A boy receives a toy monkey for his birthday--the kind with the creepy eyes and two cymbals. All is not as it seems (is it ever?), because every time the monkey claps his cymbals together, someone dies.
Subgenres: possession, children/childhood
Director: Kenneth J. Berton
Starring: Bob Mendelsohn, Bruce Parry
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Another by-the-numbers bit that makes no sense at all. There's only one scene in the film--involving a man trapped in a possessed shower--that's tense in the slightest, and quite a few scenes that are just a tad silly. Plot holes abound, as well--for instance, if the father's so convinced the monkey kills by banging its cymbals together, why doesn't he just rip the thing's arms off? After all, he's already prevented one murder by merely keeping the cymbals from touching. The Devil's Gift is a plodding affair that leads to an ending that makes absolutely zero sense. Minus half a star for ripping off Stephen King's story "The Monkey," copywritten before The Devil's Gift was released and now widely available in his book Skeleton Crew. (Nov 30, 1999) 
It is one of the scariest movies I remember when I was a kid and it even frightened the heck out of my friend. This movie is worth seeing and it is even cut and shortened and blended with a 1995 movie called: "Merlin's Shop Of Magical Wonders." (Mar 19, 2000)
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Story is (suspiciously, some say) similar to Stephen King's short story "The Monkey," in his book Skeleton Crew.
