Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2

Ricky (Eric Freeman), the brother of the killer in the first film, talks to a psychiatrist (James Newman) about how he became a brutal killer after his brother died, leading back to Mother Superior (Jean Miller).

I can say with confidence that this movie ranks among the worst in the horror genre. I have seen worse, but it is not often. In 2012, I watched roughly 500 films... and "Silent Night, Deadly Night 2" ranks in the top three for being terrible. I would not wish it upon anyone.

The biggest problem is that it spends the entire first half of the film showing clips from the first film. So, you have no reason to watch the first movie if you watch this one. And if you did watch the first one, this film will bore you to tears... maybe even to death. The second half improves, but that does not take very much.

The second biggest problem is Eric Freeman. We could call his performance "unintentionally funny", but that would be too complimentary. He cannot act, he chews the scenery, there is nothing sympathetic or interesting about him. How he was hired remains a mystery, and he can wear it as a badge of honor that he may be the worst "actor" ever to get a paycheck.

This is only a 90-minute movie, and the first 40 minutes are used to fully recap the first film. This leaves less than an hour of new content. So odd.

This picture is nothing more than a dose of mindless fun, with some creative killings (have you ever seen an umbrella impaling before?) and some funny moments of self-reflection (the scene in the movie theater is a standout). Because of the extensive flashbacks in the beginning of the movie, in which footage from the first film is used, those who have seen the original recently will probably hate this; for the rest of us the flashbacks are almost a bonus: essentially you get to see two movies for the price of one. (**)

Silent Night, Deadly Night is hailed as a bit of a cult classic in the slasher genre. It told the story of a young man who snapped and went on a killing spree while wearing a santa costume.

Part 2 tells the story of his brother who is basically doing the same thing but is a tad brighter.

Sadly the first third of the film is heavily flashbacks so it feels like you're watching the first film all over again. When the new material kicks in it's essentially more of the same.

The original film despite it's fame remains to me as a distinctly average feature and this sequel is about on par.

A couple of fairly original deaths, a competent lead playing the manic Ricky Caldwell and the usual tropes and cliches of the sub-genre.

It's astounding that this managed 5 movies total, hopefully they haven't peaked already with this one as I'm part 3 bound shortly.

The Good:

Eric Freeman

Follows on from the first film well enough

The Bad:

FAR too much footage from the first film

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

A nun would have no problem moving into house no.666

Nuns are trained in the art of wheelchair ninjutsu

The church provides a spare wheelchair in case of acts of god

Upon originally rental of Silent Night Deadly Night 2 a friend of mine and I were warned by the video clerk (which caught both us off guard since it's something that had never happened to either of us before and hasn't happened since) not to rent it; that people said it was really really bad. Needless to say we didn't heed her warning and rented SNDN 2. When we got the tape home we debated about even watching it. Maybe the video clerk was right and we should save ourselves the agony / it wasn't too late. Finally giving in (even mumbling through the FBI warning)we prepared for 88 minutes of torture.

To her credit the video clerk was right ~ SNDN 2 was bad but it's beautifully bad and it's tongue is so deep in it's cheek that it's pure hilarity. Half of the movie a recap of the original SNDN (I had never seen SNDN @ this time so it didn't bother me and still doesn't) The new footage is 100% camp gold. Boom mics and movie crews (which have been clean up on DVD) drop openly into shots. Eric Freeman's eyebrows and nostrils chew up every frame they're in and his over the top delivery makes brilliant catch phrases out of something as simple as 'RED CAR' and 'GARABAGE DAY' (I still imitate him when putting out my trash.) W/ this one viewing this movie became a personal favourite and take it in just about every Xmas since (and occasionally throughout the year / I did originally see it in July)