SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4: INITIATION (1990)
Directed by Brian Yuzna
Starring Allyce Beasley and Maud Adams
A good music score by Richard Band helps raise this film above most of the direct-to-video crap being produced these days. Brought to us direct from the infamous bad horror movie director Brian Yuzna, this "sequel" is totally unrelated to the previous "Silent Night, Deadly Night" films.
Reggie Bannister (the bald guy from "Phantasm") has a brief part as a newspaper publisher who won't let his nosy reporter (Allyce Beasley) pursue a bizarre spontaneous combustion case.
Of course it turns out the victim was part of a bizarre ritual sacrifice, led by an evil bookstore owner Maud Adams, who was apparently hard up for work after playing "Octopussy" in that god-awful Bond film. As she delves deeper into the mystery Beasley starts seeing "Naked Lunch"-like giant bugs in her apartment and even an Octopus-like spaghetti monster.
Yeah, it's pretty lame. Yuzna has only directed one good horror film, "The Dentist." His "The Society" was real crap and "Bride of Re-animator" was a big disappointment. This film, although better than your average video store schlock, isn't anything to twist and shout about.
Still, if you're hard up for a horror rental, it's mildly watchable.