Sunday, December 01, 2024

My Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990)

 


Written by Brian Yuzna And Arthur H. Gorson And S.J. Smith
Directed by Brian Yuzna

Kim: "Lonnie, it's all over now."

Oftentimes in a horror franchise, you get an entry like no other to the point where you wonder why it's even a part of the franchise in question. Fans of Halloween know what I'm talking about. That also seems to be applicable here too.

Moving away from the killer Santas that dominated the first three movies, this one took a far wilder turn and I don't know how to feel about that. On paper, the shake up was desperately needed and delving into something witchcraft related will always be a plus for me. I'm just not sure about the execution of it.

Anyways our protagonist for this change in direction was a journalist named Kim Levitt (Neith Hunter). She's somewhat passed over for the good jobs at work by her inconsiderate boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister) and her boyfriend, Hank (Tommy Hinkley) isn't much better either. Then again neither are Hank's family that don't take kindly to Kim being Jewish.

Of course, between work hassles and bad boyfriends, Kim's life took more of a crazier turn when she found herself being terrorised by the mysterious Ricky Baker (Clint Howard). Ricky's pursuit of Kim also coincided with the fact that she had been initiated into a cult that also wanted Kim to kill Lonnie (Conan Yuzna) to complete her initiation.

I'll give points to the point for upping the gore and body horror factor as Kim certainly went through a lot of Hell trying to get away from the cult and to break the curse they had put upon her. Some of the scenes are genuinely rough to sit through and the use of larva in some parts was definitely disgusting as well.

- There's a rather OTT performance from cult leader Fima, played by Maud Adams.
- The coven were worshippers of Lilith with Kim being framed as an analogy for the biblical figure.
- Some of the ideas behind this movie were rejected from the previous one.
- Chronology: Christmas 1990 but with no references to the previous movies. 

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation really could've been it's own thing without any connection to this franchise. I applaud it for trying something different but it's execution was horrible, so it's really not worth the effort to watch every again.

Rating: 4 out of 10 

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