Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4
Encyclopedia
Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation is an American horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 released in 1990. It was directed by Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna
Brian Yuzna is a director, writer and producer of films.- Life :Yuzna grew up in Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Panama before moving to the United States in the 1960s.- Career :...

 and was written by Brian Yuzna, Woody Keith, and Arthur Gorson
Arthur Gorson
Arthur Gorson, also known as Arthur H. Gorson is a film and record producer. He also has experience as a cinematographer, screenwriter, cameraman and composer. As a record producer, he produced over 20 albums for major labels with artists such as Golden Earring, Phil Ochs and Tom Rush. His...

. The film stars Clint Howard
Clint Howard
Clinton "Clint" Howard is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard...

, Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter is an American model and actress. Hunter began modelling in the 1980s in her home town of San Francisco, California, where she was discovered by French couturier Hubert de Givenchy and offered an exclusive contract to work for his House of Givenchy in Paris. She subsequently appeared...

, Tommy Hinkley
Tommy Hinkley
-Life and career:Hinkley's on-screen career now spans more than 20 years, and since the beginning it has been supplemented by a heavy dose of television guest roles, and periodic regular turns on TV series, including the short-lived Showtime series Hard Knocks, that also featured Bill Maher...

, Reggie Banister, Allyce Beasley
Allyce Beasley
Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel...

, and Maud Adams
Maud Adams
Maud Solveig Christina Wikström , known professionally as Maud Adams, is a Swedish actress, known for her roles as two different Bond girls: in The Man with the Golden Gun , and as the title character in Octopussy .-Early life:Adams was born Maud Solveig Christina Wikström in Luleå, Sweden, the...

. The film is the third sequel to the controversial Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 1984 slasher film produced by Ira R Barmak, directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter...

(1984), but bears little resemblance to its predecessors since it drops the "killer Santa
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

" theme completely. It is followed by Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker is the fifth movie in the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise. The film was also featured in an episode of Svengoolie. It stars William Thorne, Jane Higginson, Van Quattro, Tracy Fraim, Conan Yuzna, and veteran screen legend Mickey Rooney as The Toy Maker...

(1991). The plot focuses on a Los Angeles newspaper reporter who, while investigating the unexplained death of a woman, becomes entangled with a group of witches who are preparing her for their ritual on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

.

The film was released directly to video in the fall of 1990 in conjunction with Halloween, and just before the holiday season.

Plot

Kim Levitt (Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter is an American model and actress. Hunter began modelling in the 1980s in her home town of San Francisco, California, where she was discovered by French couturier Hubert de Givenchy and offered an exclusive contract to work for his House of Givenchy in Paris. She subsequently appeared...

) is an aspiring journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 working for the L.A.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 Eye as a classified ads
Classified advertising
Classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge...

 editor. Her boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister
Reggie Bannister
Reginald Horace "Reggie" Bannister is an American musician, actor, producer, writer, and activist. He is often referred to as "The Hardest Working Man in Horror".-Biography:...

), seems to give all of the men in her office the breaks, including her boyfriend Hank (Tommy Hinkley
Tommy Hinkley
-Life and career:Hinkley's on-screen career now spans more than 20 years, and since the beginning it has been supplemented by a heavy dose of television guest roles, and periodic regular turns on TV series, including the short-lived Showtime series Hard Knocks, that also featured Bill Maher...

). When a woman is discovered dead on the sidewalk, half-burned to ashes in an apparent case of spontaneous human combustion
Spontaneous human combustion
Spontaneous human combustion describes reported cases of the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition...

, Kim decides to pursue the story on her own without Eli's approval.

Her first stop is Munn Fresh Meat, a butcher
Butcher
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

 shop run by Jo (Glen Chin
Glen Chin
Glen Chin is a critically acclaimed American actor who stars in film and television.He is cast usually according to his obese weight. Such films Chin appeared in was 50 First Dates as the humorous Hawaiian cafe regular, The Underachievers , in which he famously played the Chinese man, and After...

) near the site of the suicide's landing. Kim asks him about the jumper. He tells her that the suicide probably got to the roof of the building she jumped from through the apartments there.

Around the corner, she enters a used book
Used book
A used book or secondhand book is a book which has been owned before by an owner other than the publisher or retailer, usually by an individual or library....

 store. Kim asks for a book on spontaneous combustion, which the proprietor, Fima, finds for her. At checkout, she insists that Kim take another book from her, Initiation of the Virgin Goddess. Kim initially refuses, but Fima insists and declares it her invitation to a picnic
Picnic
In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance,...

 she's having with friends the next day.

Fima shows Kim the way to the roof of the building. Kim inspects the spot where the jumper leapt from and tests it herself by standing on the ledge. Behind her, Ricky (a slave) arrives. He sticks his head in a ventilation pipe as Kim approaches him. From inside, Ricky pulls out a large, slimy insect larva. He shows it to Kim, who screams and runs off.

Back in her own apartment, Kim discovers her sink is full of cockroach
Cockroach
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattaria or Blattodea, of which about 30 species out of 4,500 total are associated with human habitations...

es. She frantically sprays insecticide on them. She settles down on the kitchen table to eat dinner and flips open the book Fima loaned her. The page she randomly arrives at is titled "The Spiral: Symbol of Women's Power". Kim glances at her plate of noodles and notices that they are arranged in a vague spiral. She spies another roach crawling out of a loaf of bread. Using the book, she bats at it. In the process, her spaghetti dish crashes to the floor. Leaving it on the floor, she leaves to spend Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 with Hank's family.

At Hank's parents' house, his mother Ann (Laurel Lockhart) serves drinks and snacks, his father Gus (Ben Slack) guzzles beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

 and his little brother Lonnie (Conan Yuzna) shakes the presents under the Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...

. When Kim tries to explain to Lonnie that even though she's Jewish, that Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE...

 and Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 are just two different holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...

s that deal with the same thing in their different ways, Gus gets upset. When Kim talks about her job at the Eye, Gus says that he believes a woman's place is in the home since Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

 was made from Adam
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

's rib. Hank testily replies that that story is just an allegory, but Gus disagrees, claiming it is "goddamned real".

When Kim returns to her apartment, she scrapes the dead roach from Fima's book and flips it open. The page she randomly lands on is titled "The Fire of Lilith
Lilith
Lilith is a character in Jewish mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be related to a class of female demons Līlīṯu in Mesopotamian texts. However, Lowell K. Handy notes, "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadian and Babylonian view...

" and it depicts a woman whose lower half is engulfed in flames. Kim glances down at the plate of spaghetti on the floor. The spaghetti is now arranged in a flame-like pattern. Across from the spaghetti, she thinks she see a giant roach under the couch. She throws the book at it and it scurries off. She looks, but is unable to find it. While looking, she notices the spaghetti on the floor pulsating. She gets violently ill and passes out on the floor.

Knocking on the door from her coworker Janice (Allyce Beasley
Allyce Beasley
Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel...

) wakes her up the next day. Kim decides not to go to work and instead drives to Fima's picnic. There, the motherly Fima introduces her to Katherine Harrison (Jeanne Bates
Jeanne Bates
Jeanne Bates was an American radio, film and television actress. She signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942 which began her career in films both in bit parts and larger roles.-Career:...

), a self-described old crone
Triple Goddess
The Triple Goddess is the subject of much of the writing of Robert Graves, and has been adopted by some neopagans as one of their primary deities. The term triple goddess is sometimes used outside of Neopaganism to refer to historical goddess triads and single goddesses of three forms or aspects...

, and the young Jane Yanana (Marjean Holden
Marjean Holden
Marjean Holden is an American actress.-Career:Holden made her professional acting debut in 1987 in the feature film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. She has guest-starred in JAG, Tales from the Crypt, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, La Femme Nikita, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Suddenly Susan, and...

). They tell her about Lilith, Adam's first wife and the "spirit of all that crawls". Kim begins to feel the effects of the wine they are drinking and lays down. Just as she begins to see something in the tree branches above her, Hank arrives and drives her to work.

At the Eye, Eli, instead of being angry about Kim not showing up for work all morning, lets her officially have the spontaneous combustion story. Kim wonders how Hank knew where to find her. He says that Janice told him. When Kim asks Janice how she knew, Janice claims that Kim herself had told her.

Hank and Kim return to the roof to investigate the story further. There, they find a spiral drawn on the ground as well as Ricky's lean-to
Lean-to
A lean-to is a term used to describe a roof with a single slope. The term also applies to a variety of structures that are built using a lean-to roof....

. Hank leaves and Kim decides to visit Fima's apartment. Fima serves her a cup of tea, which makes Kim nauseous at first and sleepy later. Fima tells Kim of her daughter Lilith, whom Kim reminds her of. Fima offers her another date and demands that Kim eat it. She does, even though it looks like a roach in her hand. Soon after, Kim passes out.

She awakens surrounded by Jane, Fima, Katherine and Li (Ilsa Setzoil). They strip her of her clothes and paint a dark line from her forehead to her chin and a spiral around her navel. Ricky brings in the same larva from the ventilation pipe. He places it on her stomach. As Katherine chants a spell and Ricky and Fima slice open a live rat over her, the larva crawls into Kim's body. Under her skin, the larva crawls up Kim's body. It emerges from her mouth as a full-grown, giant, multi-segmented roach. Kim vomits the creature out. Ricky slices the creature in half and drips its syrupy innards onto Kim's face in a near-sexual manner.

Kim wakes up later fully dressed, still in Fima's apartment. The four women encourage her to stay, but she escapes and runs home. There she finds Hank waiting for her. The stressed Kim starts a fight with him, but he calms her down. They begin to make love. While doing so, Ricky casually enters the apartment, sits on their bed and begins watching TV. When he flips to a channel showing a clip from Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! is a 1989 slasher film directed by Monte Hellman. A direct-to-video release, the film is the second sequel to the 1984 film Silent Night, Deadly Night and centers around the Christmas-obsessed killer Ricky Caldwell awakening from a coma and stalking a...

, he laughs. The noise alerts Hank, who demands that Ricky leave. They scuffle and Hank is stabbed to death by Ricky. Kim manages to answer her ringing phone during the fight and screams for Janice to help her. Ricky captures Kim and binds her. Janice arrives, but doesn't help Kim. Instead, she admonishes Ricky for the mess and tells him to take Kim straight to Fima while she cleans up.

Ricky locks Kim in the meat locker at Munn Fresh Meat. She passes out again. When she awakens, she is surrounded by the entire cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

. Fima places her in a chair and tells her "it's not easy to give birth to yourself." Ricky, wearing a phallic
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...

 mask, rapes Kim. Kim passes out another time. She awakens alone in the meat locker. At first her fingers bind themselves together in a knot. Then she experiences incredible pain as her legs bind together into an insect-like tail. Kim passes out one more time. She awakens in the meat locker as Jo opens the door. She frees her legs from a brittle cocoon-like substance and covers her as best as she can. Jo tells her that she has been initiated and that she should go.

Kim returns to Fima's bookstore where Fima admits that the woman who jumped was her daughter Lilith and that she wants Kim to take her place. She explains that the experience Kim just had has freed her from men and the fear that they bring. Kim believes she was simply hallucinating, but Fima insists that she created everything that she saw using the magic within her. Fima then reveals that she must kill a man in order to complete her initiation or else she will be consumed by fire just as Lilith was. Kim refuses.

Kim brings a policeman, Detective Burt (David Wells
David Wells
David Lee Wells , nicknamed "Boomer", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Wells was considered to be one of the game's better left-handed pitchers, especially during his years with the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays. He pitched the fifteenth perfect game in baseball history...

), to her apartment. There, everything is spotless and there's no trace of Hank's body. At her office's Christmas party, Eli claims that Hank is away on assignment. Janice there welcomes her to the family. Furious and confused, Kim storms out of the office and walks down the sidewalk. She notices Ricky following her and ducks into a motel room. Her feet begin to get painfully hot. She jumps into the shower, but they still burst into tiny flames. Ricky enters the room and, in pain, Kim agrees to kidnap Lonnie to complete the initiation.

Kim lures Lonnie out of Hank's parents' house and into a waiting van. When Ann goes to investigate, Ricky tapes her mouth shut and strangles and electrocutes Gus with a string of Christmas lights. As the house begins to burn, Ricky jumps into the van and they drive back to Fima's rooftop.

With Lonnie tied up on the roof, Fima hands Kim a knife and tells her to kill him. Kim refuses and instead stabs Fima. In anger, Fima pulls the knife from her belly and stabs Ricky. Giant larva feed on the wounded man as Kim's legs begin to get hot. Kim's hands knot themselves into together once again, then they start on fire. She stabs her modified, flaming hands into Fima's knife wound. This transfers the curse of Lilith to her, who dives off the roof just as her daughter had. Kim hugs Lonnie and tells him that it's all over.

Clint Howard
Clint Howard
Clinton "Clint" Howard is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard...

 and Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter
Neith Hunter is an American model and actress. Hunter began modelling in the 1980s in her home town of San Francisco, California, where she was discovered by French couturier Hubert de Givenchy and offered an exclusive contract to work for his House of Givenchy in Paris. She subsequently appeared...

 reprise their characters of Ricky and Kim for Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toymaker, although both only make minor appearances. Ricky is alive and working as a shopping mall Santa in the film, while Kim has become Lonnie's legal guardian after the death of Ann and Gus.

Cast

  • Clint Howard
    Clint Howard
    Clinton "Clint" Howard is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard...

     as Ricky
  • Neith Hunter
    Neith Hunter
    Neith Hunter is an American model and actress. Hunter began modelling in the 1980s in her home town of San Francisco, California, where she was discovered by French couturier Hubert de Givenchy and offered an exclusive contract to work for his House of Givenchy in Paris. She subsequently appeared...

     as Kim
  • Tommy Hinkley
    Tommy Hinkley
    -Life and career:Hinkley's on-screen career now spans more than 20 years, and since the beginning it has been supplemented by a heavy dose of television guest roles, and periodic regular turns on TV series, including the short-lived Showtime series Hard Knocks, that also featured Bill Maher...

     as Hank
  • Hugh Fink as Jeff
  • Richard N. Gladstein
    Richard N. Gladstein
    Richard N. Gladstein is a film producer based in Los Angeles. His production company is FilmColony. His films include Finding Neverland, The Bourne Identity, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Hurlyburly, and The Cider House Rules. His two Academy Award nominations came from Finding Neverland and The...

     as Woody
  • Reggie Bannister
    Reggie Bannister
    Reginald Horace "Reggie" Bannister is an American musician, actor, producer, writer, and activist. He is often referred to as "The Hardest Working Man in Horror".-Biography:...

     as Eli
  • Allyce Beasley
    Allyce Beasley
    Allyce Beasley is an American actress. She is known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. For several years , she has been the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on The Disney Channel...

     as Janice
  • Glen Chin
    Glen Chin
    Glen Chin is a critically acclaimed American actor who stars in film and television.He is cast usually according to his obese weight. Such films Chin appeared in was 50 First Dates as the humorous Hawaiian cafe regular, The Underachievers , in which he famously played the Chinese man, and After...

     as Jo the Butcher
  • Maud Adams
    Maud Adams
    Maud Solveig Christina Wikström , known professionally as Maud Adams, is a Swedish actress, known for her roles as two different Bond girls: in The Man with the Golden Gun , and as the title character in Octopussy .-Early life:Adams was born Maud Solveig Christina Wikström in Luleå, Sweden, the...

     as Fima
  • Jeanne Bates
    Jeanne Bates
    Jeanne Bates was an American radio, film and television actress. She signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942 which began her career in films both in bit parts and larger roles.-Career:...

     as Katherine
  • Laurel Lockhart as Ann
  • Ben Slack as Gus
  • Conan Yuzna as Lonnie
  • Marjean Holden
    Marjean Holden
    Marjean Holden is an American actress.-Career:Holden made her professional acting debut in 1987 in the feature film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. She has guest-starred in JAG, Tales from the Crypt, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, La Femme Nikita, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Suddenly Susan, and...

     as Jane
  • Ilsa Setzoil as Li
  • David Wells as Detective Burt
  • Dani Klein
    Dani Klein
    Danielle Schoovaerts , known as Dani Klein, is a Belgian singer and member of the band Vaya Con Dios.In the 1980s, she was also a member of Arbeid Adelt! with Luc Van Acker , Ladies sing the Blues with Réjane Magloire and Beverly Jo Scott, Purple Prose and Steelover with Rudy Lenners.-External...

    as Woman in Bookstore
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