Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!

Vicious Santa Claus killer Ricky Caldell (a strangely subdued portrayal by the usually more manic Bill Moseley) gets reawakened from a six year coma by ruthless unscrupulous physician Dr. Newbury (a respectable performance by Richard Beymer). Of course, Ricky reverts back o his previous murderous ways, escapes from the hospital, and goes after Laura Anderson (a decidedly annoying and less-than-appealing turn by the pretty Samantha Scully), a bitter and remote blind clairvoyant he shares a special psychic connection to. Director Monte Hellman, who in better days graced us with such offbeat and engrossing existential art-house winners as "The Shooting," "Two-Lane Blacktop," and "Cockfighter," here handles this mercenary hired hack assignment with a dismaying lack of style and vigor: the plodding pace, a crippling dearth of tension, mild off-screen deaths, blandly staged murder set pieces, tame gore, faltering attempts at humor (in one especially ridiculous scene Ricky hitches a ride with a motorist despite the fact that he's wearing a white hospital gown and has a plastic Plexiglas bubble on his head covering his visible brain!), clips from both "The Terror" and the first movie, a minimal body count, the dumb sequel set-up non-ending, the potentially compelling, but seriously unexplored psychic theme, and a dismal last third which degenerates into a tepid rehash of "Wait Until Dark" all leave a great deal to be desired. J. Steven Soles' generic shivery score likewise fails to impress. The game cast do their best with the lackluster material: Robert Culp contributes an amusingly kooky turn as sarcastic detective Lt. Connely, Elizabeth Hoffman is endearingly perky as Laura's chipper Grandma, and lovely brunette stunner Laura Harring as the sultry Jerri bares her cute little breasts in a pleasingly gratuitous bathtub nude scene. An extremely insipid and instantly forgettable clinker.