Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990)

A reporter investigating the bizarre death of a woman who leaped from a building in flames finds herself mixed up in a cult of witches who are making her part of their sacrificial ceremony during the Christmas season.

Director:

Brian Yuzna

Writers:

Richard N. Gladstein (story), Arthur Gorson (story) (as Arthur H. Gorson)

Stars:

Clint Howard, Neith Hunter, Tommy Hinkley

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Howard	...	Ricky
Neith Hunter	...	Kim Levitt
Tommy Hinkley	...	Hank
Hugh Fink	...	Jeff
Richard N. Gladstein	...	Woody
Reggie Bannister	...	Eli
Allyce Beasley	...	Janice
Glen Chin	...	Jo the Butcher
Maud Adams	...	Fima
Jeanne Bates	...	Katherine
Laurel Lockhart	...	Ann
Ben Slack	...	Gus
Conan Yuzna	...	Lonnie
Marjean Holden	...	Jane
Ilsa Setzoil	...	Li

Storyline

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 Egyptan god Isis--and the cult wants her as its new queen.

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Plot Keywords:

cult | christmas | misandry | male rear nudity | female nudity | 

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Taglines:

The director of "Return of the Living Dead 3" and the producer of "Ticks" brings you a new skin crawling dimension in terror.

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 1990 (USA)

Also Known As:

Silent Night, Deadly Night IV: Initiation

Filming Locations:

1301 West Second Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Silent Films Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This marks the first of two times Clint Howard plays a character named Ricky. He is the only actor to play him more than once (not counting archive footage). It is unclear if he is playing the same character from the first two films.

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Goofs

After Kim leaves the office Christmas party, she stumbles out into the street and sees Ricky standing beside his parked car to her right. The license plate on the car is backwards, which normally would indicate that the shot was reversed in order for it to match up with the direction Kim was looking. However, all other text in that shot is NOT backwards! Correctly displayed is the word "restaurant" on the green sign in the background, the word "Dresden" on the green awning next to that sign, the name "Mustang" and the Ford name and emblem on the back of the car. The only thing flipped is the license plate, which means that it was done physically on the actual car and is not an editing trick.

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Quotes

Ricky: [picks up a hamburger from the street and opens it] Oww. No fucking cheese!

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Alternate Versions

The 1996 UK video version (titled "Bugs") was cut by 8 secs by the BBFC. A shot of a man hanging by his nipples was removed.

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Connections

Follows Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

User Reviews

Return Of the Dead 80s Franchise

The second in a trio of Brian Yuzna-directed early-90s sequels to 80s horror classics, this one stands out - as particularly uninspired. Bride of Re-Animator was a decent direct sequel, continuing the story where it ended in Re-Animator, while Return of the Living Dead III surprisingly re-animated a left-for-dead franchise with a new story bearing only some connections to the original (and missing its humor). Both of them were B-movies, sure, but they had good ideas, the weird make-up effects that Society, Yuzna's freaky debut, made him known for, and lots of B-charm of their own. Why Yuzna even bothered with the trite SNDN series I don't know - probably it started with a late-night call like this: " Well, that last Silent Night Deadly Night movie did OK, so if you have anything which we could somehow distribute under that franchise, we'll do it." The only thing that connects this one to the others is the character of Ricky (this time it's the great Clint Howard in one of his lamest performances) who's shot-to-goo brain has healed remarkably well in just one year. Well, the bum he plays may as well be named Ron or Gerald - and probably was before they tried to make some unnecessary connection with the SNDN series. The story is uninteresting from the start, the acting is bland (the unknown Neith Hunter probably got the lead because she was willing to do the slime-trenched nude scenes) and yes, there's Yuzna's trademark scenes involving Screaming Mad George's body melt effects which are fun as always, but they are few and short, hardly worth the wait. As there's hardly any Christmas connections either, this one doesn't even qualify for a Trashmas video night in the holidays.