Silent Night Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990)

Just what I expected

Absolutely Brilliant!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

While not as bad as Part 2, this was still awful. It's mostly because of how utterly ridiculous it is. This movie features a woman on fire jumping off a building and another woman investigating her death. It turns out the woman was a member of a cult that worshipped giant larvae (!) and she failed to go through initiation. Now only does this movie have virtually nothing to do with the previous movies, but it has virtually nothing to do with Christmas at all! Couldn't these guys have at least kept that consistent? There's a few Christmas trees and presents here and there and a Christmas party, but that's it! The woman is plagued by insects all around her house. I do know what that's like unfortunately. There are several giant insects that appear throughout the movie and it looks absolutely stupid. I think this woman is actually supposed to give birth to a giant bug at one point. This film is really disgusting and has nothing to do with anything. There's just so many random things going on it's hard to put any plot together. It looks like they just took random elements and objects and made a movie out of them. This is just pointless. *

At least for this entry in this seasonal horror series things are taken in an awfully wild new direction. Gone is the tastelessness and dark humour of the first movie, the camp quality of the silly second movie, and the surreal nature of the third. For entry # 4, screenwriter Woody Keith and director Brian Yuzna go for utter strangeness - as well as the gross-out - in their story. An ambitious, stubborn wannabe reporter, Kim (pretty Neith Hunter) determines that she'll solve the mystery of a young woman's bizarre suicide - which may have involved spontaneous human combustion, treating her boyfriend Hank (Tommy Hinkley) like crap in the process. And therein lies one of the problems with "Initiation": its protagonist is so surly, with such a big chip on her shoulder, that she's very hard to follow as a main character, and while attractive, Hunter isn't much of an actress, so it's up to the story and supporting characters to keep things interesting. Among all the trappings are a barrage of insects, maggots, and the ghoulishly fun "surrealistic" makeup effects of the great Screaming Mad George, who'd done such memorable work on "Society", Yuzna's directing debut. To top it all off, the supporting cast includes one of the big screen's all time great creators of oddness and creepiness, Mr. Clint Howard, who's a hoot every time he pops up on screen. In something of a nod to past entries, he plays a man named Ricky. The amusing selection of actors also includes Allyce Beasley of 'Moonlighting' fame as Kim's friend Janice, lovely Bond girl Maud Adams as the alluring and enigmatic Fima, Ben Slack, the psychiatrist in "Society", as Hank's prejudiced dad, Yuzna's own son Conan as Hank's kid brother Lonnie, and "Phantasm" series star Reggie Bannister in a highly entertaining turn as Kim and Hank's boss at the newspaper. Things get off to a pretty good start with those stylized opening credits, and Richard Band's music is another plus. What's truly ridiculous is how the makers of these movies seem always obliged to include any sort of archive footage, as scenes from SNDN 3, "Better Watch Out" play out on a TV screen. Also, the story here has little to do with the holiday; it merely happens to take place at Christmastime. It's entertainingly bonkers stuff, that admittedly one could view as being anti-feminist. But if all of this still intrigues the potential viewer, and they're happy to not see a single killer Santa in sight, they might want to check this out. Six out of 10.

First, let me start off by saying that as an avid horror fan, I can appreciate the vision of most movies - good or bad. I've seen my share of both over the years and I'm sure you have too. Occasionally, there is always a title that creeps up on you, leaving you scratching your head. "What did I just watch?" you might ask yourself. Imagine that little scenario, but multiply its impact ten fold and you've found yourself laying in a pool of confusion, as the end credits play, with an image of Initiation: Silent Night Deadly Night 4 projecting through your television.One of the biggest observations that goes without saying is the most obvious one...what does this, in any way, have anything to do with the Silent Night, Deadly Night series. I was forewarned that this title would be irrelevant to the first three titles. Arguably, I could sit here and say a movie like Friday the 13th Part VII is irrelevant...I could bring up the fact that many titles in the Children of the Corn lineup are questionable in terms of content. However, none of these can light a candle to the sheer audacity that Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 has. The main difference is that in the previously mentioned titles, the storyline (although far gone and nonsensical by that point) is still left somewhat intact. The current fan-base is still expecting a revival of their favorite character or plot line. Initiation, on the other hand, goes off running in some odd direction with the attention span of an ADD-stricken grade-schooler.I feel very cheated on account of this movie. For the record, I admire Brian Yuzna for his contributions on the Re-Animator series, Dagon, Faust, Necronomicon, and Return of the Living Dead III. I even enjoyed his directorial debut on the 1989 title, "Society." I can see that his personal tastes played a huge part in the outcome of this movie. I found that the creature effects involving many of the insects were very much akin to his style (I was reminded of the third story in Necronomicon, and some scenes from Society, for example).To be fair, I don't have many complaints about the acting or the amount of gore that I've learned to appreciate. The lead female character is believable to a degree, and Clint Howard delivers a decent performance as well, but the acting in general isn't too thought provoking. To elaborate on my previous point concerning relevance, the actors present in the earlier films were not here to reprise their roles - and why should they when there is absolutely no mention of them? I would have been more pleased if Yuzna decided to somehow include Billy or Ricky (the two murderers that took part in 1-3)...and to admit that preference is humiliating.In conclusion, it baffles me beyond the scope of any human being's imagination to consider this movie brilliant or fun. The fact that this film tacks on the Silent Night, Deadly Night moniker on the end of the title is pitiful; I absolutely refuse to label it as an "original horror movie twist about Christmas." For my own personal records that I keep offline, this has to be the second worst horror movie contained within a series, only slightly falling below the Howling III...an abomination so horrendous that the cast and crew responsbile should be tarred and feathered. So here's to another hand-drawn "tick" added to the very vast wall of horror for completion purposes. If you're a glutton for punishment and a masochist, throw this one in and lay back. Don't be surprised if you wake up in another state surrounded by bottles of alcohol and an empty container of pills - it wasn't the movie's fault.

Part one was a good 7/10 Part two sucked mostly because half the film was flashback of the first. The actor who played Ricky STUNK. 4/10 Part three was even worse. The only thing it had going for it was a dude with an 80 hairband hairdo. 3/10 Part four, this one in question is THE WORST movie I have ever seen. When Clint Howard is the saving grace of a movie, you know something is wrong. It had NOTHING to do with the first three other than it was around xmas time. I can't even think of another movie that had worse acting, and I watch a lot of movies. The lead actress yelling through the movie was very annoying. Even showing a little flesh didn't gain this movie any points. I really HATED this movie. The ONLY reason I finished it was because I had already invented 30 minutes into it. WORST MOVIE EVER! 1/10 I'm going to watch the final installment, part 5 right now. I hope to God it goes back to the original formula, even though it'll probably suck like 2 and 3.