With the holidays approaching, it must be time for a killer Santa Claus movie.
What would November be without a new video installment in the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" series?
The first of these seasonal thrillers caused an uproar in theaters in the mid-1980s, but the series has since found a welcoming home on cassette. "Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker," released earlier this month, even boasts Mickey Rooney as part of its cast. This one's about toys that come alive to torment a lone mute boy during the holidays. The tagline is "He's Home . . . But He's Not Alone."
Three more horror sequels are bypassing theaters and headed for tape this month. "Scanners II: The New Order," a Canadian follow-up to David Cronenberg's 1981 thriller, was due in stores Thursday. "It's not Cronenberg but it's not bad," wrote Variety's critic, who called it "a first-class imitation of the mind-blowing original."
"Killer Tomatoes Strike Back," which also was scheduled for release Thursday, is the third film in that series. The cast includes the star of the second installment, John Astin, and it was directed by John De Bello, who did the 1980 original and the 1988 sequel. It's about a talk-show host who is using the deadly plants to take over the world.
"Son of Darkness: To Die For 2" (Nov. 27, $90 from Vidmark entertainment), is a follow-up to "To Die For," a 1989 movie about
a vampire on the loose in modern Los Angeles.