The Devil's Gift (1984) User Reviews

A very ridiculous movie whose cursed object premise is anorexically thin and stretched well beyond its means

[IonicBreezeMachine · 3/10 · 12 September 2022]

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.

Smelly monkey turd.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 3/10 · 10 January 2010]

"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.

Bang the cymbal slowly.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 10 March 2024]

A student film that somehow got theatrical release, this is the case of another possessed toy/doll, this time an eerily grinning monkey. Overacting 101 should have used the opening scene in acting classes of the old witch calling up daddy Satan and instantly regretting it, with the monkey banging it's cymbal somehow possessed and ending up in suburbia where all sorts of weird things start to happen, putting everyone in danger.

While the acting is adequate (complete unknowns, so not worth mentioning anyone), the pacing is slow, and what's weirder is how little the parents react to the things going on until it's completely out of control. But the biggest flaw is never once was I spooked. The toy monkey is so hideously ugly that the question arises why would the parents buy it in the first place.

A Cheesy 80s "Annabelle" with a Monkey instead of a Doll

[WisdomsHammer · 5/10 · 24 February 2018]

The movie is about a demon-possessed toy monkey with cymbals on its hands. Every time it claps its cymbals, something dies. First plants, then it moves to bigger prey. The premise is actually pretty good. You may recognize this movie because it was shoe-horned into the much worse "Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders," which was featured once on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was nice to see it as a standalone movie, which I didn't even realized existed. Granted, this movie could have been edited down to half its length and been better, but that can be said about most cheesy horror movies. I don't think it's quite as bad as a lot of people say. The acting and script are terrible, but the story as a whole isn't too bad. Sure it's bad and laughable, but If you enjoy B-horror movies, you'll get a kick out of it.

Cheap and predictable, but enjoyable

[Bored_Dragon · 5/10 · 4 September 2018]

"The Devil's Gift" is a low budget, maybe even an amateur horror film, inspired by King's story "The Monkey." Girl of single-parenting father brings monkey-doll as a present for his son birthday. It turns out that in a monkey resides a murderous demon which is impossible to get rid of. When I saw the IMDb rating of 2.4, I was thinking whether to give it a chance at all, but I was dead set to see all the films inspired by Stephen King and not to skip anything. The first half hour is a real agony. The film shows an idyllic life in the suburbs and everything is bright and cheerful and the atmosphere is like in some Disney comedy for little children. In addition, the film is so cheap that it is difficult to classify it as B production. Rather somewhere in the range from X to Z. Literally nothing happens, not even introduction to characters so we can empathize with them later. So virtually redundant unprovoked half an hour. I was at the very edge of giving up on it when the movie finally caught my attention, until finally, I was sitting at the edge of my chair, and even stood up to go and turn the lights on. The story is great, and the film manages to be very creepy and even scary, despite the fact it is happening during the day and despite the complete absence of almost all elements typical of horror. There is no darkness, no surprises, no monsters, no gore. Even despite the terrible production. The end is quite predictable, but the fact that I knew what was going to happen did not spoil my experience at all. I was rather eager to see if I was right, and when the prediction came true, I rejoiced as a child. People resent the lack of nudity, violence, and gore typical of the B horrors of the '80s, but these objections are unfounded, since those elements do not fit into this story. Basically, the only really significant drawbacks are idling in the first half of the movie and poor production. With a decent budget, it might have been a great episode of some horror series, like "Twilight Zone" or "Tales from the Darkside". With better production and run-time between 30 and 45 minutes, this would be a strong eight, maybe more, but this way I rate it five out of ten, more for effort than objective quality.

5/10

Return to sender!

[capkronos · 1/10 · 22 August 2002]

Susan (Vicki Saputo) buys a cymbal-playing toy monkey with glowing eyes at an antique store to give to her boyfriend's young son Micheal (Straun Robertson) for his birthday. It turns out to be possessed by a demon, which means the electricity goes off, the plants wilt and Charlie the goldfish and Sparkle the dog are goners. Eventually it possesses Susan which puts dad David (Bob Mendlesohn) on a quest to find out what's going on.

I think this was made by some Christian right-wing group to get back at the all the gory 80s slasher movies, because there's no violence, nudity or profanity. I can't think of a horror movie with more hugging, kissing, tickling, "knuckle sandwiches," back patting, good family values and platonic puppy-doggy lovey-dovey, and it's set in white bread middle class suburbia. David cheerfully tells his neighbor, "If there was a friend of the year award, you'd get it!" Even a psychic's home is littered with velvet paintings and statues of Jesus! Most of the running time is composed of the boring everyday events of boring everyday people, all set to bad elevator-style Muzak. It copies Stephen King's short story "The Monkey" and is pure torture from start to finish.

Original version of "Merlins Shop of Mystical Wonders", NO BETTER!

[Twilight_Wraith · 1/10 · 20 October 2000]

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.

Competent and Enjoyable

[paul-day-clone · 6/10 · 27 May 2015]

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.

Good

[morinoravenberg · 7/10 · 2 November 2017]

I remember seeing this as a kid; I was born in 1985, so when I saw this I was like "cool" and it still is for the time it was created in. The concept was quite rare back then, a spirit possessing a doll. Back then horror was done right, with the focus on scaring the audience via emotion instead of over the top CGI. This is a gem, similar to the entity & wish master.