"You got some Christmas ornaments in your movie? Great, I know just where to put it." 😂

Brian Yuzna took this franchise into a completely different direction. It's not much of a Christmas film, clearly not a slasher film, and has nothing to do with Silent Night, Deadly Night series at all but it's insane on so many levels and overall an absolute delight. It's so bizarre and gross as you'd expect from his films, filled with his signature wacky body horror, dream-like imagery, demon bugs, and slimy practical effects. If you're a fan of his films I'm sure you'll dig this one.

It's a decent but ultimately forgettable horror flick, unfortunately lacking the killer-Santa charm of its namesake. Ignoring the established lore entirely for a bizarre cult and body-horror plot involving witches and bugs, the film in no way feels like it's in the world of the Silent Night, Deadly Night series, and barely even registers as a Christmas horror movie beyond its Christmas Eve setting.

Perhaps going in the anthology direction with the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" franchise wasn't such a bad idea. However, as a unifying element, a Christmas focus should have been placed at the center. Apart from the time frame for the plot, "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation" has nothing to do with Christmas. Instead, it's about some kind of feminist "coven." There are some solid moments here and there, but the trashy story, poor acting, and clumsily written dialogue drag the whole thing down. Almost every character is completely unlikeable, and the main character Kim (Neith Hunter) in particular irritated me from the first scene. In the end, I didn't really enjoy the movie, even though it still reaches an acceptable 90s direct-to-video level, mainly due to the strong practical effects.

Goddamn this is a slow movie. It feels like every single scene, every single shot is playing for time. SNDN 3 was like this as well, and I assume SNDN 5 will be too. In any case it is definitely the best SNDN sequel. Yuzna, as per usual, distinguishes himself by doing something completely different. It's not my favorite of Yuzna's films, nor do I like it nearly as much as its advocates do, but it is at least worth checking out.