The naffness of part 3 didn’t stop them making Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990), a film that shamelessly abandons the very loose interconnecting storyline of parts 1-3 in favour of a plot about a sinister (possibly) lesbian cult who initiate new members by impregnating them with slimy giant bug things. Clint Howard is in there too, which gives this instalment a major advantage over previous entries, obviously.
A bit like Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, this is a standalone tale, unless Howard’s zany peripheral hobo character ‘Ricky’ is meant to be the guy from parts 2-3. He does refer to himself as the ‘Santa Killer’ at one point but his brain is not visible so I’m thinking no. Nobody mentions the events of previous films and, in keeping with the kooky metatextuality of parts 2-3, scenes from part 3 can be seen playing on a TV in the background during one scene.
This one is set at Christmas and there are a few decorations about but, again, for a film with such a festive title, it’s all got very little to do with the yuletide season. Our plucky protagonist Kim (Neith Hunter), a newspaper classifieds editor who stumbles onto a real story when a burned corpse is found, is Jewish and the birth of Christ doesn’t really figure into the sinister new age cult stuff going down.
There’s a much sleazier, grotty, uncomfortable vibe going on in this one with a lot of squirm-inducing, squelchy body horror involving creepy crawlies and frightening effects from the great ‘Screaming Mad George’. MThis one is from Brian Yuzna, director of the horrific Society, so that should give you a flavour of the stomach-churning stuff going on. It is not very festive at all.
Kim, fed up with the stifling ‘Boys only’ hierarchy going on at work, decides to investigate the mystery herself and gets mixed up with a group of ladies who invite her to lovely picnics but also, like, drug her and try to inseminate her with insects and stuff.
Unlike the first three movies, this one is authentically disquieting and terrifying. Like some Cronenberg-ian nightmare there’s plenty of vomit-inducing body horror, with limbs doing things they’re not supposed to, fingers and legs bending in weird directions and getting all tangled and meshed together. It’s never explained why, but it’s horribly effective. And, I guarantee you will be freaked out at the sight of an oiled-up, nude, howling Clint Howard wearing a phallic penis-nose mask before the juice from giant millipedes are squirted all over his face. So yeah – not really a date movie.
This is less whimsical than the rest of the series so far but far more mysterious and compelling. You’re really kept in suspense as to what’s going on, though I’m not confident I fully understand it all.
I watch this while over-tired, stressed and feeling a bit ill. Suffice to say, it does not help, not at all. If part of this quest is to gauge whether Christmas films can help improve your mental health, in the case of SNDN4: Initiation, I would say hell no. This is nightmare-fuel of the ickiest, highest order, but worth a watch if any of this squidgy madness sounds like your bag.
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