Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

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Audience Member This movie might start with Ernest Borgnine as a grandfather telling his grandchild two stories of Merlin opening a magic shop like a page from The Princess Bride, yet this ends up being a horror movie more than something to watch with your kids. Jonathan and Madeline Cooper are a married couple that have been having trouble having a child. Jonathan's newspaper column takes him to Merlin's new store and he has trouble believing that the old man running the place is really the Merlin of legend. So Merlin decides to give the man his spellbook, which seems to be the worst idea if you're a magic user, but this allows the writer to see Satan, breathe fire and begin to age every time he casts a spell. He also attempts to make his cat into a demonic servant, but that goes wrong and he has to breathe fire to stop — and kill — the feline. At the end, when he tries to become young again, the spell goes wrong and ends up giving Madeline what she always wanted: a baby. The second story is a bit close to Stephen King's "The Monkey," as a thief steals one of those cymbal playing monkey toys, except that every time the monkey makes a noise, someone dies. This entire sequence is really the 1984 film The Devil's Gift, which was also made by writer/director Kenneth J. Berton. Tons of that movie got cut out and Merlin was added to the end so that it doesn't have the ending where the entire family dies. As it is, this monkey kills a bunch of pets, so if you love the animals in your life this movie may not be for you. Why would Merlin have a store in a strip mall? Who would make this movie? Why would they think kids would want to watch it? Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is a movie of majestic tackiness. Bringing us two films in one, the latter even worse than the former, the picture follows a non-believer goofing up Wizard spells, before slowly closing on a murderous stuffed monkey with the ability to blow things up at the clap of a cymbal. Characters speak in a constant tone of confusion, as bewildered by their lines as we are, creepy Merlin caresses folk in the street, and the second story is longer than the ol' Sorcerer's dusty beard. Merlin states, "You play with magic, you're gonna get old. And fast.", and quite frankly watching this movie has a very similar effect. Perhaps that's its true magic? Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member A dull and unfunny horror movie aimed towards kiddies but a bit to mature and boring for the target age group. The acting isn't as bad as some of these low budget films but Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is nonetheless just as bad. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member It reminds of my infancy, even though it's definitely not a movie for children, I think the good stories the movie tells were the beginning of my "career" as a horror fan hehe. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member What the hell kind of crappy movie is this? Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member Hilariously bad! While I saw it on MST3K, I wouldn't mind owning this without the Satellite of Love's commentary. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders

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