Horror Movie Review: Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker (1991)

The fifth and final Silent Night, Deadly Night movie in the franchise came only a year after the last movie which in turn came out a year after the third. That’s three Silent Night, Deadly Night movies in three years. Easy now.

You can read our reviews of the four films in the franchise below as well as the loose remake of the original in 2012.

1984 – Silent Night, Deadly Night
1987 – Silent Night, Deadly Night 2
1989 – Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!
1990 – Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation

2012 – Silent Night

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker copies the formula laid down by the previous film by being a stand-alone film. There are no connections to the story laid out in the first three films & just the oddest connection to the fourth.

Directed by Martin Kitrosser and starring Mickey Rooney, Jane Higginson, William Thorne & Brian Bremer. The Toy Maker opens with a young boy named Derek (Thorne) seeing his father killed by a toy that comes to life. It ends up looking like an unfortunate accident but traumatises the boy into silence. His mother (Higginson), in an attempt to make him feel better, takes him to a toy store.

One run by Joe (Rooney) and his odd son, Pino (Bremer). His toys are special, toys that are hand-built but also have a murderous edge!

Derek doesn’t feel comfortable in the store & Joe is enraged when him & his mother leave empty-handed. He turns his anger on his son leaving the big question hanging? Why does it bother him so much?

As a stand-alone movie, Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker is a solid enough movie. One with a fairly entertaining story & decent acting. It twists & turns keeping you in the dark right up until the ending which is quite effective. In fact, the ending is probably the best thing about the movie as it is deliciously dark.

There was a lot of bravery involved here as there is a certain bizarre-ness to many of the scenes. The movie embraces the silliness that often comes with holiday horrors but still has a serious tone. It often feels like those involved were aware that this was it for the franchise so wanted to go all out.

It’s not got lashings of gore but what it does do is extremely effective. One particular car scene involving a larvae toy (called Larry the Larvae) is pretty full on.

Is this a movie worthy of the original though? No, of course not. It’s a throwaway horror that uses the franchise name for no good reason. There is a murderous Santa Claus for a short while & two actors return from the fourth movie briefly in different roles but if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t notice.

Thankfully, compared to the fourth movie in the series this one at least makes it feel like a Christmas movie!

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