Forgotten Sequels: Silent Night, Deadly Night 3

I'll admit that the movie is somewhat well-known in the internet movie community, especially with the new DVD release. Let's be honest though: we're a bunch of weirdos. How many normal people find a movie like Ghoulies IV or Eko Eko Azarack II and go 'I need to see this right now?' Self-analysis aside, this movie is notable for being a sequel to an iconic Christmas horror film, but ignoring most of what made it work. Mind you, it is better than just literally playing clips from the first film for at least a third of it and killing someone with a car battery. Of course, that film featured a lead that looked related to the original killer and this one has Bill Moseley. He does a decent job, but the whole idea of him being there is just odd. The plot is not exactly Christmas-related and they miss one of the key things necessary for this to work as a Christmas horror film. Before I say too much, let's jingle our way into...

Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!

The film begins with a woman running around a white room. In fairness, she is at least not running around a junkyard. However, like Psycho Santa, the movie takes its sweet time explaining any of this. She runs into another room and finds a comatose man on a hospital bed who looks like Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In some quick-fire editing, he is up and covered in blood. She runs at full-tilt, but he seems to be casually-shambling and keeping up with her- a cliche that's deconstructed by Behind The Mask. A minute or so later, she wakes up on a hospital bed covered in leads. As we are explained via exposition, a scientist has been doing scientific tests on people with psychic powers. I should also note that the young woman is blind, which makes me question how she can see anything with her mind. Ignoring the non-science related to this, how does she have any concept of what anything looks like?!? She goes 'into the rabbit hole' again and runs into a flashback from Silent Night, Deadly Night. This is happening because she tapped into the comatose man's mind, who is apparently Ricky from Silent Night, Deadly Night 2. He was a baby when this part happened! There's no way he remembers any of that!

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Things get odder as our heroine runs into a rude hospital receptionist. Geez, it's a good thing that she wasn't dying or anything, lady! Our heroine has a flash of the woman with her throat cut...somehow, despite never really seeing the lady the first time! Her brother- who seems like he walked right out of Hard Rock Nightmare- takes her in his truck and they deliver more exposition. They are going to their grandmother's house for Christmas and he is bringing his girlfriend. I would complain about this bit of logic, but she is played by Laura Harring, so go right ahead. Meanwhile, anorexic Ricky wakes up from his coma to go find the young woman, since she 'touched his mind.' Yes, they really do say that. In one of the biggest disappointments of the film, he kills a man dressed as Santa, but does not take the outfit! Instead, he just wanders around in his hospital gown with his exposed skull. He gets picked up by a man and somehow gets to grandma's house before our leads! Even after stopping to kill a gas station attendant for no reason he is ahead of them! A bit later, our heroes show up and only our blind heroine thinks that something is up. The brother has more important plans: taking a bath with Laura Harring.

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Finally, after some filler, the killer decides to make his presence known. Before that, we get numerous scenes with the lead detective (played by a character actor that the VHS box promotes the hell out of) and the doctor driving around. This is so disconnected that it almost feels like a parallel film. When they finally show up, only the doctor is there- huh?!? He gets killed and the brother gets stabbed, leading our two heroines to run inside. In fitting with movie tradition, the blind woman is the brave one and the normal girl is scared shit-less. The latter goes to check for the killer, but gets pulled under a bed. So, he was hiding under there? For a 6-foot tall man with an exposed brain, he is freaking Solid Snake when it comes to stealth! To cut a long story short,- kind of- the killer confronts our heroine in the basement. Yes, we do get the cheap fake-out scare when she discovers grandma's body. Our heroine knocks out the light, but walks right into Ricky, killing the whole point of that. Blah blah blah, they struggle, she gets outside and someone finally shoots Ricky dead- for real this time! The End.

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This movie is not terrible, but it has some obvious flaws. First and foremost, the connection to the series is really stretched here. I get that it counts on the basis of this being Ricky, despite him not looking remotely-similar. However, he does not act like crazy, sporadic-killer Ricky from Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, nor does he dress up like Santa Claus or even say 'Punish.' I should reiterate this point from earlier: why doesn't he dress up like Santa Claus?!? For the only time in all three films, he has a legitimate reason to disguise his identity and doesn't! On top of that, this Ricky seems calculated and patient- the kind of guy who would use a disguise. I won't even get into the many medical issues with this film, the least of which is a man getting up and walking after being in a coma for six years! That said, there is some good atmosphere and some interesting ideas. I applaud them for only using one bit of stock footage from Silent Night, Deadly Night, although that is a back-handed compliment for sure! Honestly, it's better than you might think, but is questionably a Christmas horror film.

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Just to cleanse our palettes, here is a Christmas special from the 1980s. It has children, robots and winged horses. Oddly enough, this was made for guys. Stay tuned...