Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Sadly Over-hyped

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!" begins as a sexy young blind woman, Laura (Samantha Scully) is having nightmares featuring the previous movie's psycho Santa killer Ricky Caldwell (now played by genre icon Bill Moseley). As it turns out, her demented doctor, Newbury (Richard Beymer) has been planning to probe the mind of Ricky, who is still alive yet in a coma, and is using Laura to this end. Laura and Ricky now share a psychic link; what one sees, the other sees. As Laura, her brother Chris (Eric DaRe), and Chris's new girlfriend Jerri (Laura Harring) travel to the family homestead to visit with Laura and Chris's grandma (Elizabeth Hoffman), Ricky naturally escapes and leaves a few bodies in his wake as he attempts to meet up with Laura. Trailing Ricky are Dr. Newbury and a detective named Connelly (Robert Culp). Done by cult favourite director Monte Hellman ("The Shooting", "Two-Lane Blacktop", etc.) basically as a favour, Part 3 largely eschews any sense of humour that the previous sequel displayed, playing its material with a very straight face. The one exception to this approach is the ever so slightly off kilter character of Connelly, amusingly and effectively played by Culp, a man who's quick with the sardonic quips, and who has one strange yet memorable exchange with Beymer during a car ride. The character and performance are really the best thing about Part 3, which unfortunately, despite some solid atmosphere, is ultimately too tedious to maintain much interest. It should be pointed out that one supposed shock moment just falls way too flat. The science fiction element is a fresh enough new element, but it fails to inject much life into the story. Moseley, better known for much more uninhibited performances in movies like "The Devil's Rejects" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2", is awfully low key here; his antagonist never registers very strongly, or inspires much fear or unease. Co-star Harring does show off some of her nice body in a bathtub scene, but horror fans who crave nudity and lots of gore aren't going to find enough here to suit their tastes. As an interesting footnote, though, it's been noted by buffs that both DaRe and Beymer became regulars on 'Twin Peaks' after and that Harring would get a showcase role in David Lynch's feature film "Mulholland Drive". (It's also worth noting that Hellman and executive producers Richard Gladstein and Ronna Wallace would also executive produce Tarantino's break through film "Reservoir Dogs" a few years later.) Not even the finale (which borrows a little from "Wait Until Dark") is particularly exciting. Scully's character isn't particularly likable, although some viewers could see that as an appreciable break from convention. The use of archive footage is still present, but not prevalent. In any event, SNDN No. 3 is dull, draggy, and something of a chore to sit through. Hellman's daughter Melissa plays Newbury's assistant. Four out of 10.

You know things aren't going so well, when you start to think that you rather be watching 'Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2' again and this indeed was running through my head during the very plodding part 3. Sure it's competently produced and slicker than the first two (way ahead in those stakes), but what a total snooze fest with a bunch of niggling characters. I know the shoddy second film has a bad wrap, but at least it was brainlessly cheesy fun, which this entry completely fumbled. Gone is the wicked dark humor (well it does try with less than flattering results) and forcefully graphic carnage, replaced with a leadenly talkative script (which does on to meander in many scenes), uninterestedly indifferent performances (does Robert Culp know what the movie's about?) and plenty of flat build-ups that lead to off-screen kills with a spurt of blood. Lame! This straight to video effort (which the next two would follow path) pretty much continues on from 'Part 2', but trying to get away from the randomly standard stalk and slash angle where it adds another idea involving the unusual connection between the comatose Ricky (who survived the head shot with his exposed brain being protected by a Plexiglas cap) and a clairvoyant blind girl Laura, which her doctor was using those physic abilities to get into the mind of Ricky (although unknown to her). However in doing so she gets nightmarish images she rather no talk about, but through these experiments Ricky actually awakens from the coma and because of that attachment he heads after Laura.Credit for trying some different, but it got completely daft and spineless leading to something routine. At the beginning it started using scenes from the first film in what Laura's character was seeing in her visions and I was thinking… "Here we go again?". Gladly it wasn't the case. The only thing that achieved some sort of energy was the hysterical screaming by Samantha Scully as the stubbornly unlikeable blind heroine, but again that wasn't entirely convincing. Moments within the plot actually reminded me of John Carl Buechler's 'Friday the 13th Part 7: New Blood' (1988). Now that one was better. Popping up as the maniac Ricky is Bill Moseley as his robotic manner goes through it with that plastic bowl on top of his head getting most of the attention. Robert Culp gives a batty performance, while Richard Beymer goes for stiltedly serious temperament. Laura Harring and Eric DaRe also appear. The busily echoing score punches out the electronic cues. The man in the director's chair Monte Hellman ('The Shooting', 'Cockfighter' and 'Two-lane Blacktop') does a stylish, but lethargic job which lacked a sinister bite. Bit of atmosphere in some dreamy parts and camera placement showed some inventiveness, but it triggers no tension, no jolts and no fun.

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.

I enjoyed the original Silent Night, Deadly Night. To the dismay of other internet film critics, i also enjoyed Silent Night, Deadly Night part 2. But when i sat down to watch the 3rd installment in the series, even at the age of 15 i knew the end was near. My Biggest issue with this film has little to do with the low rent acting. It is the blatant disregard for the previous film that irritates me the most.Ricky has no need for the science fictional fishbowl on his head in this film, other than to draw attention away from the lack of plot, and place all eyes on a sad gimmick. In the end of Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, Ricky is shot three times, yes – But he was never shot in the head – nor did he have his head blown off as another commentator included in his/her IMDb review of the film. There is No Need for the Fishbowl!