Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 (1991)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Mickey Rooney (!?!?!) plays a toy maker who along with his creepy son starts making and sending out toys with the ability to kill. It seems one woman and her son are under attack because her husband was killed by one of these toys and the son keeps getting new gifts left at the door. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 5 is the final film in a franchise that has certainly had a lot more low points than any other series in the horror genre. As with the previous movie, this one here has nothing to do with the killer Santa from the first three films but that's not a huge deal. There are a lot of problems with this thing but it's almost worth watching just because of screen legend Rooney. He was a major opponent to the first film and even wrote letters to get the film banned so it's rather funny seeing him appear in this film. One has to wonder if the producers didn't tell him this was a SNDN movie or perhaps he was just willing to appear in it due to the money. Either way there's no question that he's the best thing in the film as he actually delivers a quite good performance. He plays the psychopath role quite nicely and he also handles the more dramatic moments as well. Part of the role has the old man being an alcoholic and Rooney actually delivers these scenes very well. That's pretty much the only good thing you can say about this film as everything else is rather boring and silly. The acting is a major problem because the performances are so bad you can never really believe or care about anything going on. The screenplay, outside the Rooney character, really doesn't allow anyone to do much but at the same time if it did it's doubtful the actors could have done much with it. William Thorne plays the boys and doesn't do much. Jane Higginson plays the mother and we even get Neith Hunter who played in the previous movie. Clint Howard also appears in one quick scene. The story is a pretty big mess as it takes forever for the thing to get going and when the ending finally comes and the twist is revealed you can't help but roll your eyes at how dumb it is. The one highlight in the film comes when a young couple begins to have sex on a bed and Rooney, in a Santa suit, drops off some of the killer toys. During the sex scene a fake hand joins the action and I must admit that it had me laughing. The toy attack that follows also has a lot of imagination but it's just a shame that the rest of the film couldn't have as much.
