THE DEVIL'S GIFT
Hilarious...but is it intentional?
Damn, is this movie funny! It earns a place alongside The Pit and Video Murders in the so-bad-its-funny hall of fame. Thing is, I can't tell if it's supposed to be this bad or if the filmmakers really thought they were giving us some quality cinema. I suppose it doesn't really matter.
I've read more than twice how this is an uncredited rip-off of King's short story "The Monkey". It's been a long time since I've read that one, so I'll take their word for it. Anyway - an evil little toy monkey smashes its cymbals together and burns down the house it's in, killing the unlucky tenant. Then it ends up at an antique shop, where this lady buys it for her kid, and soon all the plants in the house are dead, and a whole lotta bad stuff goes down, especially when it smashes those cymbals.
I loved the drawn-out sequences (and there are many of them) of the monkey pulling its arms apart so that you know, eventually, he's gonna crash those cymbals. It's like Homer in the "Marge, I'm putting my foot down!" scene. And the thing is, you know how to thwart this monkey? You stick your hand between the cymbals. It doesn't even hurt. It's a toy monkey, and not particularly strong. But for some reason, the guy who finds this out only does it once. I also loved how, during a scene where the monkey causes one guy to be locked in a scalding-hot shower, to add extra torture, it TURNS ON THE HEAT LAMP!!!
Contains a perfectly straight, serious attempt to use the line "Hey baby, what's happenin'?" which reminded me of what I saw in line at Arby's yesterday: this hilariously inept job this 15-year-old kid made of trying to hit on a woman who had to be at least my age. "You a model? Can I have you autograph? Well, you could be. Could I have it anyway, it be worth something one day? Damn, you fine!" The poor lady had the near-irresistible temptation of pitching him over the rail down four stories to smash through a glass floor into the street below TD Square, but she just politely rebuffed him and he slunk away in shame. Scary thing is, I'll bet that line frequently works for him.
Clocks in at 90 minutes, despite the box's claim that it's 112. I'm not sure the movie's charm could have lasted much longer than it did.