98 min | R | February 21, 2025 | Neon
Osgood Perkins adapts Stephen King’s cursed toy monkey story and leans fully into horror-comedy chaos. Theo James plays twin brothers haunted by random death. It works.
Stephen King’s short story about a cymbal-clapping monkey that causes horrific deaths is lean and nasty. Perkins expands it into a feature and makes the smart choice to embrace the absurdity. This is not elevated horror. This is blood-soaked comedy where death arrives randomly and violently and the only response is to survive and maybe laugh at the sheer brutality of fate.
Theo James plays both twin brothers with distinct physicality and energy. The dual role is not a gimmick. The brothers have different wounds and different ways of processing trauma. Tatiana Maslany, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood round out a cast that understands the assignment. Play it straight. Let the monkey do the comedy. The practical effects and gore are inventive and excessive in the best way.
Perkins made Longlegs and The Blackcoat’s Daughter. He knows how to build dread and sustain atmosphere. This one trades dread for mayhem and the shift in tone shows range. The film moves fast. The kills are creative. The monkey itself is genuinely unsettling even when it’s causing ridiculous deaths. The ending delivers without trying to explain away the horror.
This is a specific kind of horror-comedy that demands you meet it where it lives.