Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker is a 1991 horror film. Loosely connected to the previous film, this one gets more into the holiday spirit, featuring toys that kill.
After the mysterious death of her husband, a woman, her son, and her former lover begin investigating the toys produced by an enigmatic toymaker named Joe Petto and his son Pino. Mickey Rooney portrays Joe, despite being one of the most vocal haters of the original film (he called the creators "scum" and suggested that they be "run out of town"); he probably needed the work and plays a mean, scary drunk surprisingly well.note
This film has examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Joe Petto has a habit of smacking his son Pino around when he's drunk, and occasionally killing him and rebuilding him later.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Robo-Pino was never given genitalia. It seems not as bad at first, but then he starts humping Sarah.
- Continuity Nod: Kim from Initiation briefly appears and mentions having a bad experience the previous year.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: A car that's not even going very fast flips over and explodes spectacularly.
- Eye Scream: A larva toy crawls into a guy's mouth and bursts out of his eye while he's driving.
- Fan Disservice: Sarah is involved in a couple of these through the film. She is introducing having sex with her husband, which could probably have been titilating if not for the fact that it borders on IKEA Erotica and the audience sees this from the POV of her son, who unbeknownst to them watched them though their slightly opened door. Then, during the film's climax, her dress is pulled up to reveal that she's wearing black stockings, complete with garter, which again would be titilating except for the fact that the reason her dress is pulled up is because the recently-revealed-as-a-robot Pino is dry humping her.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Drunk Joe smashes his son Pino with a bottle.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Sarah cuts Pino in half with an axe. Being a robot, he still keeps coming.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Lonnie puts on a pair of rigged roller skates which rocket him full speed into a car. At first it looks like he died, but it turns out he's just horribly mangled...
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Tom falls onto a fireplace poker (which goes through his face and out the back of his head) while being choked by the Santa toy.
- Just a Machine: Joe Petto beats Pino, claiming he could never love him like a real son. At the end of the movie, the barely-functioning Pino grabs Sarah's leg, and she starts frantically stomping his head into bits and pieces of machinery. She's stopped by her son Derek, who says "It's just a toy, mommy."
- Living Toys: Pino's creations.
- Market-Based Title: The Toy Maker had the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" part dropped from its name when it was released internationally.
- My Little Panzer: The assortment of toys that is unleashed upon Buck and Meredith.
- Parents as People: Sarah is shown to be a loving mother towards Derek, but is struggling to figure out how she can help after he gets traumatized by Tom's death. When her attempts to make him feel better don't work, she quietly decides to stop instead of making him more uncomfortable. Derek later overhears Sarah confessing to Kim that she's at a loss on what to do. Throughout it all, she never takes her frustrations out on Derek.
- Parking Garage: A suspenseful moment is had in the parking garage as Sarah walks in there and keeps hearing noises... but then she meets Noah, who is revealed be a good guy all along.
- Primal Scene: Used in the beginning when Derek sees her mother and father (or as it turns out, stepfather) having sex through a slit of the door of their room.
- Robotic Reveal: Pino reveals he was created by Joe to replace his dead son.
- Shout-Out:
- The tagline references Home Alone, another Christmas-centric film released in the same year.
- The names of Joe Petto and his son Pino are obvious homages to Geppetto and Pinocchio.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer spoils the Robotic Reveal.
- Unexplained Recovery: Clint Howard's Ricky obviously dies in Initiation, yet returns briefly as a mall Santa.
- Wicked Toymaker: Pino makes toys that murder people. And his father Joe was arrested years earlier for booby trapping toys he gave to children after his pregnant wife died in a car crash. He then constructed Pino to replace his dead son.
