MY CALL: Ugh. Another weak SNDN sequel. Probably not even eventful enough for a spirited Bad Movie Tuesday. MOVIES LIKE Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: For more holiday horror, check out Black Friday (2021), Black Christmas (1974, 2006 remake, 2019 reimagining), Await Further Instructions (2018), Holidays (2016; Christmas), Better Watch Out (2016), A Christmas Horror Story (2015), Krampus (2015), Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010), Elves (1989), Tales from the Crypt Season 1 (1989; And All Through the House), Christmas Evil (1980), Silent Night Deadly Night (1984), Gremlins (1984), and Tales from the Crypt (1972; And All Through the House). I might skip Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984), The Oracle (1985), Silent Night Deadly Night part 2 (1987), and maybe even All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018).
With his brain completely exposed, Ricky Caldwell (Bill Moseley; The Convent, Boar, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, House of 1000 Corpses, Texas Chainsaw 3-D, The Blob, Smothered) awakens from his coma to stalk a young blind woman Laura (Samantha Scully; Bloodsuckers), with whom he shares a psychic connection. Like a modern Frankenstein’s monster, Ricky is drawn to Laura and he kills everyone in his path. In true cheesy horror style, this medical monster hitchhikes with a motorist who makes a bad hair transplant joke.
Director Monte Hellman (The Terror) follows up the incredibly lazy sequel Silent Night Deadly Night part 2 (1987), which set the bar for SNDN sequels pretty low… despite a wonderfully campy death by umbrella scene. Well, in the case of this sequel, despite a fresh premise and a lot of campy potential, this is a total slog.
There’s decent blood and gore. Though with little seen executed on screen and of lower than desired frequency, the pacing is sluggish. And even when the action is happening, it’s executed flatly, nearly devoid of intensity, shock, or fun. You might giggle at how clumsy the action is—but that’s about it. This is a real shame, because the movie exposition builds up this backstory of rebuilding Ricky’s brain and skull (after it was blown away at the end of part 2) and using his comatose brainwaves in experiments involving psychics (i.e., Laura). Yet still this readily devolves to an ultra-basic Halloween (1978) derivative where Ricky kills his way to his final girl homing beacon.
Truly, the main (or only) joy to be taken from this movie is watching the half-filled-with-blood upside-down bare-brain-bathing punch bowl on Ricky’s head.
Not good. Not recommended. So far, of SNDN 1-3, I think I’d only recommend part 1. Although the ideas are starting to get zany… and I do like that effort. Let’s see what happens with part 4 because, yeah, I’m gonna’ watch it.
