Devil's Gift

Single father David (Bob Mendelsohn) and his son Michael (Struan Robertson) celebrate Michael's birthday wherein David's girlfriend Susie (Vicki Saputo) gives Michael an antique Cymbal banging monkey toy. Following the birthday however, strange misfortunes start happening around David's home with pets and plants dying and even Susie starts to exhibit strange behaviors eventually linking back to the Monkey toy.

The Devil's Gift is a 1984 horror film made by then San Francisco State film students Kenneth J. Berton and José Vergelin prior to either being 21 or graduating. The 80s was a lucrative time for independent creators to tap into the high demand for horror films with the slasher glut of the early 80s opening the door along with the home video revolution of available of VHS players to the general public opening additional distribution channels for independent and low budget production houses. The movie falls pretty well in line with a number of demonic possession and cursed object stories (including its similarities to the Stephen King short story The Monkey, but the movie was mostly lost amongst the glut of low budget horror films of the era until it did attain a certain level of exposure (albeit in truncated form) when MST3K reviewed Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders which Berton made in 1996 as a children's fantasy anthology with The Devil's Gift significantly re-edited so it would be appropriate for a family audience. The fact that The Devil's Gift is a complete film from two first time film makers is really a minor miracle in and of itself, but just because we were provided with a movie doesn't make it a very good one.

During the opening sequence where we see a very hammy sequence of Olwen Morgan playing an old woman using a Ouija Board to contact her husband (we're just thrown into this) we get a bizarrely over the top sequence that doesn't even seem like it's trying to be scary as Morgan plays her delivery in an almost Moe Howard type fashion including voicing and project over the top disapproval. I will say the effects in the opening and ending of the movie are decent (even if the ending has some head scratching choices) but at least it is entertaining. The rest of the movie however is extremely padded with long sequences of the David and Michael just kind of killing time between major sequences with not much going on to build any tension or dread. I will say that I did like Bob Mendelsohn's portrayal of David (kind of reminded me of Steve Guttenberg a little) as he has some amusing moments such as watching cartoons with his son Michael, but with how unaware David is for much of the film he almost seems to be acting in comedy or melodrama rather than a horror film. Most of the other actors don't really do all that well and fall mostly into bland roles or in Bruce Parry's case as best friend Pete go for mugging and improvisation that does not do this movie favors. Because the toy can't really move there's several times where fake-out dream sequences and "just kidding" style jump scares are used. I will say the first nightmare where David sees his son drowned in the tub did legitimately catch me off guard, but the trope is so abused you quickly become wise to it and it gets annoying and ridiculous.

You can tell The Devil's Gift was made by very passionate but also overeager individuals who couldn't wait to bring something to market and leave a footprint, and who can blame them? In the time this movie was made horror was being churned out left and right and devoured by an audience with an insatiable appetite and they tried to tap into that same easily exploitable group. The movie isn't scary and it spins its wheels because of how thin the material is, but the fact this was passionately made does make it "watchably bad" rather than modern day "mockbusters" where they sucker you in with the title and don't even try. This movie tried, it didn't succeed but it did give honest and noticeable effort.

Why the hate? This is a perfectly fine horror 80's movie. It's cheesy with bland performances like every other mid-range 80's horror movie. AND it's got a creepy, cymbal playing monkey! What's creepier than that!? One review mention there was no swearing. So? It's about a family with a young boy. Are they really supposed to curse around him? As to a "Christian" bent, the guy wears a pentagon medallion which protects him, not a cross.

There are some tense moments which only come with good camera placement and editing. The final assault scene worked well and even though you could script it in your sleep, like a joke you love to hear, I gasped happily despite knowing the punchline.

This is *slightly* better than average.

"The Devil's Gift" is about a toy monkey that the mother has found in an old toy shop and bought for her son.No matter how the family tries to get rid of it,the monkey always comes back with deadly consequences.This film is strikingly similar to Stephen King's short story "The Monkey" about cymbal-banging monkey toy that is possessed by an evil spirit.Every time the monkey claps its little cymbals together somebody dies."The Devil's Gift" is so sweet and cheerful that you will want to vomit.The opening animated sequence is surprisingly clever,unfortunately the rest of the film is deadly dull and without any suspense or gore.One of the very worst horror movies from 80's.3 monkeys out of 10.

I first saw this in the late 80 on a vhs n found it to be a bit scary. I wasn't aware that this one was a rip off of Stephen King's short story The Monkey.

Revisited it recently on a fast forward mode on YouTube. The print is decent.

The plot is about a cymbal-banging monkey toy.

Every time the monkey's cymbals are struck, a nearby living thing dies.

There exist another version directed by the same director, Kenneth J. Berton, known as Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders starring Ernest Borgnine, which I haven't seen n doesn't plan on seeing it.

This one moves at a very slow pace n the kills ain't that bloody or scary. The only good thing is the suspense n tension n also the dark ending.

Revisited it due to the recent The Monkey.

This is a c****y movie that for some reason was later tacked onto the "other" Kenneth J. Berton film "Merlin's Shop of Mystical wonders". It's about a toy monkey that kills animals and somehow keeps getting bought by the same damn family over and over again, i only have to say this about all the coincidences... BULL****! Which by the way describes this movie in full.