FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Leofwine_draca This horror sequel, also known as SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 4, is another lame affair. It's completely unspectacular. I mean, I watched it only a couple of hours ago and I can hardly remember what happened even now.The plot is confusing, deliberately so, and never seems to go anywhere. When the woman is in the ritual, absolutely nothing makes sense, and the momentum is completely lost. Parts of the film are ripped from ROSEMARY'S BABY, but to compare the two would be an outrage. BUGS is also extremely low budget, almost on a par with a home movie, which detracts from the appeal a lot. The acting is uniformly bad and unremarkable, with only the reliable Clint Howard on hand playing a repulsive geek who sticks in the mind. Apart from him, the others are dreadful with the female lead just stripping off instead of acting. Maud Adams turns up but it's been a long time since her James Bond heyday. Nowadays she's just an embarrassing old woman.Which leaves me to conclude that, as is sadly the case with a lot of modern horror films, the special effects are the only worthwhile things. There are some memorably slimy and gruesome bugs on view, with cockroaches of all sizes to give one the creeps, as well as horrible slimy maggots and slimy gunk everywhere. In fact, it's quite sickening, thanks to the reliable Screaming Mad George. As well as these horrors, there's the highlight of a burning corpse scene. There is also one of the most brutal murders ever put on film, where a helpless victim is beaten, broken and repeatedly stabbed in the chest without even being able to defend himself. It's horrible.I can only be glad that Brian Yuzna has rid himself of this trash and is now making enjoyable films again, like TICKS, THE DENTIST, and PROGENY. Let's just forget these little mishaps and concentrate on the present, not on the past. This film is ten years old already anyway.

lost-in-limbo After the deadly dull third film producer / director Brain Yunza would ambitiously steer away from the psycho Santa formula (no more Billy, Ricky or mother superior) of the first three "Silent Night, Deadly Night" outings, for something unrelated and could have easily stood alone by just sticking to the title "Initiation". Maybe then it would have gained a better reputation. Anyhow what's done is done. "Initiation: "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4" is an atypically strange holiday shocker, which delves into witchcraft, the occult and nasty looking bugs. The story centres on a bunch of female characters (an almost feminist stance streams through the material) led by the likes of an outstanding Maud Adams and Neith Hunter as the feisty newspaper reporter heroine, but the scene stealer is support actor Clint Howard who's dementedly humorous with his offbeat character. Director Yunza competent handling makes the most of the leering low-budget, establishing surprising dynamics (an edgy music score and getting some crudely nauseating and graphically surreal rubber make-up effects crafted by Screaming Mad George. There's quite an nightmarish atmosphere… where the premise plays out like some sort of lingering bad dream with its constant off-the-wall images (the ritual sequences take the cake), alarmingly unpleasant streak and spaced-out characters finding its way into the investigative plot-structure. While immensely slow-burn, it did at times get frustrating with its stop and go rhythm amongst its ambiguously eerie plotting. Sometimes it had me captivated, while other instances my interest faded… but it builds up a rush of energy for its bewilderingly suspenseful climax. Other then the bumpy story it's a well-made, low-grade shocker.

Woodyanders Feisty reporter Kim (an appealingly perky performance by the pretty Neith Hunter) investigates the mysterious fiery death of a young woman. Kim uncovers a lethal and mysterious coven of man-hating feminist lesbian witches who worship the powerful Egyptian goddess Isis and want to make Kim a new member. Director Brian Yuzna, working from a wickedly freaky, nasty, and original script by Woody Keith, capably crafts an engrossingly weird and warped shocker: Yuzna maintains a steady pace throughout, develops an appropriately spooky and ominous atmosphere, adds a few inspired moments of amusing dark humor, and piles on the tremendously revolting gross-out moments with real go-for-it unpleasant aplomb (stomach-knotting highlights include loads of icky squirmy giant bugs and larva, Kim giving birth to a vile over-sized insect, and Kim mutating into a giant slimy humanoid worm mutant). This movie further benefits from sound acting by an able cast, with stand-out contributions by Maud Adams as alluring cult leader Fima, Tommy Hinkley as Kim's horny, supportive boyfriend Hank, Allyce Beasley as sympathetic coworker Janice, and Reggie Banister as Kim's sexist jerk boss Eli. Clint Howard is genuinely creepy and unnerving as geeky and grubby cult flunky Ricky; Howard brutally butchers one man with a knife, strangles another guy with Christmas tree lights, and even has kinky ritualistic sex with Kim (yuck!). Screaming Mad George provides the deliciously grotesque make-up f/x. The yuletide setting, a pronounced sexually perverse angle, and the bizarre evil rituals all give this picture an extra twisted edge. Both Philip Holahan's slick cinematography and Richard Band's shuddery score are up to speed. Good grody fun.

mkay-549-110495 The second in a trio of Brian Yuzna-directed early-90s sequels to 80s horror classics, this one stands out - as particularly uninspired. Bride of Re-Animator was a decent direct sequel, continuing the story where it ended in Re-Animator, while Return of the Living Dead III surprisingly re-animated a left-for-dead franchise with a new story bearing only some connections to the original (and missing its humor). Both of them were B-movies, sure, but they had good ideas, the weird make-up effects that Society, Yuzna's freaky debut, made him known for, and lots of B-charm of their own. Why Yuzna even bothered with the trite SNDN series I don't know - probably it started with a late-night call like this: " Well, that last Silent Night Deadly Night movie did OK, so if you have anything which we could somehow distribute under that franchise, we'll do it." The only thing that connects this one to the others is the character of Ricky (this time it's the great Clint Howard in one of his lamest performances) who's shot-to-goo brain has healed remarkably well in just one year. Well, the bum he plays may as well be named Ron or Gerald - and probably was before they tried to make some unnecessary connection with the SNDN series. The story is uninteresting from the start, the acting is bland (the unknown Neith Hunter probably got the lead because she was willing to do the slime-trenched nude scenes) and yes, there's Yuzna's trademark scenes involving Screaming Mad George's body melt effects which are fun as always, but they are few and short, hardly worth the wait. As there's hardly any Christmas connections either, this one doesn't even qualify for a Trashmas video night in the holidays.