Sick of Christmas cheer? Then how about some Christmas FEAR! Luke Owen’s look back at the killer Santa franchise continues with a review of Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!…
With Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 not really making any waves among horror fans (until the Garbage Day clip became a Youtube favourite at least), it’s surprising to see that the series brought about not one, but three more sequels. The first of which is the straight-to-video snorefest, Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!.
Picking up after the events of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, Ricky (now played by Bill Moseley) is in a coma and is the subject of an experiment being conducted by Dr. Newbury (Richard Beymer). The experiment in question is using a shy, blind psychic girl called Laura (Samantha Scully) to walk through his dreams and memories for reasons that are mostly unclear. However, when Laura goes to visit her grandmother with her brother and his girlfriend, Ricky is awoken and their psychic bond is drawing him to find her – and kill anyone who gets in his way.
Much like the previous movie, one of the problems with Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! is that it doesn’t feel like it’s set at Christmas. While it shouldn’t really be a deal breaker for the franchise in terms of enjoyment and being an immersive experience, it is what the series is based on. The original movie feels like it was set during the holiday period and when you remove that element of it (especially given the title and whole ‘Santa killer’ vibe) it really ruins the movie’s verisimilitude. Even when festive movies are filmed in July, the creators at least try to make it look like December with some snow and house decorations etc, but no effort it put forward here. While they may not have been very good, the Halloween sequels (at least, some of them) always tried to make it feel like the movie was set on that specific day – because that was the movie’s theme. Aside from a few Christmas trees and Santa hats, Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! could be set at any point of the year and it wouldn’t matter.
But the movie’s lack of festive tone is the least of its problems. Coming off the back of a wacky and over-the-top leading performance in the previous entry, Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! presents one of the most bland and uninterested movies you’re ever likely to see. It’s not just that the plot is a little thin, it’s as if the movie just doesn’t care. In fact, it almost feels like the movie just stops trying at around the 60 minute mark and simply gives up. There are several extended shots where literally nothing happens and there’s a scene where Ricky attacks them which isn’t scored. This lack of effort from all involved just makes for a dreadfully dull movie which starts slow and then peters out.
What’s really funny however is that Samantha Scully plays a very convincing blind girl, but can’t portray any other emotion apart from mild indifference. As a leading lady, she drags the film down past the level of “meh” to virtually unwatchable and the rest of the cast to nothing to help matters with only Robert Culp as the police detective putting in any effort. If Eric Freeman turned the dial up to 11 in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, then the cast of Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! turned it all the way back down to zero. As stated earlier, the movie is just uninteresting, it’s uninterested.
What’s worse than making a bad horror movie? Making a boring one. And that’s what Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! is, a bore. It had a simple idea to keep the Ricky storyline going, but it never gets out of first gear. The acting is bland, the direction is uninteresting, the score is mostly non-existent and the whole production reeks of laziness. Director Monte Hellman said at a screening in 2008 that he was happy with the movie mostly due to the fact the film was made in 5 months – from script writing to the first screening – but this rushed atmosphere lingers over the movie because you can tell no real effort was put forward. Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out! is a film you really should watch out for – to make sure you avoid it.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published December 18, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
