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.

Silent Night, Dead Night 4 (Otherwise known as both Initiation and Bugs) is a weird one because it's another Horror franchise that ditches the original material and goes in a new direction altogether.

The first 3 movies were about the psychotic "Naughty" Caldwell brothers, this is oddly about a coven of witches and their bug themed birthing rituals and.....yeah, it gets a bit weird.

Starring industry legend Clint Howard and Phantasm alumni Reggie Bannister this isn't as bad as you'd imagine but it's a really weird choice to veer off so dramatically.

Okay fine it can work, Halloween 3 for example is my favorite of the franchise and has nothing to do with Michael Myers.

This is passable, but weird. Also not one for those with weak stomachs, some of it is really quite grosse.

A bizzare choice of content, but it could have been worse.

The Good:

Reggie Bannister, Clint Howard and Allyce Beasley are all great

Creature effects are great

The Bad:

Just plain weird

Simply not a Silent Night, Deadly Night movie

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

All Asian people know karate chops

"Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 4: Intiation" is one strange movie. In fact, I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. And I've seen a lot of films. It is about a Los Angeles journalist who is investigating a woman's death around Christmastime. The woman spontaneously combusted and leaped from the top of a building downtown. While asking the owner of a bookstore (Maude Adams) within the building about the strange death, she is lead into a sacrificial cult of modern day witches that plan on using her for one of their sacrificial ceremonies on Christmas Eve.

Take elements from "Rosemary's Baby" and throw in some nasty monster creatures and feminist witches in a Christmas setting, and you've got this movie. I swear, this movie is one of the weirdest movies I think I've seen. There are a lot of strange bugs and creatures throughout the film that are really disgusting. Bizarre events and sequences take place throughout the movie. This film has pretty decent acting, Maude Adams is the best of the cast as the head of the cult, and the special effects are pretty cheap but sufficient. Since it's Los Angeles and there's no snow, the Christmastime mood isn't really set here, but the film didn't really have anything to do the Christmas anyway. And the sequence where Ricky attacks Kim and her boyfriend in the apartment was pretty well-done.

This is the only "Silent Night, Deadly Night" film that I've seen so far, but still I'd probably only recommend this to hardcore fans of the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" series, and from what I know this sequel is unrelated to the other films. It's entertaining and has some good moments, but it's a little far out there. I liked it though, oddly enough. 6/10.