Silent Night Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1992)

   

Directed by: Martin Kitrosser

Written by: Martin Kitrosser & Brian Yuzna

Story by:
Arthur Gorson, S.J. Smith & Brian Yuzna

Starring:

Jane Higginson .... Sarah Quinn
Tracy Fraim .... Noah Adams
William Thorne .... Derek
Brian Bremer .... Pino
Neith Hunter .... Kim
Mickey Rooney .... Joe Petto
Amy L. Taylor .... Merideth
Eric Welch .... Buck

Special Appearances:


Clint Howard .... Ricky
Gerry Black .... Harold

Release Date: Direct-to-Video: January 3, 1992

*Images courtesy at: www.horrordvds.com

 

 

 

Rating:

 

A little boy Derek (William Thorne) encounters a Christmas present that is dropped off at the door step of his house. His father (Van Quattro) gives him trouble for opening the door at night and tells him to go to bed but he watches his father open the present from a store called Petto's shop owned by an elderly man Joe Petto (Mickey Rooney)and inside it is a deadly toy that killed him. This left poor Derek mute.
A couple weeks later, Derek's mother Sarah (Jane Higginson) tries to help Derek by trying to have a new start at things but things don't seem so well when they enter Petto's shop when they encounter his oddball son Pino (Brian Bremmer) as he later on trespasses in their house as Joe behaves violently towards his son.
Derek also receives another big gift at his door step but gets rid of it as he knows it's another deadly gift and instead his neighbor steals it which is a pair of rollerblades that nearly kills him and he ends up in a coma at a hospital.
Meanwhile a young man Noah Adams (Tracy Fraim) is constantly collecting toys at Petto's shop and tries to track down Sarah as the two of them have a deep secret that Derek doesn't know about.
But who can the evil toymaker be as there are three suspects. Joe Petto, his son Pino or maybe even Noah himself.

 

The film left off to a great start showing the little boy Derek spotting a present at the front of his doorstep and then later on discovering that his father opening it and the toy inside happens to be a deadly weapon on him causing him to have a deadly accident. Alot of this is disturbing especially when the family woman Sarah spots her dead husband too. I found this moment to be my favourite scene since it looked very dark.
Another impressive moment was with the character Pino almost acting disturbed and zombielike in a toy store that Sarah and Derek go to and tries to give them a toy which seems to be a nice drawing card that something deadly is behind this toy.
There's also good scene's of nasty abuse with Pino's father Joe screaming nastily towards him about their deadly secrets as this was nicely written in and they find a customer in the store which he changes his mode which can embarrass anyone scolding someone else that has a dark secret.
We also watch in some scene's that Pino lives underneath a cellar door which is incredibly creepy as well as Joe sometimes getting wicked with him too leaving more hidden mysteries thinking that this person isn't normal at all.
There's some horror moments that looks too cute though with a toy centipede crawling near a driver but then the horror starts well when it kills him. It does look suspenseful when he swerves with his car in which the suspense starts up big time wondering if he will get into an accident and some nice stunt driving with the car leaping over and exploding as it can please a horror fan that likes action in their films.
A great drawing card is a fellow named Noah Adams who seems to obsessively collect toys at the toy store taking them apart to see what kinds of deadly things they have as well as stalking Sarah and Derek wherever they go which makes this character a nice mystery for a film such as this one.
What works well in the flick is when there's someone about to babysit named Merideth and is hanging out with her dorky boyfriend Buck in which one of the troublemaking boy next door type starts to taunt them and the boyfriend acts like a bully since this seems to work well in which it almost reminds me of similar other horror flicks like Night of the Demons with these types of surroundings.
Also there's a real chilling moment with Sarah hearing someone walking slowly towards her and she funbles for her car keys but drops them and they fall in a sewage system which can keep your heart pounding imagining if you were in this situation and felt in danger.
However there's sex and makeout scene's by both Merideth and Buck as well as Sarah and guess who??? Noah as the two of them have a secret we won't know until then but I won't give that one away. This looked terribly trite and I think it was overly long in which I think it was an excuse to kill time and cover up a plot since many for cheesy horror films it's very common.
But while these horny teens Merideth and Buck are having sex we see what seems to be Joe dressed in a Santa suit placing deadly toys in the bedroom which is a good touch since it almlst pays a tribute to a killer dressed in a Santa suit like in the first flick. The toys start to crawl towards the teens not noticing and doing things which looked funny and very much reminds you of a cult classic flick by Full Moon Pictures. The toys attacking looked classic and brutal too as this was enjoyable and entertaining to watch.
There's a perfect nice twist towards the end of the film showing a good sci-fi elements involving Pino tpwards Sarah and why he was in that cellar which was very impressive as well as good moments on her trying to find some way on saving her son too which looked almost disturbing while little Derek was hiding from nearly getting massacred as this makes you cringe hoping that he will be okay.
Bottom line is that this was yet another different story altogether but a much better one and it makes up for the previous Silent Night flick although some of the same cast have cameo's in it using the same character names. Still a different film alltogether.
I will probably count this as one of my favourite of all the sequels of the films with all the strange surroundings and the film being a total mystery with all the characters involved in it.
I can tell that they tried to make this flick as orignal as possible yet it reminded me of the Puppet Master films. Oh well that isn't bad.
Yet the film doesn't do much during the quarter of it's run as we almost basically know what's happening.

The acting is very well done as I enjoyed Jane Higginson (Sarah Quinn) as the loving and caring mother always trying to support her disturbed child and brings that character to life. She shows alot of good emotions and does well by acting intense and stern too in the spots that she needed to perform all this. A nice screaming reaction on her running down the stairs during a horrifying incident. Does a great job storming into the toy store and getting stern towards one of the main actors. Good scared reactions trying to get out her keys and dropping them which all of this looked crispy done and realistic as someone who's panicking and frightened to get out of where she's at. Looked believeable with her trying to fearfully talk to her fellow actor and reason with him. We spot a performance on her stomping on a robotic head screaming and swearing intensely in which this her best moments in this flick. Of course she has a list of acting credits in low budget including the cheesy slasher spoof Slaughterhouse and worked steadily on the daytime soap General Hospital that there's no doubt she's successful at getting roles cause she's a natural talent and was originally from Canada and then went to Los Angeles to start her career.
Tracy Fraim (Noah Adams) pulled off his part very well and knew on how to act incredibly mysterious with whatever he had to do in the story. He shows a nice anxious attitude as well as having a ton of energy in many of the scenarios of the storyline. Plus had the nice guy looks too which suited his part too. Nice aggressive moment with him grabbing one of his fellow actors and demanding him to work his shift as Santa for the kids which looked forcefully energised and natural too. A nice moment when he acts anxious forceful towards this person in which this looked energised and a bit tense like at the Santa shop. There's cheesy blocking with him struggling against his fellow actor as this looked a bit rough and not as brutal like it was supposed to have been.
We get a great fresh talent by child actor William Thorne (Derek Quinn) as the disturbed child and boy does he do well with his role showing no expressions to his character as you really want to feel sorry for the kid. He seemed to study this part quite well and was a nice drawing card to the story. A nice expressionless shocked moment on his face while spotting what his onscreen parents are doing. A nice shocked reaction on him during a horrifying incident.
We have another fine performance by legendary actor Mickey Rooney (Joe Petto) whom everyone especially adored in The Black Stallion. Well this time he plays an intimidating character which is different than most of his roles in TV and film. He certainly had a great wicked and insane attitude with how he spoke and was a grerat mysterious one for a horror flick. He shows great anxious expressions too in which he was always good by doing this. Does a good job by acting growly and showing great sneering tense anger towards his onscreen son. A scene where he's staring wickedly near a bedroom door and placing toys near the room which seemed impressively performed on his actions with this. Believe it or not he was one of the protestors against having the original film perform at cinema's.
Brian Bremer (Pino) is also wonderful playing a mentally challenged character with a twisted secret with his strange expressions and meaningless voice. He certainly stands out the most out of the whole cast and a great key role to the story as well as knowing on how to act very hyper too. A nice approach by him in a toy store with a good lifeless expression on his face while talking towards his fellow actors making his moments mysterious. Great menacing reactions with him trying to rape his fellow actress. There's also a great reaction on him screaming out loud and acting obsessive cutting open costumes to find someone. Does a nice job crawling towards one of the main actors as someone dead and crying talking to him which flowed very well.
Eric Welch (Buck) didn't have a huge part in the story but thought I'd mention his talents since his character grabbed my attention in which he seems to do not too badly as one of those sleazy types with a foul mouthes attitude. But there were times he was low on energy. He also had the dorky type of looks too that suit his part as well.

An eye is stabbed by a fireplace pick.
A mans eye is stabbed in the eyes with a deadly toy
A teenage girl is bloodied but survives

Matthew Morse composes cheesy synthesizer music for this film which didn't impress me and it sounds typical Zgrade. But there are odd screeching sounds and scraping noises which sounded fairly effective the odd time. There's also fun type of cheesy low adventureous piano playing for the opening and closing credits too.

Sarah Quinn: You killed Joe
Pino: I had to... he broke me... and even though he always fixed me... I had to make sure that this time he wouldn't hurt me again.

Pino: I tried to be a good boy father... but I never could be a real son... a real son... like Derek. His real son died before he was born... that's why he made me. When he found out I rigged those toys and sent them to his house... he was so angry. But don't you see Derek has to die... then you can be my mommy.

Pino: I can love you like a real son
[Starts trying to rape Sarah]
Pino: I can... I can... I CAN... I CAN. I love you mommy... I love you... I want you... I need you

Sarah Quinn: You can be my son... you can come home with me
Pino: [shouts] NO! Derek has to die... it's the only way.

Pino: Father... father... help me... all he wanted was a son... he made me... father... don't leave me.