Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989)

Silent Night, Deadly Night III (1989) 1/2 (out of 4) When I put the DVD into my player and hit play I was thinking that I had never seen this thing but within minutes of the movie playing it dawned on me that I had watched this once when it first came out. As the film went along the awfulness that was in front of my eyes made me realize that my poor mind had simply tried to forget having ever seen this awful film. Ricky Caldwell (Bill Moseley), the killer Santa from the previous film, has been in a coma for six years when a nutty doctor decides to use a blind woman (Samantha Scully) to try and connect with him. She goes home for the holidays but sadly Ricky wakes up and goes on a killing spree while trying to find her. This series is without question one of the weirdest in horror history as the original film came to be one of the most controversial ever made. The second is considered by many to be one of the worst ever made but thankfully it's so incredibly stupid that you can't help but laugh and have fun with it. This third film comes from cult director Hellman who previously made films like THE SHOOTING, RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND and CHINA 9 LIBERTY 37. Some consider him a genius but I've always found his films to be rather slow, boring and incredibly overrated. It was shocking to read several sources that said the director felt this was his best work and if he really does think that then he must really have a low opinion of his other films. This slasher is just downright horrid on all levels. The screenplay is a joke. The acting embarrassing. The special effects rather silly. There's really not a single good thing to be found here and the only reason I don't give this a BOMB rating is because of some extremely stupid scenes that actually made me laugh. I'm really not sure what Hellman was thinking but apparently the original screenplay was something completely different but he changed things up and added all sorts of strangeness. Some of his new stuff includes the doctor and a cop (Robert Culp) driving around discussing various aspects of life. This stuff doesn't work for a couple reasons. One is that the dialogue is simply poorly written and boring. The dialogue is meant to be deep and make you think but the only thing you'll want to do is sleep. Another problem is that stuff like this really takes away from the "other" story trying to be told and that's the slasher stuff. All the actors pretty much sleep through their roles but I can't say I blame them too much. Even the usually reliable Culp doesn't seem a bit interested in anything going on. What's even stranger is that Hellman uses footage from the first film and none of this is really needed because the killer here wasn't the one witnessing much of the footage that is used here and meant to be his "dream" or vision. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT III is bad on all levels and it's really a poor way to end the series. The next two installments were just cashing in on the popular title so why Hellman decided to go this route is anyone's guess but the final film is a complete disaster.

Vicious Santa Claus killer Ricky Caldell (a strangely subdued portrayal by the usually more manic Bill Moseley) gets reawakened from a six year coma by ruthless unscrupulous physician Dr. Newbury (a respectable performance by Richard Beymer). Of course, Ricky reverts back o his previous murderous ways, escapes from the hospital, and goes after Laura Anderson (a decidedly annoying and less-than-appealing turn by the pretty Samantha Scully), a bitter and remote blind clairvoyant he shares a special psychic connection to. Director Monte Hellman, who in better days graced us with such offbeat and engrossing existential art-house winners as "The Shooting," "Two-Lane Blacktop," and "Cockfighter," here handles this mercenary hired hack assignment with a dismaying lack of style and vigor: the plodding pace, a crippling dearth of tension, mild off-screen deaths, blandly staged murder set pieces, tame gore, faltering attempts at humor (in one especially ridiculous scene Ricky hitches a ride with a motorist despite the fact that he's wearing a white hospital gown and has a plastic Plexiglas bubble on his head covering his visible brain!), clips from both "The Terror" and the first movie, a minimal body count, the dumb sequel set-up non-ending, the potentially compelling, but seriously unexplored psychic theme, and a dismal last third which degenerates into a tepid rehash of "Wait Until Dark" all leave a great deal to be desired. J. Steven Soles' generic shivery score likewise fails to impress. The game cast do their best with the lackluster material: Robert Culp contributes an amusingly kooky turn as sarcastic detective Lt. Connely, Elizabeth Hoffman is endearingly perky as Laura's chipper Grandma, and lovely brunette stunner Laura Harring as the sultry Jerri bares her cute little breasts in a pleasingly gratuitous bathtub nude scene. An extremely insipid and instantly forgettable clinker.

Pretty blind Laura(Samantha Scully playing her cold and distant making it especially hard to sympathize with her plight) is psychically linked to comatose serial killer Ricky(Bill Moseley, completely devoid of emotion..pretty much a walking robot who seems to explode through doors without even cutting himself and takes very slow steps)thanks to the experiments of Dr. Newbury(Richard Beymer)who was able to reconstruct the man's brain placing a glass dome on his head(..this is to ensure that nothing touches the brain as it is exposed). These experiments is to generate thoughts and images from Ricky's fractured, emotionally damaged mind that might assist him in his goal to free guilty minds through "evil thought cleansing". But, the experiment goes awry when Laura's tapping into deep wounding past nightmares awakens Ricky who will pursue her, killing anyone who comes in his path. The color red(or anything representing the Santa Claus killer who took his parents' lives)triggers the kill mechanism in Ricky's demented mental framework. Laura is going to Granny's for the holidays with brother Chris(Eric DaRe)and his girlfriend Jerri(Laura Harring). Through their psychic link, Ricky can see where they are heading, somehow getting there before they can killing Granny. Without their knowledge of Ricky being at Granny's house, Laura will use uncomfortable feelings(she can sense something's wrong)to understand that something is not quite right..it only increases when Granny is nowhere to be found. Lt Connely(Robert Culp, a much welcome presence to the proceedings)will need the help of Dr. Newbury to find and stop Ricky before his rampage leaves a lot of dead bodies..and is Laura's only hope.Far-fetched premise and incredibly slow killer hinder the peculiar, weird atmosphere of the horror flick. Definitely unlike the previous two films, this is not the slightest bit gory. Blood splatter as violence to others occurs off-screen is about as gross as it gets. It also features a heroine with a potty-mouth and icy demeanor who you have a hard time rooting for. And, with such a robotic, monotonously slow psycho, it's mighty hard getting scares out of the hunting of victims. His amazing power is completely laughable as well..I mean he receives a shot-gun blast that forcefully throws him across the floor, yet he's able to get up and attack brother Chris who is quite bigger than Ricky.

I enjoyed the original Silent Night, Deadly Night. To the dismay of other internet film critics, i also enjoyed Silent Night, Deadly Night part 2. But when i sat down to watch the 3rd installment in the series, even at the age of 15 i knew the end was near. My Biggest issue with this film has little to do with the low rent acting. It is the blatant disregard for the previous film that irritates me the most.Ricky has no need for the science fictional fishbowl on his head in this film, other than to draw attention away from the lack of plot, and place all eyes on a sad gimmick. In the end of Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, Ricky is shot three times, yes – But he was never shot in the head – nor did he have his head blown off as another commentator included in his/her IMDb review of the film. There is No Need for the Fishbowl!