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:

And if I die before I wake, thank you.

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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 4: Initiation

Filming Locations:

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, however, is backwards, indicating that the shot was reversed in order for it to match up with the direction Kim was looking.

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Quotes

Hank: With an attitude like that you're going to lose your job.
Kim: Oh yeah, well then fuck my attitude, fuck the job, and fuck you!

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Connections

Featured in Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991)

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.