Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out - Archive

Almost none of my peers like this one. That's a rarity. I mean, I guess it will appeal to somebody. Culp's cop doubts Beymer's science was wise and the body count does seem to indicate he was right. The music sometimes has a strange attraction to me. It has a dark broodiness I guess that could follow after a killer and psychic connected by a strange mind extra sensory link. The last few Decembers I typically watch this very early as the blog can prove. The review below was from April of 2007 of all times. I resurrected this by finding in mothballs, an old deteriorated copy purchased from a rental store going out of business in my hometown. I sometimes just don't know what to think of it. Culp doesn't show up until 40 minutes in and Beymer never achieves what he set out for. Culp doesn't really even accomplish much. I would have been very interested in what he felt about his part. Was it just extra cash? This isn't a heralded, or I don't see others watching it every year like me.



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Pretty blind Laura(Samantha Scully playing her cold and distant making it especially hard to sympathize with her plight) is psychically linked to comatose serial killer Ricky(Bill Moseley, completely devoid of emotion..pretty much a walking robot who seems to explode through doors without even cutting himself and takes very slow steps)thanks to the experiments of Dr. Newbury(Richard Beymer)who was able to reconstruct the man's brain placing a glass dome on his head(..this is to ensure that nothing touches the brain as it is exposed). These experiments is to generate thoughts and images from Ricky's fractured, emotionally damaged mind that might assist him in his goal to free guilty minds through "evil thought cleansing". But, the experiment goes awry when Laura's tapping into deep wounding past nightmares awakens Ricky who will pursue her, killing anyone who comes in his path. The color red(or anything representing the Santa Claus killer who took his parents' lives)triggers the kill mechanism in Ricky's demented mental framework. Laura is going to Granny's for the holidays with brother Chris(Eric DaRe)and his girlfriend Jerri(Laura Harring). Through their psychic link, Ricky can see where they are heading, somehow getting there before they can killing Granny. Without their knowledge of Ricky being at Granny's house, Laura will use uncomfortable feelings(she can sense something's wrong)to understand that something is not quite right..it only increases when Granny is nowhere to be found. Lt Connely(Robert Culp, a much welcome presence to the proceedings)will need the help of Dr. Newbury to find and stop Ricky before his rampage leaves a lot of dead bodies..and is Laura's only hope.

Far-fetched premise and incredibly slow killer hinder the peculiar, weird atmosphere of the horror flick. Definitely unlike the previous two films, this is not the slightest bit gory. Blood splatter as violence to others occurs off-screen is about as gross as it gets. It also features a heroine with a potty-mouth and icy demeanor who you have a hard time rooting for. And, with such a robotic, monotonously slow psycho, it's mighty hard getting scares out of the hunting of victims. His amazing power is completely laughable as well..I mean he receives a shot-gun blast that forcefully throws him across the floor, yet he's able to get up and attack brother Chris who is quite bigger than Ricky.
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