Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker
The film opens up as a little boy, Derek Quinn (William Thorne), receives a present marked "Don't Open 'Til Christmas" on his doorstep in the middle of the night. Just as Derek is going to open the gift, his father catches him, sending him back to bed. Derek's father then opens the present, while Derek watches behind a corner. It seems to be some sort of ball with snake-like arms. When the father pushes the button to activate the toy, a cheerful Santa Claus head pops up, along with Christmas music, but the head turns to reveal an angry Santa face. The father, still holding the toy, is suddenly strangled by the toy, which ends with him falling on a fireplace poker.
Two weeks later, Derek's still very traumatized by the recent tragedy and still hasn't said a word. His concerned mother, Sarah (Jane Higginson), tries very hard to help him, but he remains silent, obviously scared about something. Derek's mother and everyone else think that his father's death was just a freak accident, but Derek knows the horrible truth.
Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney) is a toymaker with a strange son, Pino (Brian Bremer from Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000). Joe's toystore has recently been in financial trouble, and something seems to bother him. Sarah tries to buy her son a gift, but it doesn't help him recover from his silence. Soon, bizarre occurrences start, toys killing many of the local townspeople. Who's behind the horrible plot? Could it be Joe Petto, his son Pino, or is it the strange man (Tracy Fraim) who's been following Sarah and her son around for awhile?
This was a pretty good Martin Kitrosser-directed sequel, with some black comedy put in. A few cast members from Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation return in different roles, including Neith Hunter and Clint Howard. Screaming Mad George, who did the previous film's FX, does this one's as well. One scene has a young couple in bed being attacked by toys, and another scene uses the LIVE Home Entertainment (the video company that releases the series) building as an exterior for a workplace, which made me laugh! Also, there's obvious jokes made towards Pinocchio, having two characters named Joe Petto (derived from Gepetto) and Pino (derived from Pinocchio). The plot twist is pretty clever and surprised me. Check it out, if you like the Silent Night, Deadly Night series, but this one's unrelated, along with the previous installment.
