Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) Review

"Garbage day!"
-Ricky Caldwell



After his older brother's killing spree in the original film, Ricky Caldwell (Eric Freeman) finds himself in a mental institution after going on a similar killing spree.  After Ricky tells his story, he finds a way to break out and sets off to find the woman he blames for what happened to him and his brother, Mother Superior (Jean Miller), and attempts to make this Christmas her last.


What Works:

The only reason Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is at all watchable is because of Eric Freeman.  He gives an over-the-top and bonkers performance.  Every time he is delivering lines of dialogue, this movie is fun.  There's the famous "Garbage Day!" meme, but that isn't the only moment where Freeman shines.

There are also a couple of halfway decent kills in the movie, especially when you take into account the circumstances around the movie.  They had a budget of just $100, 000 and were originally told to just re-edit the footage from the original film and make it look like a sequel.  The umbrella kill is truly fantastic and one of the only genuinely great moments from this film.


What Sucks:

About 25 minutes of this film are flashbacks to the original film.  They straight up play 25 minutes of the original film with no new information.  It's just to pad out the run-time.  It's unbelievable how cheap the producers were and the first third of this film is almost unbearable to sit through.

As I said, the budget was extremely low, and that makes me a little more forgiving, but that can only go so far.  Parts of this film are just so incredibly cheap.  The movie theater set is the best example  This whole scene was obnoxious to sit through and it doesn't even look like a movie theater.  It's pretty pathetic.

While there were a few cool deaths, most of the kills in the film were just lame.  Lots of deaths via gunshot.  This is a slasher movie.  Give us cool kills!

Finally, only the 3rd act of the film takes place in the present.  The rest of the movie is Ricky telling us how he ended up in the mental hospital.  That story structure is just awful and takes all of the tension out of the film.  We know that Ricky is going to survive the story he is telling.  We know he's going to kill virtually everyone he runs across.  There are no real stakes in the story until Ricky goes after Mother Superior and since they are both incredibly unlikable characters, it doesn't raise the stakes by much.


Verdict:

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is the textbook definition of a cheap sequel.  Re-using the footage from the original film is simply unreal and the film's kills are mostly uninteresting.  This film had a low budget and a terrible script.  Even Eric Freeman's insane performance and a few fun moments aren't enough to save this movie from being garbage.

 3/10: Really Bad

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