer a wish, it is used by the Dentons to wish for their nephews return and a self lowering lavatory seat.

Music

• Industrial/goth band the Electric Hellfire Club released a song called "The Monkey's Paw" on their album Witness.
• The song "Monkey's Paw" by the band Smalltown Poets speaks of consequences one must pay from getting one's wishes over obedience to God.
• The story was the subject of a humorous song by the same name on Laurie Anderson's 1989 album Strange Angels.
• Warren Zevon begins his 2001 song “Genius” singing about a “bitter pot of je ne sais quoi” which he stirs using a monkey’s paw.

Other

• The Monkey's Paw Trilogy by Ralph Lagana, Jr, is an original companion novel to W. W. Jacobs's short story.^[2]
• In the manga xxxHolic, a graduate student studying ancient folklore insists on obtaining the Monkey's Paw even after being told that she is not fated to have it and will suffer horrible consequences if she were to go against fate and use it. She disregards this warning as she firmly believes that bad things only happen to other people. Five wishes (a wish for each finger on the Monkey's Paw) later, she found out too late that she was wrong.
• In the book The Dead Zone, by Stephen King, the character John Smith relates his new found psychic powers to the wishes granted in The Monkey's Paw, realizing that his powers can help people, but they can frighten them away, and that they give him unwanted publicity.
• In The Sims 2 for consoles, when a player selects Search Couch while sitting on a sofa, he can find a "Mysterious Zombie Monkey Paw".
• In the web-comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the 4 August 2010 comic features a severed monkey's paw that grants wishes with consequences.^[3]
• In the web-comic VGCats, strip #284 features a severed monkey's paw that grants wishes with consequences.^[4]
• In the novel adaptation of 1985 film The Goonies, there is a sequence of spooky stories told by the main characters and Mouth recalls a story which Stef promptly identifies as The Monkey's Paw. This sequence isn't in the movie.
• William S. Burroughs refers to the story in his lecture "Class on the technology and ethic of wishing",^[5] warning students to be careful of what they wish for, and disucussion its relation to the "Wishing machine" ^[6]
• In the Piers Anthony novel, A Spell for Chameleon, in Good Magician Humfrey's castle, the main protagonist Bink is shown a monkey's paw by a magic mirror when asking why his magical talent has not been revealed. The Magician then explains that the answers most people seek are of the "monkey's paw variety".

References