meddlecore Well, there is no attempt to forcibly include Ricky in this one. But it still only has a fleeting connection- if any- to the original trilogy. Although, it does retain some connections to the weirdness that was Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (ie the centipede toy; and cameos from the two main actors). Likely a result of Yuzna acting as Executive Producer on this one...which has a sort of Puppetmaster vibe, with a Pinocchio twist.It also sort of turns things on their heads, as the young boy in this film has aspects of a protagonist, instead of just being another victim and/or ending up as the antagonist.At least this one explicitly takes place at Christmas, and has a Santa Claus killer, of sorts. Though, it must be noted, that there is a bizarre, awkward and hilarious twist at the end...that gives SNDN 4 a run for it's money (of which, I'm quite certain, there isn't much).This one basically tells the story of a young boy, who is left a mysterious present, which ends up being a toy that goes on to murder his father, right before his eyes.You are led to suspect the local toy store owner and his creepy son. And it is them, but with an odd sci-fi themed twist, that arises unexpectedly.Most of the film, however, is just people being attacked and killed by a variety of toys...that utilize really poor special effects (up until the end, at least...the end is pretty sweet, and likely took up the bulk of their effects budget.Weirdness aside, this one is really kind of "meh". Missable, but watchable Christmas horror fun.4.5 out of 10.

Scott LeBrun The people behind these sequels certainly came up with some insane ideas once they moved away from the whole "killer Santa" routine. This last entry is co-written by director Martin Kitrosser and producer Brian Yuzna. If you recognize Kitrosser's name, that's because he'd co-written the third "Friday the 13th" movie several years previous, but has kept busy in the film business as a script supervisor, and is in fact Quentin Tarantino's script supervisor of choice. His movie is an amusing combination of the genuinely creepy and the genuinely kinky. Toys designed for a deadly purpose have been sent out for years, and killed the father of a traumatized and mute boy, Derek (William Thorne). His concerned mother Sarah (Jane Higginson) comes to suspect either drunken, seemingly kindly toy store proprietor Joe Petto (screen legend Mickey Rooney) or his weirdo son Pino (Brian Bremer, whom you may recognize from "Pumpkinhead", Yuzna's "Society", and / or "Spontaneous Combustion"). Meanwhile, a young man, Noah (Tracy Fraim) is awfully intent on making contact with Derek and Sarah, and what could be his reason? The best of these sequels since Part 2, in this reviewer's humble opinion, it benefits from being so utterly twisted. In fact, right towards the end it features what has to be one of the most disturbing attempted rape sequences committed to celluloid. The special effects are often of the cheesy and tacky variety, yet are reasonably entertaining for this reason. Kitrosser's focus on sex is pretty blatant: at one point he keeps cutting between two separate sex scenes. None too subtle references to a classic children's story are indicative of his whole approach to his movie. The acting is mostly competent enough, with the appropriately cast Bremer coming off the best. Rooney acts his little heart out, as could be expected; regarding his presence here when his was one of the voices demonizing the original movie, it just goes to show what an actor is willing to do when they're desperate enough for a gig. Neith Hunter and Conan Yuzna reprise their roles of Kim and Lonnie from the previous sequel; ubiquitous Clint Howard once again shows up, and plays a character named Ricky, but is only around for one scene. One thing this movie is not is boring, and if your tastes are anything like mine, you're sure to derive some entertainment out of this demented piece of work. Seven out of 10.

udar55 Young Derek Quinn (William Thorne) sees his father killed by a killer toy that someone left on their doorstep. Two weeks later, his mom has completely recovered from her husband's death but Derek is taking it hard, refusing to speak. She thinks the best way to cheer him up is take him to a toy store run by Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney) and his son Pino (Brian Bremer). But Mr. Petto has some evil up his sleeve as he just might be the one responsible for making these deadly toys. Also, some handsome stranger (Tracy Fraim, yes, he's a dude with that name) is poking around the Quinn household.Producer Brian (RE-ANIMATOR) Yuzna directed the fourth entry in this series and produced here. Both sequels tried to keep the Xmas horror theme but move away from the killer Santa angle. With the killer toy angle here, this is the HALLOWEEN III of the SNDN series and you would suspect to see Charles Band's name somewhere in the credits. Alas, he wasn't involved but I'm sure he enjoyed this though. Of course, how can you not enjoy a movie that features Mickey Rooney drunk on Jack Daniels and smashing the bottle over his son's head? There are some great FX in here from Screaming Mad George with the killer toys being Larry the Larva, a car with saw blades, a strangling Santa ball and the required Army men who fire real bullets. What no killer teddy bear? Charles Band shakes his head in shame. The acting is fine by everyone and the little kid actually gives one of the better child performances I've seen (maybe because he has no dialog?). Yuzna gets extra points for having a guy in line with his son to see Santa wearing a RE-ANIMATOR shirt and a girl on Santa's lap asking for clothes, make-up, sunglasses and a tape of BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR. Clint Howard has a small role as a shopping mall Santa.

leathaface This movie wasn't that bad when compared to the first two sequels to the original. It's directed by Martin Kitrosser of Friday the 13th fame. The acting is very bad indeed, but the gore and special effects help make it interesting. Thats one thing I like about Screaming Mad George (make up effects artist for the film), his effects are so off-the-wall and bizarre that they will keep you watching a bad movie just to find out how crazy they're gonna get. The movie isn't really all that gory, but there is an EXTREMELY nasty eyeball-munching scene in the middle involving a toy maggot (what!?!) Mickey Rooney makes a guest appearance that he probably wasn't too enthusiastic about but needed the money at the time, possibly? If you liked the weirdo 4th installment (my favorite of all 5), you'll probably like this one. I liked it better than the Matrix! Enjoy.