Ah good old 1991, throwback to a simpler time. i was 10 the year this movie came out, and I of course wanted to watch it and of course my mom wouldn't let me. The first movie in this series caused quite an uproar, as it featured a killer dressed as Santa Claus who went around slaughtering people he deemed as "naughty." By this point in the series they had gotten away from the concept of a killer Santa. The third movie in the series was a slow slogging mess about some killer who was comatose but his brain still killed people, and part 4 was about a coven of witches, so part 5 was really more of a return to the idea behind the original movie, a traumatized child being stalked at Christmas. I've wanted to see this movie for years, and I'm finally checking it out today.
In the first few minutes of this movie we see a kid receive a present on his doostep that mysteriously shows up one night and he is intercepted by his father who winds up sending him to bed and opening the present himself, which leads him to a grisly fate. Now traumatized, the young son, Derek, refuses to speak and his mother is worried about him, so she tries to lift his spirits by buying him a new toy, which is when we meet the toymaker, a psychotic who modifies children's toys to be a deadly surprise when opened. Now in the killer's sights, Derek is in grave danger, and he must find a way to fight back against the evil toymaker to save himself and save Christmas.
i once read an essay about the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movies that posited the idea that these films were made by people who hate children, and that the hatred of children was the thread holding all these movies together. The essay went film by film, pointing out scenes where children are tortured, and that essay said the penultimate example of hatred for children is the fifth movie, which features an evil toymaker preying on children. This made me really want to watch the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movies to see what caused this kind of reaction, but the films are really a mixed bag. the first one is a good slasher, with a traumatized little boy who is tormented by a nun until he grows up and becomes a psycho killer dressed as Santa claus. The second movie is comprised mainly if clips from the first movie, and the only reason to really watch it is to see if anyone gets revenge on the evil nun from the first movie.
Like i said earlier, the third movie is a sequel in name only snoozefest that features a comatose killer whose brain is doing all the killings. The fourth movie is about a coven of witches, and the best thing about it was the performance of Clint Howard as a homeless man who famously chows down on a hamburger full of ants (that's really the only thing I remember about that movie). But there weren't really any children to torture in the third and fourth movie, so the essay kind of falls apart with its claim that the movies hate children. That theme comes back full force with the fifth movie though, where an evil toymaker is brewing on children with deadly toys (even though most of the victims of the toys are adults).
One thing about the movies that DO appear to revel in the torture of children is that they really are harsh on kids. The poor little boy tormented in the first movie by first an evil Santa Claus and then later by an evil nun, the young boy in the second movie who grows up under the tutelage of the same nun. and this movie, where in the opening sequences we see Derek being mistreated by his father, then stalked by the toymaker, and a local shopkeeper's son who is an adult now but is nevertheless abused by his father. I can see why people would say these movies revel in the hatred of children. This movie is better than any movie with a 5 after the title deserves to be. it's way better than the third and fourth movies, and would work as a direct sequel to the first two, even though it doesn't feature any characters from the original two movies, because it has a similar tone of mistreated children having to fight back against evil. It's fun watching the toys come to life and kill people, and while the special effects leave a lot to be desired, the movie still works. It's definitely worth watching, and you can even skip the third and fourth movies in the series, unless you're a completest like me.
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