Welcome to Horror Secret Handshakes, a monthly column spotlighting horror stories off the beaten path that serve as an instant vibe check with new friends, acquaintances, and fellow fans. If you both know the story, you feel the bond.
I'm breaking the rules of my own column this month, because this particular film isn't something I've ever discussed with anyone else. I've never bonded with fellow fans over it. In fact I just discovered it weeks ago when doing research for another project. But given that the goal of Horror Secret Handshakes is to spotlight horror films with cult followings so strong they can form instant friendships, I feel a deep need to discuss this absolutely bonkers ride with y'all. I am certain that if I ever meet someone who feels the same way I do about it, we'll be fast friends. Plus I wanted to do a Christmas film for December.
So let's talk about Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation.
Yes, the killer Santa franchise spawned by Silent Night, Deadly Night in 1984 got to a fourth film, and even a fifth, before it went dormant in the early 1990s, and believe it or not, every single one of these sequels is interesting and entertaining in its own way. But Initiation is by far the strangest of the follow-ups to the original film, and not just because it departs entirely from the original premise.
Let's back up: Silent Night, Deadly Night is about a man whose parents were killed by a guy dressed as Santa when he was a boy. As a result, he has a lot of Santa issues, which culminate in him donning a Santa suit and killing everyone "naughty" in sight. Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 and Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out continue that story (although by the third film it gets really weird) through the adventures of Billy's younger brother Ricky, who's even more messed-up about Santa and the holidays.
For Silent Night, Deadly Night 4, though, the filmmakers just forgot all of that and launched into a completely unrelated story that also unfolds around the Christmas holiday. This time around, our protagonist is not a would-be killer, but an aspiring journalist named Kim (Neith Hunter), who's chasing a story about a woman who seemed to spontaneously combust and fall from the roof of a building. While chasing that story, she runs into Fima (Maud Adams), a bookstore owner and occultist, who introduces Kim to a wider world of secrets and a cult dedicated to the apocryphal Biblical figure of Lilith. Also there are bugs.
This is weird enough on paper, but Initiation was directed by none other than Brian Yuzna, who made one of the great body horror pictures of the 1980s with Society. Armed with that skillset, Yuzna covers this film in weird insectoid critters and lots of nondescript goop, which is my favorite kind of fluid in any '80s horror film. It's over-the-top, it's psychosexual, it's down right creepy, and it's a feast for those of us who love old school practical effects.
Does it make sense in the grander scheme of the Silent Night, Deadly Night films? Absolutely not. This is not a killer Santa picture, or a straight-up slasher movie. This is a cosmic horror dark fantasy mystery I don't know what. This is Christmas on a bad trip. This is a movie you describe to your friends and they swear you're making it up. It is, pardon me, fucking bonkers, and I had so much fun watching it that now I have to tell all of you, my weird friends from the internet, that you must watch this film. It deserves to be one of those sicko cult movies that gets passed around every December, and I'll keep shouting about it until that's true.
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