Douce nuit, sanglante nuit - L'initiation

This film begins with a young woman being engulfed in flames and falling to her death from a tall building. Recognizing a story when she sees one, an aspiring female reporter named "Kim Levitt" (Neith Hunter) asks the newspaper's editor "Eli" (Reggie Bannister) for the opportunity to cover it. Since he doesn't take her very seriously, he refuses her requests and gives the assignment to Kim's boyfriend "Hank" (Tommy Hinkley) instead. Furious with this decision, Kim decides to cover the story anyway. To that effect, one of the first people she interviews is a woman named "Fima" (Maud Adams) who runs a bookstore in that area and lives in the same building where the woman fell to her death. Yet even though Fima appears to be very helpful at first, it soon becomes clear that she is involved in a strange religious cult--and Kim just happens to be at the center of something extremely dangerous. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film has absolutely no relation to any of its three predecessors. And considering that the last two weren't that remarkable, then perhaps that's a good thing. Having said that, although I thought this effort was definitely a step in the right direction, I believe that the decision to rely more heavily upon special effects rather than suspense hurt the overall experience to some degree. Now, that's not to say that this was a terribly bad film by any means--it's just that these special effects weren't nearly as capable at delivering the necessary horror all by themselves. At least, I didn't think so. In any case, while I don't consider this to be a bad film by any means, I wasn't overly impressed with it, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A woman puts herself on fire and jumps from the roof of a building and the next day a reporter (Neith Hunter) tries to figure out why. The woman begins to investigate the neighborhood and soon meets a store owner who might be hiding a few secrets about the dead woman as well as a secret cult. Those wanting to see a killer Santa Claus are going to be disappointed because the fat man doesn't make an appearance here except for a brief clip from the previous movie. Director Yunza put his name on two film series from the 80s with this one and of course the much better RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3. This film here isn't awful but there's simply nothing here we haven't seen before and in the end the thing is just too weak to be entertaining. The screenplay makes a fatal mistake in letting the viewers be a lot smarter than our female lead. Pretty much we have this woman getting in over her head and the viewer must sit back and watch her do one dumb thing after another. The problem with this is that she does the dumbest things possible and yet she keeps doing them over and over. A long running plot device has her eating a "berry", which of course turns out to be something from the cult. After eating this thing she eventually begins to see various bugs running around and starts to puke them up as well. It gets rather annoying because as a reporter you'd expect her to have a brain but she continues to do one dumb thing after another. The screenplay also features some fairly weak dialogue and various situations that simply go no where and this includes all the stuff dealing with the boyfriend who doesn't treat the reporter good enough. Those wanting nudity will get a little. Those wanting violence will get a little but not much. There's some minor gore but not enough to keep those wanting all the red stuff entertained. The film contains a lot of bug stuff so those creeped out by the critters running around will probably find this stuff effective. You also have a large creature that seems to have been inspired by the monster in William Castle's THE TINGLER. Hunter isn't too bad in the film as she at least keeps you interested in the character. The rest of the supporting cast are decent at best and this includes Clint Howard playing the typical psycho you'd expect him to be playing outside of his brother's films. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4 stays away from the controversy of the previous film and I can respect the filmmakers for trying to do something new with the series but in the end it's just something we've seen countless times before. If you're going to do a movie about a woman getting involved with witches then you need to try something fresher than what's here.

A female reporter investigates the death of a woman who, on fire, leapt off of a building to her death. Her investigation leads her to discover the existence of a strange cult dedicated Egyptian god Isis--and the cult wants her as its new queen. While the plot is virtually unrelated to the first 3 films, SNDN4 is a surprisingly effective gross-out thriller. There are a few scares and gruesome moments here and there and the visual effects are terrific and, as we've come to expect from Screaming mad George, different. Both The script and acting are unimaginative but it's good horror fun from the Yuzna team that we've all come to love and it makes a great holiday family......err, horror film. My rating for "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation"-8/10.

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.

A young reporter investigating a bizarre death becomes involved with a coven of modern day witches headed by Maud Adams. Good script and effects, but by the numbers acting and direction almost destroy it. Maud Adams outclasses the whole production. Rated R; Adult Themes, Sexual Situations, Nudity, Violence, and Profanity.