By Melissa Antoinette Garza
As a child, I was always frightened and fascinated by toy monkeys that clap symbols together. I believe the fear came from the front cover of Stephen King’s book Skeleton Crew (1985). My sister owed the novel and even walking by it would send chills down my spine. I vaguely recall seeing The Devil’s Gift (1984) and thinking it had to be the same story that was within Skeleton Crew. Some argue it is within that book, as the short tale The Monkey is similar in nature. Even without that connection, the picture alone would have scared me just the same.
Looking back, it must’ve been on weekend programming like Spine Tinglers and Captain USA that I first saw this. Back in the day, horror fans were treated with underrated and unknown gems like Killer Party (1986), Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972) and Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971).
Back in the 80s, Saturdays were meant for morning cartoons and afternoon scares. As an early teen, I looked everywhere for this movie but couldn’t remember the name. Everytime, Monkey Shines (1988) was in the local listings, I’d get excited, wait and then be thoroughly disappointed. I even rented it a number of times over the years, as I’d forget I had tried it and the films were different. The issue with Monkey Shines is that the cover of the VHS would have the damn monkey with the symbols. In the movie, he’s nowhere to be found.
Finally, someone uploaded this movie to YouTube. It had been nearly 25 years since I saw this movie and it was worth the wait.
The film begins with an elderly woman surrounded by children’s toys as she uses an Oujia Board in an antique store. She accidentally summons a demon that makes the toys become sentient. The eyes of the monkey glowed red and then out of nowhere a fire consumes the room and thus kills her.
Later on, Susan (Viki Saputo) is trying to find the perfect gift for her boyfriend David’s (Bob Mendolsohn) son Michael (Struan Robertson). She comes across the monkey in an antique shop and picks it up for the kid’s 9th birthday. When Michael opens it, he absolutely loves it. Unfortunately for him, the feelings are not mutual.
His father begins having awful dreams almost immediately afterwards. In one nightmare, Susan is standing in a white wedding dress and veil. He runs away from her and a group of onlookers with creepy smiles. Despite, taking off, he ends up right back there. In another the house is filled with blood as he is attacked by a demonic creature much larger than himself.
At first, he doesn’t know what to make of the dreams, but then he is faced with horrific occurrences around the home and starts to suspect the monkey is to blame.
Susan (Viki Saputo) is both the culprit and victim as she becomes possessed. When the demon is in control, Susan’s mission is to murder Michael. Everytime the eyes on the toy glow, Susan becomes a mindless drone doing the demon’s bidding. The only way to snap her out of this spell is to interfere with her action before the Monkey claps the symbols together or stopping the toy before the two symbols meet.
While David is having another nightmare, Susan tries to suffocate Michael with a pillow but when David walks in, she convinces him that Michael only had a bad dream. She actually believes this as she would never in her right mind want to hurt the child.
Later when possessed again, she holds his head down underneath the water while he’s bathing. David stops her from drowning his son and also stops believing her excuses. They tussle and she falls and hits her head.
David now certain that the toy is behind all of the chaos hires Adrianne (Madelon Phillips) a psychic who genuinely wants to help. Sensing the power of the demon, she gives David a pentagram to wear for protection. She also advises him to get rid of the monkey without the demon being made aware. Essentially, he must throw the toy away seemingly on accident. This becomes a difficult task but the lives of him and his family depend on it.
The IMDB page for this has only given it a 2.2 rating. It deserves a much higher rating than that. This film has genuinely creepy moments, great practical effects, excellent acting, sympathetic characters and a plot that really hooks the viewer. I almost wonder if the reason for the poor rating is that some say this movie is a direct ripoff of Stephen King’s The Monkey.
Truth be told, The Monkey was originally published in a magazine circa 1980. It was then released later in King’s work The Skeleton Crew. The stories are similar and I don’t doubt that it was the inspiration for the film. I don’t however adopt the belief it is plagiarism like some have said.
With or without it’s somewhat tainted reputation, The Devil’s Gift does stand on its own. It adds a lot of original moments and changes many of the plot points; and let’s be honest. As much as I love Stephen King, he has many people to thank for his successes. For example, The Shining (1977) owes quite a bit to Robert Marasco’s Burnt Offerings (1973) which in my opinion is a not only a better novel but also better than both adaptations of The Shining. Sorry Kubrick fans. Though, I still think the performances and the visuals are great and that Kubrick is one of the best of all time, but Burnt Offerings just gives more of everything. Not to mention, the more I watch it the more I realize what an underrated acting God Oliver Reed was and how he sold every moment of the production.
Coincidentally, a case could be made that A Devil’s Gift and Burnt Offerings are quite similar. Both matriarchal figures are the target of demonic possession and both films focus on the toll it takes not only on the parental figures but also a young boy.
The point is simple. Everyone borrows from something else and every story has been told many different ways. As the old adage says, “there are only seven stories in the world.” I’m sure even Rod Serling borrowed an idea or two in his time. It doesn’t take away from his brilliance or the way he delivered the tale. The same is true here. The Monkey is a great stand-alone tale, but The Devil’s Gift adds so much more and utilizes the visual medium to create some incredibly tense scenes. Don’t be tricked by the slow start, keep watching. It most certainly pays off.
I recommend watching it before YouTube takes it off or look for a bootleg version of it as it’s only ever been released on VHS. If you still own a VCR, you can grab a copy from Amazon for just over $10.00.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
Hello Melissa –
As someone who was involved in the production of TDG, I can tell you that the story was originally plagiarized from Stephen King’s “The Monkey” – the first draft was much closer to King’s work than the final script. Ken told me that he was not aware of this until it was too late to do anything about it (the “original” story was presented to him by a writer). He made the decision to forge ahead, hoping that no one would notice!