(1990) ***
Eschewing the “Killer Santa” angle
from the first 3 installments, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation veers into a completely new direction
(think Halloween 3: Season of the
Witch). Clint Howard (ugly and great as
always) witnesses a woman on fire plunge to her death from the top of a tall
building. Although this garners little
press, a stubborn reporter, Kim, decides to take it upon herself to explore
this story further despite being told by her J. Jonah Jamison boss not to bother
(why is every reporter’s boss always an asshole?).
Kim’s investigation leads her to a
local bookstore where she befriends Fima, an expert on mythology. After giving Kim a book about a virgin
goddess she invites her to a picnic with some of her (creepy) friends. During the picnic Kim is slipped a mickey and
she begins to hallucinate. Slowly she realizes that Fima is part of a coven and she has set her sights set on her to
be the newest member. Fima reveals that the woman who died at the beginning of
the film was her daughter and she wants Kim to take her place. Escaping the coven is not easy when you have
Clint Howard on your tail and weird bugs start showing up in your apartment.
Having absolutely nothing to do
with Christmas SNDN4 is nonetheless the best installment in the entire series. Clint Howard is at his very best as Fima’s pussy-whipped
(I hate that expression) servant. He has
the uncanny ability to viciously murder someone and yet seconds later become totally
sympathetic in an “Aw, gee, shucks” kind of way. The film plays like a fever dream where it is
unclear whether Kim is witnessing reality or simply having the greatest trip ever. At one point a large worm is inserted into a
woman’s abdomen only to immediately emerge out of her mouth as a much larger
worm, eeeeeeew! There are many gross out
sequences like this including some killer pasta – yes, killer pasta. The Silent Night, Deadly Night films are
generally awful but SNDN4 is worth checking out and I have a feeling that it
will become a regular part of my horror rotation.
5 comments:
sounds interesting but yucko!
Ha! My sentiments exactly, AC!
Cool discovery JPX! I want to see it now. It goes to show that it sometimes can be worthwhile to comb through an entire lame B-movie franchise in the hopes of discovering something unexpectedly decent.
Hooray for unexpectedly decent! That is what Horrorthon is all about, in my opinion.
I’m not sure what I like more about this movie, the presence of the abhorrent/lovable Clint Howard, or the fact that someone had to draw a skull on a cockroach. Eesh!
Clint Howard always makes a movie better somehow.
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