SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5: THE TOY MAKER (1991)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Martin Kitrosser.
Written by Martin Kitrosser, Brian Yuzna.
Check out the trailer here!!

Derek (William Thorne) is a young boy who witnesses the murder of his father on Christmas eve at the hands of a deadly toy top and the trauma causes him to become mute. Thinking she can help him come out of his psychosis, the boy’s mom Sarah (played by Jane Higginson) takes him to a toy store owned by the jolly Joe Petto (played by the one and only Mickey Rooney). Petto’s son Pino (played by Brian Bremer) lost his mother in a car crash as a child and takes a liking to Sarah, as he always wanted a mother figure in his life. So, Petto and Pino unleash an army of dangerous toys to put their family back together again.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 5: THE TOY MAKER is not the best installment in the SNDN series, but it is far from the worst. Maybe I’ll do a countdown of the best to worst some time in the future or next year since Christmas is over. The film serves as a semi-sequel to SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 4: INITIATION as it is co-written and produced by Brian Yuzna, who wrote and directed the fourth installment as well. The film also has a few vague ties with the previous film as Neith Hunter, who was the star in the last film, plays the same character Kim in this film, though she seems to be no worse for wear from the horrifying body horror she endured in that film. Also returning is Clint Howard, again starring as Ricky, who may or may not have been the Ricky who played the killer Santa Claus in Part 2 and the awoken comatose Ricky from Part 3. Howard only makes a cameo in this film as, what else, a department store Santa, and has little to do with the story whether he is playing Ricky or not. There’s also a reference to INITIATION as one of the demonic toys is a toy called Louie the Larvae, which refers to the heavy use of larvae in the previous installment.

Other than that, THE TOY MAKER is its own monster and what a monster it is! Just as SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 3: BETTER WATCH OUT paid homage to Frankenstein, PART 5 owes a lot to the age-old story of PINOCCHIO. Rooney and Bremer are called Joe Petto and Pino, not-so-clever twists on the names Geppetto and Pinocchio. And later revelations uncover more similarities about the story of a toy maker creating a real, live boy from parts. While it is not the smoothest of stories, one can tell that even this late in the SNDN franchise, Yuzna and his co-writer Martin Kitrosser seemed to actually attempt to inject some twisted themes into the story. Kitrosser helped write both FRIDAY THE 13TH Parts 3 and 5, as well as went on to become Quentin Tarantino’s go-to script supervisor for most of his recent films, so he’s no joke. Still, this is far from a perfect movie.

Boom’s appear at the top of the screen, edits are kind of wonky, and the acting is less than great. Jane Higginson cut her teeth on GENERAL HOSPITAL and this film takes a page from soap operas by making the drama behind her story as thick as molasses. Still, she does a capable job as the lead Sarah. It’s interesting that Neith Hunter just didn’t reprise her role as Kim in the lead role, as this story is about a mother and son and it seems as if Kim adopts the little brother of her dead boyfriend from the last film. But Higginson is ok as the lead in her place.

Mickey Rooney is over the top and seems pretty drunk most of the film. I read that he was one of the one’s who protested the loudest when the first SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT was released in the eighties, yet he dons a Santa suit and unleashes his dangerous toys in this one with no problem. I guess, the hypocrisy of Hollywood isn’t such a new thing after all. Bremer is downright creepy as Pino, the boy who seemingly never ages. During the climax, the confused young lad seems to mistake the role of Mommy with Lover, a theme that is delved into a bit throughout the film as young Derek witnesses his parents having sex right before the toys attack, and later witnesses his babysitter and her boyfriend being killed by the dangerous toys. So the relationship between motherhood, sex, death is explored in some deviously perverse fashion by the end of this one.

Once again, the effects are done by Screaming Mad George and his crew and while they don’t top the slimy body horror of INITIATION, there are some cool moments where the toys attack and the film does turn out to be bloodier than I thought one could get away with in 1991. Some of the dangerous toys are pretty clever, like the army men who fire real bullets and the concept predates Full Moon’s DEMONIC TOYS by a year. Again, I had never seen this film, so checking it out this holiday season was a blast. Don’t get me wrong, SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT PART 5: THE TOY MAKER isn’t a great movie by a longshot, but it has its moments and seeing a robotic boy try to dry hump the lead and a screeching Mickey Rooney makes it all worth it.