Eric Stevenson While not as bad as Part 2, this was still awful. It's mostly because of how utterly ridiculous it is. This movie features a woman on fire jumping off a building and another woman investigating her death. It turns out the woman was a member of a cult that worshipped giant larvae (!) and she failed to go through initiation. Now only does this movie have virtually nothing to do with the previous movies, but it has virtually nothing to do with Christmas at all! Couldn't these guys have at least kept that consistent? There's a few Christmas trees and presents here and there and a Christmas party, but that's it! The woman is plagued by insects all around her house. I do know what that's like unfortunately. There are several giant insects that appear throughout the movie and it looks absolutely stupid. I think this woman is actually supposed to give birth to a giant bug at one point. This film is really disgusting and has nothing to do with anything. There's just so many random things going on it's hard to put any plot together. It looks like they just took random elements and objects and made a movie out of them. This is just pointless. *

Leofwine_draca This horror sequel, also known as SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 4, is another lame affair. It's completely unspectacular. I mean, I watched it only a couple of hours ago and I can hardly remember what happened even now.The plot is confusing, deliberately so, and never seems to go anywhere. When the woman is in the ritual, absolutely nothing makes sense, and the momentum is completely lost. Parts of the film are ripped from ROSEMARY'S BABY, but to compare the two would be an outrage. BUGS is also extremely low budget, almost on a par with a home movie, which detracts from the appeal a lot. The acting is uniformly bad and unremarkable, with only the reliable Clint Howard on hand playing a repulsive geek who sticks in the mind. Apart from him, the others are dreadful with the female lead just stripping off instead of acting. Maud Adams turns up but it's been a long time since her James Bond heyday. Nowadays she's just an embarrassing old woman.Which leaves me to conclude that, as is sadly the case with a lot of modern horror films, the special effects are the only worthwhile things. There are some memorably slimy and gruesome bugs on view, with cockroaches of all sizes to give one the creeps, as well as horrible slimy maggots and slimy gunk everywhere. In fact, it's quite sickening, thanks to the reliable Screaming Mad George. As well as these horrors, there's the highlight of a burning corpse scene. There is also one of the most brutal murders ever put on film, where a helpless victim is beaten, broken and repeatedly stabbed in the chest without even being able to defend himself. It's horrible.I can only be glad that Brian Yuzna has rid himself of this trash and is now making enjoyable films again, like TICKS, THE DENTIST, and PROGENY. Let's just forget these little mishaps and concentrate on the present, not on the past. This film is ten years old already anyway.

Dagon First, let me start off by saying that as an avid horror fan, I can appreciate the vision of most movies - good or bad. I've seen my share of both over the years and I'm sure you have too. Occasionally, there is always a title that creeps up on you, leaving you scratching your head. "What did I just watch?" you might ask yourself. Imagine that little scenario, but multiply its impact ten fold and you've found yourself laying in a pool of confusion, as the end credits play, with an image of Initiation: Silent Night Deadly Night 4 projecting through your television.One of the biggest observations that goes without saying is the most obvious one...what does this, in any way, have anything to do with the Silent Night, Deadly Night series. I was forewarned that this title would be irrelevant to the first three titles. Arguably, I could sit here and say a movie like Friday the 13th Part VII is irrelevant...I could bring up the fact that many titles in the Children of the Corn lineup are questionable in terms of content. However, none of these can light a candle to the sheer audacity that Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 has. The main difference is that in the previously mentioned titles, the storyline (although far gone and nonsensical by that point) is still left somewhat intact. The current fan-base is still expecting a revival of their favorite character or plot line. Initiation, on the other hand, goes off running in some odd direction with the attention span of an ADD-stricken grade-schooler.I feel very cheated on account of this movie. For the record, I admire Brian Yuzna for his contributions on the Re-Animator series, Dagon, Faust, Necronomicon, and Return of the Living Dead III. I even enjoyed his directorial debut on the 1989 title, "Society." I can see that his personal tastes played a huge part in the outcome of this movie. I found that the creature effects involving many of the insects were very much akin to his style (I was reminded of the third story in Necronomicon, and some scenes from Society, for example).To be fair, I don't have many complaints about the acting or the amount of gore that I've learned to appreciate. The lead female character is believable to a degree, and Clint Howard delivers a decent performance as well, but the acting in general isn't too thought provoking. To elaborate on my previous point concerning relevance, the actors present in the earlier films were not here to reprise their roles - and why should they when there is absolutely no mention of them? I would have been more pleased if Yuzna decided to somehow include Billy or Ricky (the two murderers that took part in 1-3)...and to admit that preference is humiliating.In conclusion, it baffles me beyond the scope of any human being's imagination to consider this movie brilliant or fun. The fact that this film tacks on the Silent Night, Deadly Night moniker on the end of the title is pitiful; I absolutely refuse to label it as an "original horror movie twist about Christmas." For my own personal records that I keep offline, this has to be the second worst horror movie contained within a series, only slightly falling below the Howling III...an abomination so horrendous that the cast and crew responsbile should be tarred and feathered. So here's to another hand-drawn "tick" added to the very vast wall of horror for completion purposes. If you're a glutton for punishment and a masochist, throw this one in and lay back. Don't be surprised if you wake up in another state surrounded by bottles of alcohol and an empty container of pills - it wasn't the movie's fault.

willywants 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.