Christmas 2021: December 10th

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990)

It's been a few years since I've reviewed a "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movie. You can credit this to my inability to get a Christmas marathon rolling and not because I don't enjoy these movies. I actually love the first one and the second film is, if nothing else, wildly entertaining. "Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out" does represent the tedious low-point of the series. Yet it must've sold well on video, as a fourth installment in the Christmas horror series would arrive in 1990, the very next year... Sort of. Let us attempt to unravel the case of "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation," another challenger for the title of strangest sequel in a long-running slasher movie franchise. 

A woman bursts into flames above a Chinese butcher shop and jumps to her death. Kim, who is stuck editing personal ads for the the Los Angeles Eye, wants to write a story about the event. When her boss —  as well as her boyfriend, who also works for the paper — discourage her from investigating, she does it in her own. She comes across Fima, a woman who runs an occult book store and leads an all-women cult of Lilith worshippers. As Christmas draws closer, Kim is pulled into the cult and forced to participate in disturbing rituals... Which involves enormous bugs and a murderous transient. 

You'll notice that the above plot description has nothing to do with past "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movies. Part three had already abandoned the controversial Santa killer angle and "Initiation" strays even further. Clint Howard plays a character named Ricky, the mentally ill homeless man that acts as the witch's servant. Whether he's meant to be the same Ricky that Bill Moseley and Eric Freeman played is not clear. The only reference to the previous films is when Clint watches a clip of the third movie on television. In fact, Christmas plays only a small role in the sequel. "Initiation" was directed by Brian Yunza right after he made "Society." Rumors persist that the film's script was actually salvaged from an unmade sequel to that movie. This has never been confirmed but the story here, of a secret circle that does bizarre body-bending, certainly has more in common with "Society" than "Silent Night, Deadly Night." The disconnect with the other entries is such that this was released under the title "Bugs" in the U.K. 

If "Initiation" isn't a "Silent Night, Deadly Night" sequel, what is it? This is a kinky, gross-out horror movie that contains a number of interesting ideas. Kim and Doug, her boyfriend, are introduced having enthusiastic sex. Yet sex is the only way he can relate to her. Similarly, none of the staff at the newspaper take her seriously, strictly because of her gender. Fima's coven, meanwhile, is built for woman, by women. They worship Lilith and special attention is drawn to Adam's first wife's refusal to lay under him during sex. Naturally, this foreshadows a later scene where Kim ties up Doug and jumps on top. 

This is far from the only way these pagan themes influence the story. Spirals, the oldest of all human symbols, reoccur throughout the film. Kim was raised Jewish and, when she points out to Doug's very Christian dad that Christmas rituals are based on pagan ones, he's extremely offended. Fima — whose name sounds like "feminist" — seems to harbor some lesbian attraction to Kim. All this suggest "Initiation" is a movie all about women breaking free from the regressive, patriarchal, and explicitly Christian traditions of American society to embrace older beliefs that actually value women. 

If all of that sounds a little ambitious for a low budget, quickie horror sequel, it is. "Initiation" does not blend these ideas into a coherent whole. Doug is, at best, an insensitive boyfriend. His dad is a real asshole and ends up strangled with Christmas lights, during one of the more traditional "Silent Night, Deadly Night" moments. Yet the coven converting Kim are still the movie's villains. They manipulate Kim's mind and inflict all sorts of horrifying rituals on her. The worst of which has Ricky donning a phallic mask and raping Kim. I'm not quite sure what that has to do with the coven's feminist beliefs. The film's themes are confused and its story is frequently incoherent, as the scenes of Ricky killing people and the spontaneous human combustion seemed tossed in. 

And what about those giant bugs? Fima believes that Lilith was the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which makes her the patron spirit of everything that creeps and crawls. No snakes appear in the movie but it's loaded with slimy beetles and grubs of varying size. The film seems obsessed with shoving its oversized creepy crawlers in and around people's face. Kim eats a beetle, vomits it up, and later gives birth to an enormous worm through her mouth. Screaming Mad George provides the vivid special effects, creating twitching giant larva and crawling huge beetles. Later, slime gushes from Kim's womb, encasing her legs in a cocoon that bends her body like rubber. The finale features a "Society"-like moment where fingers become tendrils. It's creative and disgusting. As someone with a slight bug phobia and hang-ups about food, a moment involving worms and spaghetti triggered my gag reflex. "Initiation" definitely earns points for its creative application of rubber, latex, and slime. 

The cast is decent too. Neith Hunter is a creditable lead, Maud Adams is convincing as Fima, and Clint Howard is appropriately unhinged as Ricky. "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4" has long disappointed fans looking for more ho-ho-homicide. Being set in L.A., there's not even any snow on the ground. But unsurprisingly, its feminist themes have won it some reappraisals in recent years. I would say the movie is absolutely a mess. The gross-out feels self-serving sometimes. Yet it's definitely interesting, with lots of wild ideas on its mind. If nothing else, it's certainly more compelling than the sleep-inducing third film in the series. Ambition and creativity count for something, even if "Initiation" can not assemble its themes into a coherent whole. [6/10]

The New Batman Adventures: Holiday Knights

I think, every time I've tried to do one of these Christmas marathons, I always include a piece of Batman-related media. I can't help it that, as a child of the nineties whose first exposure to the Dark Knight was through “Batman Returns,” I associate DC Comics' Caped Crusader with the holidays. I'm not the only one, as the beloved “Batman: The Animated Series” did several Christmas-themed episodes throughout its run. In 1997, the show would be relaunched for the Warner Brothers network, changing its name to “The New Batman Adventures” and shifting to more exaggerated character designs. Though it was still recognizably the same program, with most of the cast and crew returning. The very first episode of this slightly new “Batman” cartoon was Christmas themed, the series kicking off with “Holiday Knights.”

“The New Batman Adventures” wanted to focus just as much on the wider Bat-Family as it does Bruce Wayne himself, which is probably why “Holiday Knights” actually tells three stories. The first, set on December 22nd, has Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy sneaking into a Christmas party at Wayne Manor. Under the mistletoe, Ivy plants a mind-controlling kiss on Bruce, forcing him to take the girls on a holiday shopping spree. On December 24th, Barbara Gordon runs into Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya at a department store, who are tracking a holiday shoplifter. When the crook is revealed to be Clayface, Gordon slips into her Batgirl costume to help out. Finally, on December 31st, the Joker plans to activated a deadly sonic-based weapon in the center of Gotham as soon as the bell strikes midnight. Batman and Robin sweep in to save the New Year.

Harley Quinn is about as overexposed as a comic character can be right now. And her bisexual relationship with Poison Ivy is also front-and-center these days. “Holiday Knights” was an early step in both of these phenomena. It reminds me why both were so delightful. Harley's wacky personality compliments Ivy's eco-terrorist habits. Here, she has a minor rant about Christmas trees. And there's no denying that there's a fun, sexy, energy to the mischief they get up to here. The episode makes sure to include a montage of them trying on different outfits. (And introduces both of them in their pajamas.) This is certainly emphasized by the stylized direction. They might break the law but nobody really gets hurt and they sure have a lot of fun doing it.

The second segment is not as much fun, though it's not bad either. Bullock as a grouchy Santa Claus, forced to interact with kids, produces several funny moments. Such as his conversation with a girl whose dad is in prison. The way Clayface reveals himself, having been disguised as four separate little boys that combine into his single form, is pretty cool. The light-hearted sexiness from the first story also continues here, as Renee Montoya wears an elf costume with a very short skirt and Barbara changes into her costume in the middle of the store. The action scenes are creatively animated though the way Clayface is defeated is kind of underwhelming.

The final segment includes a starring role for Mark Hamill's Joker, who is as fantastically entertaining as always. Since the show was under less strict censorship demands on WB, compared to Fox, the Joker actually gets to murder people and wield a realistic gun. His scheme, handing out Joker masks to everyone in the crowd, and his mime-like henchmen are nice touch. I wish Batman and Robin had more to do in the actual story, besides just participate in the token action scene. The final scene, where Batman and Commissioner Gordon meet in a dinner, is wonderful though. “Holiday Knights” is a bit uneven but still a pretty amusing bit of superhero-influenced holiday cheer. [7/10]