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

They were really cracking out these independent low-budget films straight to video, but just like the last entry "Initiation" the filth instalment "The Toy Maker" (which had Brain Yunza involved again, but this time only producing) took on a different spin (while still being hysterically deranged) and would probably go down as my favourite of the four sequels. This enterprise actually had some similar shades to "Halloween III; Season of the Witch" and at times it strangely had me thinking of "Child's Play 2" namely that of its opening credits, nonetheless the gimmicky story is surprisingly inspired if ridiculously convoluted and mean-spirited. It's a jolly odd one, as the delightful Neith Hunter returns with her headstrong character Kim in nothing more than a minor role and also it has actor Mickey Rooney (who was heavily opposed to the original when it got a whirlwind of scathing attention) finding himself apart of the notorious franchise. It's funny how things do work out, but he's ideally great in the part. The rest of the performances are fairly delivered by Jane Higginson, William Thorne, Van Quattro and Brian Bremer is downright creepy as Pino. Clint Howard shows up again in a tiny, if thankless part. Cult make-up / special FX maestro Screaming Mad George provides the ample special effects and again he does a tremendous job crafting out the details, where he storms up some nasty pieces of work when the toys go berserk. Director / writer Martin Kitrosser (who would be best known by horror fans for penning "Friday the 13th Part 3, 4 and 5") piles on the outrageous jolts and unforeseeable story twists, but it can fall a bit on the stodgy side even with its polished look.

Fmovies: A young boy witness his father being murdered by a sadistic toy that was delivered to his house anonymously.The kid becomes genuinely scared and refuses to talk.Such glaring apathy worries his attractive mother.There seems to be something genuinely sinister about their local toy shop managed by legendary Mickey Rooney and his son Pino.I must say that I enjoyed watching "Silent Night,Deadly Night 5:The Toy Maker"(1991).The plot is intriguing and it features several well-thought plot twists.The toy sequence in which baby-sitter and her boyfriend are attacked by toys is pretty bloody and hysterical.The final scenes of Martin Kitrosser directional debut are positively bonkers.8 killer toys out of 10.

Trying to help her traumatized son at Christmas, a woman finds that the repeated attempts of a local toy-shop worker to win him over are based on more serious accusations and must try to stop their dangerous plan for the neighborhood children.

On the whole, this was a decidedly decent enough effort that really does have some good parts to it. One of its better elements is the extremely enjoyable nature it takes toward the sleazy aspect of its storyline, where the idea of a group of innocent neighborhood children receiving malfunctioning toys that will end up killing them in the future makes for a rather chilling premise that gets exploited quite nicely along the way. From the scenes of the children taking the toys and playing to the later scenes of them running amuck as they start to experience all sorts of extremely grisly ends, which are nicely laid out in the second half, this one really gets some rather fun and cheesy action to go along with the rather entertaining for their fun and goofy time. Also part of this charm is the finale which manages to include plenty of rather fun, cheesy action here with the rampaging doll carrying the action in the toy-shop along with a cheesy gusto that's plenty of fun to see through. However, this is about all that works here since there's a lot of problematic elements throughout here, the most notable being the overuse of the killer doll concept that had long run out of steam. The idea of warping it into a killer-Santa story is decent enough but it never goes far enough with this premise since the majority of the time is spent on really unconvincing special effects for the killer dolls and toys that are hardly lifelike and realistic which undercuts their effectiveness considerably. Likewise, the revolving door cast as the villains of the piece don't give this one the case of mystery as to who's behind it all and why that was most likely the target it was aiming for as here it simply reeks of inability to really commit to a storyline that jumps from one random image to another without really settling on a given topic which causes this one to slip a lot as these are pretty hard-fought flaws here. Still, it's good enough that this is still somewhat watchable.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene and children-in-jeopardy.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker fmovies. 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 people behind these sequels certainly came up with some insane ideas once they moved away from the whole "killer Santa" routine. This last entry is co-written by director Martin Kitrosser and producer Brian Yuzna. If you recognize Kitrosser's name, that's because he'd co-written the third "Friday the 13th" movie several years previous, but has kept busy in the film business as a script supervisor, and is in fact Quentin Tarantino's script supervisor of choice. His movie is an amusing combination of the genuinely creepy and the genuinely kinky. Toys designed for a deadly purpose have been sent out for years, and killed the father of a traumatized and mute boy, Derek (William Thorne). His concerned mother Sarah (Jane Higginson) comes to suspect either drunken, seemingly kindly toy store proprietor Joe Petto (screen legend Mickey Rooney) or his weirdo son Pino (Brian Bremer, whom you may recognize from "Pumpkinhead", Yuzna's "Society", and / or "Spontaneous Combustion"). Meanwhile, a young man, Noah (Tracy Fraim) is awfully intent on making contact with Derek and Sarah, and what could be his reason? The best of these sequels since Part 2, in this reviewer's humble opinion, it benefits from being so utterly twisted. In fact, right towards the end it features what has to be one of the most disturbing attempted rape sequences committed to celluloid. The special effects are often of the cheesy and tacky variety, yet are reasonably entertaining for this reason. Kitrosser's focus on sex is pretty blatant: at one point he keeps cutting between two separate sex scenes. None too subtle references to a classic children's story are indicative of his whole approach to his movie. The acting is mostly competent enough, with the appropriately cast Bremer coming off the best. Rooney acts his little heart out, as could be expected; regarding his presence here when his was one of the voices demonizing the original movie, it just goes to show what an actor is willing to do when they're desperate enough for a gig. Neith Hunter and Conan Yuzna reprise their roles of Kim and Lonnie from the previous sequel; ubiquitous Clint Howard once again shows up, and plays a character named Ricky, but is only around for one scene. One thing this movie is not is boring, and if your tastes are anything like mine, you're sure to derive some entertainment out of this demented piece of work. Seven out of 10.

Sex obsessed killer robots. Yes you read that right.