''Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders'' is a 1996 American fantasy horror film written and directed by Kenneth J. Berton. The film stars

Ernest Borgnine Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...

as a grandfather telling his grandson a story about the wizard Merlin opening up a store in modern-day America. He tells him two separate stories about Merlin and the store.

Plot

Although the opening segment implies that Merlin's magical interventions in people's lives are intended to have a

benign Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse. Malignancy is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous ''benign'' tumor in that a malignancy is not s ...

effect, in practice this proves to be far from the case. The first story focuses on a married couple, Jonathan and Madeline Cooper. Jonathan is a respected, though obnoxious columnist, and Madeline is desperate for a baby, as she and Jonathan have been unable to conceive. The couple visit the store, where Jonathan berates Merlin and threatens to write a negative article in the newspaper that will cause his readers to avoid the store. Merlin loans Jonathan his spell book as proof that he is actually the legendary wizard. Jonathan takes the book home and begins to toy with several of the spells. Jonathan becomes convinced of the book's authenticity when an unsuccessful spell to summon a spirit results in him having a vision of Satan and causing Jonathan to breathe fire. Jonathan quickly grows excited and becomes obsessed with the book's powers, but begins to dramatically age due to the rapid depletion of one's life force required to cast the spells. Jonathan attempts to transform his pet cat into a mystical servant, but it becomes demonic and proceeds to attack him. Using the spell from earlier, Jonathan breathes fire and burns the cat alive. By then, Jonathan has aged so severely that his hair is white and receded. Jonathan retrieves the book's

rejuvenation Rejuvenation is a medical discipline focused on the practical reversal of the aging process. Rejuvenation is distinct from life extension. Life extension strategies often study the causes of aging and try to oppose those causes in order to slow ...

spell and proceeds to create the required potion. He takes a sample of Madeline's blood and adds it to the mixture. Jonathan drinks the potion, but the spell backfires: Jonathan regresses into infancy. Madeline happily decides to raise her former husband as her own child. In the second story, which bears a very close resemblance to Stephen King's short story "

The Monkey "The Monkey" is a short story by Stephen King, first published as a booklet included in ''Gallery'' magazine in 1980. It was significantly revised and published in King's collection ''Skeleton Crew'' in 1985. "The Monkey" was nominated for ...

", a thief steals a cymbal-banging-monkey toy from Merlin's shop, and sells it to a novelty store, where it is quickly bought as a present for a young boy. Every time the monkey's cymbals are struck, a nearby living thing dies. The boy's father takes the monkey and attempts to bury it, but it finds its way back into the boy's house. But before the monkey's cymbals are struck again, Merlin shows up and takes the toy back to his shop.

Cast

- Grandfather *Mark Hurtado - Grandson

First Subplot

*George Milan - Merlin *Bunny Summers - Zurella *John Terrence - Jonathan Cooper III *Patricia Sansone - Madeline Cooper *Nicholas Noyes - Nicholas *Hillary Young - Nicholas' Mother *Julia Leigh Miller - Antique Store Clerk *Ben Sussman - Jake Cosgrove *Randy Chandler - Burglar *Richelle Hurtado - Baby

''The Devil's Gift''

*Bob Mendelsohn - David Andrews *Struan Robertson - Michael Andrews *

Bruce Parry Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969) is an English documentarian, indigenous rights advocate, author, explorer, trek leader and former Royal Marines commando officer. He employs an ethnographic style and a form of participant observation for his d ...

- Pete *Vicki Saputo - Susan *Madelon Phillips - Adrianne the Psychic *J. Renee Gilbert - Grandma *Olwen Morgan - Elmira Johnson *Barry Chandler - Man In Car *Ángeles Olazábal - Girl On Bike

Production

The second segment of the film is a recut version of ''

The Devil's Gift ''The Devil's Gift'' is a 1984 horror film directed by Kenneth J. Berton. The film's plot is similar to that of the Stephen King short story "The Monkey", leading some to believe that the filmmakers plagiarized the story. Plot An elderly woman, ...

'', a 1984 film made by the same director. Large elements of the original film's storyline are missing, and segments with Merlin are added to show him pursuing the toy monkey. The original film's dark ending, in which the monkey kills the entire family, is replaced with Merlin arriving just in time to stop it.

Legacy

''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' version

The film was one of the last works to be featured on '' Mystery Science Theater 3000s'' original run (although its airing was delayed due to rights issues). The hosts and writers of the show used the sloppy editing on the second subplot, the disconnection between the two halves of the movie, and the wildly varying tone of the film as the basis for many of the jokes. The film's presentation as family friendly fantasy, juxtaposed against its dark narrative is also used as the basis of numerous jokes. The framing story of the Ernest Borgnine character telling these as stories to his grandson is also used for humor. A wraparound segment depicted host Mike (Michael J. Nelson) and his robot companions taking a look at an (invented) range of Ernest Borgnine children's books, whose benign titles and presentation belied the frightful nature of the stories therein, with the exception of one which has a macabre appearance but features an innocent story. Another host segment depicted Mike turning into a baby due to his disbelief in magic.

RiffTrax

On December 29, 2020,

RiffTrax RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

released a VOD version featuring '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' alums

Michael J. Nelson Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's origi ...

, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett.RiffTrax
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References

External links

* * * {{IMDb title, 0174917, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders 1996 films 1996 horror films Works based on Merlin 1996 fantasy films Arthurian films 1990s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films Animated anthology films Compilation films American direct-to-video films 1990s English-language films