THE CHRISTMAS HORROR ADVENT CALENDAR - Door 18: Unwelcome Gifts and Christmas Nightmares

Released on 7th November 1991, again straight to video, was Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker. Now this movie has no connection to the earlier movies featuring Billy and Ricky, and nothing to do with Initiation either. Although Brian Yuzna was back to produce. 

And just to confuse everybody, Clint Howard has a guest appearance as a character called Ricky. Is this the same Ricky? Possibly not, given how the last movie ended. But if that wasn't baffling enough, we also get cameos from characters who have wandered in from the last film, Kim and Lonnie, played by Neith Hunter and Conan Yuzna again. I suspect producer Brian Yuzna was having a laugh here, and baiting the continuity cops. 

However the weirdest bit of casting is the titular role of the toy maker going to none other than Hollywood legend, Mickey Rooney. Yes, the same Mickey Rooney who condemned the first Silent Night, Deadly Night film. Quite why he agreed to be in this sequel is a mystery. It has been theorised that the film he signed up for was just called The Toy Maker. Which given its lack of connection to the preceding four flicks is plausible.

Now the movie was directed and written by a chap called Martin Kitrosser, who also wrote Friday 13th Part 3 and Friday 13th: The Final Chapter. After this he would work as script supervisor on a little film called Reservoir Dogs, and has worked with Tarantino in every movie since, plus has done on to work on dozens more high profile movies and TV shows. And looking at this movie, you would never have predicted such a glittering career…

So then, what is the plot of Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker? It’s Christmas and a young boy named Derek finds a mystery present on the porch of his house. Before he can open it his father Tom, confiscates it and opens it himself. Inside is an ornament globe shaped like a Santa, which suddenly shoots out cords and kills his dad. Understandably Derek is somewhat traumatised and has been mute since his father’s strange death. His mother Sarah, played by Jane Higginson, takes him to a local toy store. But unsurprisingly Derek isn’t too keen on toys right now. 

The store is owned by one Joe Petto, played by Mickey Rooney, and apparently it isn’t doing too well, something Joe blames on his young assistant Pino, played by Brian Bremer. Also in the store is a character named Noah, played by Tracy Fraim, who buys a ton of toys but takes them back to his hotel room and dismantles them. However more mystery Christmas presents start turning up at Derek’s house, who knows not to open them. And just as well, for the toys inside are distinctly murderous…

And I will leave the plot summary there, partly to avoid spoilers, but also because thinking about it makes my head hurt. For this a very odd film, perhaps stranger than Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: Initiation. I tend to think it is weirder because whereas Yuzna’s Initiation very much descends into a fever dream very early on, The Toy Maker plays out like a far more conventional movie, at least at first. There is a mystery as to who is making the killer toys and why they are targeting Derek and his family. And we get some fun sequences featuring a variety of rather odd toys attacking folks.

However the final act goes to a hugely bizarre place, and viewers over the years are very much divided on whether it is any good or not. Now, for those of you who noted the names “Joe Petto” and “Pino” might think you know where this movie is going. And to be fair, you are not wide of the mark. But believe you me, this movie goes somewhere you are really not expecting!  

It’s certainly a unique ending, and you have to give the movie points for delivering something you’ve never seen before. But on the downside, the movie feels a bit disjointed and you can’t help feeling there wasn’t enough time or money to really tell this oddball story properly. As it stands, perhaps the ultimate judgement on this movie is the fact that this was the last in the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise. There would be no Part 6, and indeed Christmas horror movies in general would vanish entirely for a few years!  

However, in fairness that is probably not the fault of Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker, for most of the 1990s was a somewhat fallow time for the horror film. The big franchises which had dominated the 1980s had either finished or were petering out in increasingly low budget and low quality sequels. And the genre wouldn’t see a resurgence until the latter years of the decade which brought us hugely popular and massively influential movies such as Wes Craven’s Scream (1996) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). 

But that’s not to say there weren’t any horror movies of note made, and it was only a couple of years before there was another Christmas horror movie. And one that, oddly enough, would also feature Christmas presents that bite back and killer toys! However this is a movie that is now much beloved and is well on its way to becoming a modern classic, for our next film is Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). 

Obviously this movie needs no introduction, for I’m sure you are all familiar with the tale of how Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, decides to take over Christmas one year. However what you may not know is that, the movie began life as a poem written back when Burton was working as an animator for Disney. He and Henry Sellick developed the festive but spooky verses into a movie, and for a time, the House of Mouse were interested in making it, but ultimately decided it was too weird for Disney. Burton left Disney and went to direct a string of hugely popular movies such as Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), and Edward Scissorhands (1990). And if that wasn’t impressive enough,  Burton also had helmed the blockbusting Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). And after all that, funnily enough, all of a sudden, Disney were interested in making A Nightmare Before Christmas again. Spooky eh! 

However the fickleness of studios aside, A Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderful slice of festive fun, which has the added bonus of doubling up as a Hallowe’en movie too. Although personally, I tend to see it more as a Christmas movie with some marvellous spooky trimmings. Now it could be argued that it is not truly a Christmas horror movie as it’s not terribly frightening, except perhaps for the youngest of viewers. However it is a movie that clearly loves all things spooky, and part of the fun of this festive film for a seasoned horror fan is recognising all the little homages and references to classic horror that are sprinkled throughout the film. And for more on A Nightmare Before Christmas check Commentary Club #40 which is all about this movie.

However we have one more movie behind today’s door, which sort of continues the theme of unwelcome Christmas gifts, and most definitely is about dark forces taking over the festive season. It’s a dark horror comedy from Spain entitled El día de la Bestia or Day of the Beast. 

The movie opens with a little priest, Father Ángel, played by Álex Angulo, doing some most unChristian things, such as robbing a homeless man. However there is method in his madness, for we soon learn that the formerly good Father is attempting to become evil. And why? Well, he has learned that this Christmas Eve, the Antichrist will be born at midnight. And so, he is looking to infiltrate the world of darkness and discover the location of this nativity in black, and stop the Antichrist from being born. Along the way he will recruit a record shop owner José María, played by Santiago Segura, who is devoted to the heaviest of metal, and self-styled occult expert Professor Cavan, played by Armando De Razza, who hosts his own paranormal TV show. Can this unlikely trio thwart the powers of darkness and prevent the Antichrist being born? Well, you will have to watch the movie to find out! 

The film was directed by Álex de la Iglesia, who previously had worked in comics before branching out into making short films. It was one of these short movies that got the attention of famed director Pedro Almodóvar, and with his help, de la Iglesia made his debut feature, the sci-fi action movie Acción Mutante. Day of the Beast was his second movie, and after winning a host of awards, established him as a force to be reckoned with in European cinema. Since then, he has gone on to direct a host of highly regarded movies, although many of them have still featured his trademark humour and love of genre fiction. 

Released on 20th October 1995, Day of the Beast is a dark, bloody and often hilarious movie, with the quest to stop the birth of the Antichrist often taking unexpected turns to say the least, and our hapless trio have a great comedic energy that matches the pedal-to-the-metal pace of the movie. However, while there are many very funny scenes, de la Iglesia always keeps the horror serious. And so, while our unlikely band of heroes are often making fools of themselves, there are some very effective scenes that bring an uncanny chill to the proceedings, underlining the fact that the coming of the Antichrist is no laughing matter.

Day of the Beast pulls off that rare trick of making a comedy horror that is both funny but also delivers the darker goods. And while this movie might be a tad too bloody for some tastes, it is a very effective and inventive movie that deserves to be far better known. Which is more than I can say for the movies lurking behind tomorrow’s door… 

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Door 18: Unwelcome Gifts and Christmas Nightmares

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THE CHRISTMAS HORROR ADVENT CALENDAR Door 17: Sweet Christmas! Are They Still Making These?

After Silent Night, Deadly Part 2 gained a cult following, it was perhaps inevitable another sequel would follow. After all, this was still the 1980s, the golden age of horror slasher sequels. And indeed, whether we liked it or not, for the next three years, there would be a new sequel released just in time for Christmas. 

Now all three sequels actually went straight to video, rather than getting proper cinema releases, and generally I am choosing to ignore straight to video cheapies as they tend not to have any historical merit. Or cinematic merit often too. However, as we've started this Yuletide horror franchise, we must cover them all. And in fairness, as part of a famous horror franchise, unlike other straight-to-video efforts, these three movies have been released many times, have turned up regularly on television, and more recently on streaming services.

So then, from November 17th 1989, in a  video store near you, was Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 3: You Better Watch Out. Well, you can't quibble about false advertising I suppose! Now in fairness, this movie had some surprising talents involved. To begin with we have a genuine heavyweight character actor, Robert Culp playing a detective. Secondly we have an early appearance by future cult horror icon Bill Moseley, who would find fame and fans galore with his appearances in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986), Repo the Genetic Opera (2008), cult TV show Carnivale, and Rob Zombie’s trilogy of movies featuring the murderous Firefly family. 

Behind the camera was another cult legend too, Monte Hellman, who had started out directing The Beast from the Haunted Cave for Roger Corman, and went on to make the highly rated Westerns Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting in 1966 and both starring Jack Nicholson, and also made the cult car movie Two Lane Blacktop (1971). Quite how he ended up with this gig is anyone's guess. However what we do know is that he got the original script by Arthur Gorson and S.J. Smith in March, and promptly binned it, He then got a new screenplay from Rex Weiner, which was revised by Hellman himself and his daughter. Shooting began and finished in April, and the editing was done in May, even with Hellman taking a break to go to the Cannes film festival. And by July, a finished print was shown at a film festival. So from script to screen in about four months! Apparently Hellman was very proud of this achievement in breakneck film making! 

Anyhow, what's the plot for this third instalment? Well, it seemed like Ricky Cauldwell was mortally wounded at the close of the last movie. And as this movie opens, we discover Ricky is in a coma in a hospital, but now has turned into Bill Moseley. Furthermore the top of his head is missing and he now has a glass dome in which we can see his brain sloshing about blood. And why? Nobody knows! Because Ricky did not sustain any head injuries at the end of Part 2. 

Anyhow he is being cared for by a Dr Bellman played by Richard Beymer who had previously played Tony in West Side Story (1961). Bell is also working with our heroine, a blind girl named Laura, played by Samantha Scully.  Bellman is trying to use Laura's psychic powers to reach the comatose Ricky. Again why? Nobody knows! 

An experiment on Christmas Eve induces scary visions for Laura, and she leaves the hospital along with her brother and some friends to visit her grandma. However at the hospital, when an employee in a Santa outfit passes Ricky's bed, he suddenly wakes, and resumes his killing spree. A cop, Lieutenant Connely, played by Robert Culp, hooks up with Dr Bellman to track down his murderous patient. However Ricky now has a psychic link with Laura, and is coming to get her…

Now Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 3 is perhaps the least loved film in this franchise, and considering how strange Parts 4 and 5 are, that is really saying something. I suspect it gets the most hate for purporting to carry on the Ricky Cauldwell story, yet seems like a totally separate tale. Indeed the Ricky character could be replaced by any serial killer in a coma, and it would not impact the story of this flick in the slightest.

As we mentioned, there is no continuity to explain why Ricky now has a plexiglass bowl skull, and Bill Moseley looks nothing like Eric Freeman. Worse still however, instead of a high octane performance that leaves teeth marks not just on the set but on the moon, instead Moseley's Ricky is mostly mute and slowly shambles about like a poorly programmed robot. And given that Bill Moseley is capable of creating highly memorable and dynamic characters, just asking him to shuffle about like a zombie feels like a waste of his time and talents. 

Now in fairness, the movie itself isn't as bad as it is often made out to be. But it isn't that great either. There are some interesting ideas in here, a few nice set pieces, and if nothing else, the late 80s fashions on show are quite entertaining in themselves. But it's not bad enough to be funny really, and overall the movie is just a bit bland. 

And that's not an accusation you can level at the next two sequels, both of which also tell standalone stories and head off in their own highly eccentric directions. However, like Part 3 both feature some surprisingly big name talents, and come with an extra subtitle fitted as standard.

So then, the fourth movie in this increasingly eccentric series was Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation, released on 21st November 1990. Again this entry had a well known director of cult movies at the wheel - Brian Yuzna, who previously had worked with Stuart Gordon on Reanimator, Dolls, From Beyond, and Bride of the Reanimator, and had just released his own body horror satire Society (1989).

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he would bring his own distinct splattery and surreal sensibility to Silent Night, Deadly Night 4. Now apparently the initial script was the one by Arthur Gorson and S.J. Smith for Part 3 that Monte Hellman had binned. However Yuzna reworked it with his then usual screenwriter Zeph E. Daniel (here credited as Woody Keith) and clearly adding his own distinct touch to proceedings.

So then, what is the plot? Neith Hunter plays Kim, a reporter on a local newspaper, and she's struggling to be taken seriously as a journalist because the newsroom is a bit of a boy's club to say the least. So she begins to investigate the mysterious death of a woman who fell from a roof and apparently spontaneously combusted. This leads her to a bookshop where she meets Lilith played by Maud Adams no less, who draws her into a rather new age coven of witches. However this group's activities are somewhat darker than just waving crystals about. And soon Kim is having very strange experiences involving giant worms and insects and Lilith is demanding that she make a human sacrifice in the shape of her boyfriend's little brother Lonnie (played by Conan Yuzna).

And to be honest, that's not the half of it. Alongside the great Maud Adams as the sultry and sinister Lilith, we have cult favourite Clint Howard, who plays a creepy guy the coven have on hand as a general dog's body and enforcer. Somewhat confusingly this character is called Ricky, however this isn't Ricky Cauldwell, for in one scene, this Ricky is seen watching Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 3 on a television. And for even more cult film connections, Kim's chauvinistic editor at the paper is played by the great Reggie Bannister from the Phantasm films.

However perhaps the real star of this extremely bizarre movie is the special effects work. Created by regular Yuzna collaborator, Screaming Mad George, we get giant larvae, monstrous beetles and some memorably weird body warping sequences, where flesh drips and melts like clocks in a Dali painting. 

And what connection does all of this have to the previous movies? None whatsoever, apart from having a Ricky in it. Indeed in the UK, the movie was released without the Silent Night, Deadly Night branding, under the title Bugs. Likewise Christmas itself doesn't feature terribly heavily, something that Yuzna has later admitted was a mistake. However the film's climax does take place in the festive season, so the movie isn’t entirely devoid of Yuletide touches; it’s just that Christmas makes a bit of a late appearance in this case. 

To be honest, this is more a Brian Yuzna film than a Silent Night, Deadly Night movie, and taken as such, it does make for an interesting companion piece to Society, as it features a similar blend of surreal horror and social satire. But it still certainly counts as a festive fright flick, and as such, it is possibly one of the strangest Christmas horror movies ever made. However the next instalment in the franchise would, incredibly,  attempt to give it a run for its money!  

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Door 17: Sweet Christmas! Are They Still Making These? 

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THE CHRISTMAS HORROR ADVENT CALENDAR - Door 14: Slay Rides

So then we are finally here - we have reached perhaps the most famous Christmas horror of them all. Black Christmas may be the most respected and hugely influential but Silent Night, Deadly Night is perhaps the most notorious, and what’s more has spawned a festive horror franchise, notching up four sequels and a remake. And another reboot is alleged on its way.

But where did it all start? Well, with producer Scott J. Schiend who was looking through movie pitches sent in by the public. And on his desk landed a short story called He Sees You When You're Sleeping. The plot concerned a killer dressed as Santa Claus was written by one Paul Caimi, who was a student at Harvard at the time. Schiend liked the idea and drafted Michael Hickey to set about developing a script. The finished screenplay, entitled Slayride, was picked up by Tri-Star Pictures and a budget of  $750,000 was agreed. 

Now Schiend, who was executive producer, wanted to find “the next John Carpenter” to helm the picture, and indeed Sam Rami was considered for the job. However perhaps hinting that no one here really knew what they were doing, also considered for the job were Albert Magnoli who would find fame directing Purple Rain (1984) and Tango and Cash (1989), and Ken Kwapis who would go on to make Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird (1985), Dunstan Check In (1996) and, much later still, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (2005). So, one out of three there in finding a new John Carpenter I think.

But while Raimi would have been the perfect choice, the suits at Tri-Star had other ideas, and decided the man for the job was Charles E. Sellier Jr. who was best known for creating family favourite 1970s TV series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams. No, I don’t get it either. 

The movie was filmed in March 1983 in Utah with most of the cast being locals, including leading man Robert Brian Wilson who had no previous acting experience. However, appearing in a small role was future scream queen Linnea Quigley. Apparently director Charles E. Sellier Jr. was uncomfortable shooting the set piece kills and so editor Michael Spence had to step in. 

Tri-Star had designer Burt Kleeger create the iconic poster showing an axe-wielding Santa disappearing down a snowy chimney, and the movie, now renamed Silent Night, Deadly Night, was promoted with the tagline “You've made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas”. Tri-Star also splashed out on a heavy marketing campaign, including national television spots as the film was released on 9th November 1984. 

And evidently all the hype and hoopla paid off, for the movie would do extremely well at the box office, and according to many sources took more than the first Nightmare on Elm Street which had been released on the same day. However this is not entirely true, as Freddy Krueger’s first outing only had a limited release on 9th November, and was only released nationwide the week after. And by then Silent Night, Deadly Night had been pulled from theatres…

For the movie was met with an instant backlash, with protests outside theatres and even Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney condemning the movie in a letter which read - 

“How dare they! I'm all for the first amendment but... Don't give me Santa Claus with a gun going to kill someone. The scum who made that movie should be run out of town.”

Critics hated it too, with the most famous reviewers in the land, Siskel and Ebert slamming the movie on national TV, and even going so far as to name and shame the producers on air, and called any profit from the movie “blood money”. Hence in the face of such public wrath, Tri-Star pulled the movie sharpish despite it reportedly taking over two million dollars during its brief run. 

But why was Silent Night, Deadly Night so controversial? For, as we have learned in this advent calendar, it was not the first killer Santa movie by a long chalk - one a couple of years earlier in 1980 there had been Christmas Evil and To All a Goodnight, and starting the whole trend off back in 1972, was the All Through the House story in Tales from the Crypt. And there was no backlash against those movies. So what was different about Silent Night, Deadly Night? 

Well, often the blame has been laid at the door of the marketing campaign. Burt Kleeger’s poster is highly iconic but you can see why it might terrify children and therefore earn the wrath of parents. However it is thought the real damage was done by the television ads which started running a week before the release. Now Tri-Star were giving this movie a big push and hence had booked blanket coverage meaning that trailers for the movie were going out even in the daytime when all the family were sat watching the Sunday game or Little House on the Prairie. And nothing angers a parent quite like scaring their kids, and especially when you do so by making something magical like Santa frightening. 

However I would perhaps argue that it was also the content of the movie that fuelled the fire. For in the film we have not one but two scenes of rape and sexual assault, which both end in murder. And in both a man dressed as Santa Claus is involved in the violence. And this juxtaposition of Santa and sexual violence was unique to Silent Night, Deadly Night, and I suspect a large factor in why reviewers and critics loudly and forcefully took against the film.  

But what of the movie itself? Is it as deplorable as the critics of the day claimed? Well, let’s have a plot summary and weigh it up… And as we need to go into detail - warning, spoilers ahoy! 

The movie opens in 1971, just before Christmas, where a young boy named Billy, is off with his parents and baby brother Ricky, to visit his grandpa who is in a care home. Grandpa is supposedly catatonic but when alone with Billy, suddenly wakes and warns Billy that Santa punishes the naughty as well as bringing presents. Billy is rightly terrified. But there is worse to come. On the way home their car is hijacked by a man in a Santa outfit who has just robbed a local store. Billy's father is killed, and then his mother is sexually assaulted and then murdered too. 

Fast forward a few years, and we catch up with Billy and Ricky who are now in a children's home run by nuns. Sister Margaret is loving and kind, but the Mother Superior, played by Lilyan Chauvin, is strict and harsh, and very ready to punish any naughtiness, either real or perceived. Billy tries to be good, but we see that he has huge issues with seeing any images of Santa. 

Fast forward again and Billy is grown up - now played by Robert Brian Wilson - and has a job in a toy store. And all is well, until Christmas and Billy ends up having to step in and replace the store’s Santa. At an after work party, Billy discovers a co-worker molesting a female colleague, and something snaps. He kills the attacker but also slays the victim, as all sex is naughty apparently. After that he goes on random rampage killing various folks he deems naughty, with highlights including Linnea Quigley meeting a pair of antlers, and a sledging bully losing his head. Eventually Billy heads to the children's home in order to punish Mother Superior… 

Now what makes Silent Night, Deadly Night interesting is that it attempts to show us the making of a killer. However unfortunately it also wants to be a standard slasher too, and the two approaches just don't quite mesh. The film’s tone is uneven and the plot meanders. While Christmas Evil covered very similar ground surprisingly well, here the psychology seems heavy handed and crass rather than believable, and Billy is too blank a character to either be sympathetic or evil enough to be a convincing slasher villain. And while some of the kills are good fun, the scenes of sexual assault are jarringly unpleasant. Apparently Tri-Star insisted on Charles E. Seiller Jnr. directing as they thought he could bring the polish of a quality drama to the production. But instead what we get feels like a sub-par TV movie, albeit one with nudity and gore sprinkled in. 

In fairness Silent Night, Deadly Night is not an entirely terrible film, but is very uneven, and can seem a little long even though it clocks in at just under 90 minutes in its uncut form. Overall, I would say it’s more of an interesting movie rather than a decent one. However it does deserve its place in horror history, if only because it gave us an even more infamous sequel…

Now after the fury over Silent Night, Deadly Night, unsurprisingly movie makers shied away from Christmas horror movies for a while, and it all went quiet in the festive frights front for a while… But not forever!

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - Door 14: Slay Rides 

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COMMENTARY CLUB 086 - Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

For our crap film choice, as it is December, we are revisiting infamous Santa slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2! Why not Part 1? Well, because this film is so cheap half of it is Part I repackaged! 

DIRECT DOWNLOAD - COMMENTARY CLUB 086 - Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

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