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

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE FILM. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM HONEST! Well I have a feeling that this film was never intended to part of the "Silent Night Deadly Night" series of films. I think LIVE HOME ENTERTAINMENT bought the home video rights and released this film under the "Silent Night" franchise name. Now this film has many elements lifted from "Pinocchio". The twist and turns however in this little film make it really fun to watch however PLEASE KEEP THIS FILM AWAY FROM SMALL CHILDREN. This is RATED R and has graphic violence. In this film a little boy witnessing his dad being murdered under a Christmas tree by a toy. The event has turned him into a mute. So he has never told his mom what really happened. The film is weird and creepy. I usually do not like horror films that have a Christmas setting. I only watched this because it was Halloween time. I am glad I watched it. I will watch again but not at Christmas time.

The Silent Night, Deadly Night series thankfully came to an end with this last effort. The first three movies in the series were all about killer Santas. Then part 4 went all "season of the witch" on things and tried to point the series in a different direction. It wasn't very successful but this one continues with that thinking, having the story about something other than a killer in a Santa Claus suit. This one basically decides that since the series started with the idea of spitting on a positive and wholesome traditional icon, this would do something similar by spitting on Pinocchio. Neith Hunter and Clint Howard reprise their roles from part 4. Hunter's supporting role adds little and Howard's cameo is pointless. It's really sad that Mickey Rooney had to do this but he had bills to pay. He easily outshines everybody else in this, even though he's slumming. The rest of the cast is entirely unmemorable. If you liked the earlier movies in this series, particularly part 4, you're obviously coming from a different place than me so you'll probably enjoy this more than I did. The same holds true if you're a fan of the made-for-video horror dreck that littered the video store shelves back in the day. Growing up my brother used to rent trash like this religiously. While I certainly have a lot of bad movies that I enjoy, this isn't one of them. It's all very blah to me, particularly with the cheap look of it. There were two or three somewhat funny scenes but not enough to save the movie as a whole. I did like seeing the Rambo cartoon though. Points for reminding me that was a thing.

The original notorious holiday slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night was audacious and thoughtful enough to merit its eventual status as a twisted classic of sorts, but the follow-up installments in this shockingly lengthy franchise have either been awe-inspiring in their awfulness or had nothing to do with the original film. This fifth (and, let's hope, final) outing straddles the line of both of those categories, and indeed the only resemblance The Toymaker bears to the first SN, DN is that the alleged horror takes place at Christmas time.Even keeping in mind the diminished expectations anyone familiar with the entire franchise is bound to have going in to this installment, this is a uniformly stupid movie, and thanks to the tedious pace and relentlessly silly effects, this clunker practically dares the viewer to make it to the end, and provides very little pay-off for the brave souls who do.Billy, the axe-wielding Santa who launched the series, is a distant memory here, and the action is instead centered around the malevolent titular Toymaker, who specializes in crafting homicidal toys. That gimmick is relied upon to carry this entire film, which would be fine if the deeds of the murderous playthings were well-orchestrated. But right from the first attack, during which a lethal Santa ball wraps its tentacle-like arms around the neck of an unsuspecting dad, the cheesy nature of Screaming Mad George's bargain basement FX elicit more laughs than scares, and when the victim ultimately meets his demise because he knocks over a conveniently placed fireplace poker and impales his own skull onto it, we aren't given any real indication that the deadly toys are actually effective in their intended tasks.Things continually get worse from there, and by the time a young boy is put into the hospital because of an accident caused by rocket-charged roller blades, it's well assured that the killer toy concept at play here is going to fall well short of the comparatively engaging material explored in the Puppet Master series.The plot, such as it is, centers around the wife and son of the previously mentioned impalee as they struggle to deal with dad's tragic demise. However, when a boyfriend from mom's past shows up unexpectedly, and her reaction to his re-appearance is having groping, unbridled sex with him in the conveniently deserted parking garage of her office building (a mere couple of weeks after her husband's been put in the ground, mind you), we sort of lose track of her as the grieving widow we're set up to root for.The Toymaker also apparently has a son, and the one twist the film attempts to throw into the works is pretty much telegraphed the moment these two appear on screen together. Of course, this happens about five minutes into the movie, which probably isn't the optimal time to squander the one surprise in store for the audience. I'm sure the film-makers thought they were being clever by naming these characters Petto and Pino, but their monikers only serve to make the true nature of their relationship even more patently obvious, so the "shocking" climactic reveal of the "hidden" truth lands with the same resounding thud the rest of the film does.If any part of the movie sticks with you after the credits roll, it's bound to be the onslaught of a toy army that targets an amorous babysitter and her tighty-whitey-wearing horndog boyfriend while the two are canoodling. A vague attempt is made here to insert some humor into the proceedings, and the prodding fingers of a plastic animatronic arm elicit a few polite chuckles, but since this is a movie that has already provided its fair share of unintentional laughs at this point, it's ultimately a bad call to pile on more comedy when at least a modicum of the gore and horror implied by this film's inclusion in the SN, DN franchise would have been a more welcome presence. Thankfully, the one decent splatter effect in The Toymaker arrives soon after, and since it's really the only piece of actual brutality in the film, it does have an admittedly potent impact.The climax, if you can stomach this movie long enough to make it there, features an anatomically barren cyborg dry-humping our main heroine while squealing, "Mommy, I love you!" So, whatever else I say about Silent Night, Deadly Night 5, at least it has that going for it. Whether or not you feel that indelible image is worth 85 minutes of your life is pretty much your call.

Young Derek Quinn (William Thorne) sees his father killed by a killer toy that someone left on their doorstep. Two weeks later, his mom has completely recovered from her husband's death but Derek is taking it hard, refusing to speak. She thinks the best way to cheer him up is take him to a toy store run by Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney) and his son Pino (Brian Bremer). But Mr. Petto has some evil up his sleeve as he just might be the one responsible for making these deadly toys. Also, some handsome stranger (Tracy Fraim, yes, he's a dude with that name) is poking around the Quinn household.Producer Brian (RE-ANIMATOR) Yuzna directed the fourth entry in this series and produced here. Both sequels tried to keep the Xmas horror theme but move away from the killer Santa angle. With the killer toy angle here, this is the HALLOWEEN III of the SNDN series and you would suspect to see Charles Band's name somewhere in the credits. Alas, he wasn't involved but I'm sure he enjoyed this though. Of course, how can you not enjoy a movie that features Mickey Rooney drunk on Jack Daniels and smashing the bottle over his son's head? There are some great FX in here from Screaming Mad George with the killer toys being Larry the Larva, a car with saw blades, a strangling Santa ball and the required Army men who fire real bullets. What no killer teddy bear? Charles Band shakes his head in shame. The acting is fine by everyone and the little kid actually gives one of the better child performances I've seen (maybe because he has no dialog?). Yuzna gets extra points for having a guy in line with his son to see Santa wearing a RE-ANIMATOR shirt and a girl on Santa's lap asking for clothes, make-up, sunglasses and a tape of BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR. Clint Howard has a small role as a shopping mall Santa.