Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation

Dragon's Domain Records presents the original motion picture soundtrack release of Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com. Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation features music composed by Richard Band for the 1990 horror film directed by Brian Yuzna, written by Zeph E. Daniel, Richard N. Gladstein and Arthur Gorson, starring Clint Howard, Neith Hunter, Tommy Hinkley, Hugh Fink, Richard N. Gladstein, Reggie Bannister, Allyce Beasley and Maud Adams.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation is the third sequel to the original Silent Night, Deadly Night, which was released in 1984. The plot revolved around a young boy named Billy Chapman whose parents were brutally murdered by a drunken dime-store Santa Claus on the way home from visiting Billy's grandfather. The orphaned boy lives out his childhood raised by Catholic nuns who continue to foster his fear of Santa Claus. Eventually teenage Billy snaps, dresses up as Santa Claus, and begins slaughtering people during the Christmas season.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation was released on home video in 1990. Abandoning all previous characters and plot points from the previous three films, Initiation tells the story of Kim Levitt (Hunter), an aspiring journalist who writes for an LA newspaper as a classified ads editor. Her boss Eli (Bannister) seems to favor and promote only her male co-workers. When a woman shows up burnt to a crisp on the sidewalk, Kim decides to pursue the story without her boss's approval. Through her investigations, Kim is kidnapped by Ricky (Howard). Ricky and his coven of witches perform a secret ritual on Kim. Eventually, Kim escapes with Ricky in pursuit who tries to prevent her from uncovering all of their murder-cult exploitations.

The music for Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 was composed by Richard Band. His all-synth underscore is particularly unique for a Christmas horror film. In all honesty, the Christmas elements in the film are an afterthought and not a major catalyst in the inspiration behind the music. Band infuses his music with heaping helpings of percussion and include the use of the waterharp, a bowed metallic object sporting long tines with water in its base, which perfectly evoke the rituals and indoctrinations of an ancient cult.