Holiday Week Bonus Edition - Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987)

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (1987) by Lee Harry is a waste of time. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. You would be better off just re-watching the original movie, because that is most of this movie anyway. Let me explain...

It takes 39 minutes to actually get to the story of Part 2. I thought the first one had too many flashbacks, but this is ridiculous. The majority of this film is told through a narrated series of memories being told to a psychologist. The main character this time is the little brother of last episode's protagonist. So the extended re-telling of the original murder of the boy Billy's parents from the first film is now told by the little baby in the scene, Ricky. This is almost as believable as that flashback in The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 that is from the family's dog.

I should have known better during the opening credits of this movie. Any time that there are no less that eight names in the "written by" credits, you can be pretty sure you are in for a big pile of excrement.

The only movies to successfully re-tell the original in the sequels was the Evil Dead series. And the key to Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn was to completely re-shoot the pre-story to help blend the backstory into the new movie to get viewers that missed the original up to date without insulting your audience that is returning. Silent Night 2 is more along the lines of a filler episode of a television series that uses clips to fill in their season when they are out of original material.

So after we sit through about 80% of the original film, we can finally get to the new story of Part 2. What would a bunch of nuns operating an orphanage do to deal with the little brother of a guy who dressed up as Santa and punished people to death? Make sure he is adopted by a nice Jewish family, of course. No Christmas rage triggers here. Only problem is that now anytime he sees nuns or the color red he freaks out.

The real problem here is that once we finally get to the story of 12 year old Ricky, we really don't care anymore. Then things get confusing when the kid in the 17 year old flashbacks is not the same guy that plays 18 year old Ricky in his most recent flashbacks (who is also playing Ricky in the present day). It really starts to feel like the filmmakers just filmed chunks of the movie whenever they had a chance and tried to tie it all up together in post-production.

The following killing rampage doesn't bother to follow any of the rules previously established in the movies. We no longer need a Santa, Christmas or even the color red to trigger Ricky to punish people. Now he just kills because he can. This scene is so classy that the highlight is Ricky shooting a guy taking out the trash and screaming "GARBAGE DAY". Its in one of the trailers. Actually this entire sequence makes up most of the trailer on the extras.So we have gotten so far off topic by now in the movie that the only thing I am thinking about it is, "how many bullets can he possibly have in that handgun?" I will admit that the way the film answers that question is one of the only clever moments it has.

So the ending that you expected from the start of the movie finally happens. We finally get to see Ricky dressed up as Santa, but the actor is hamming it up so much by now that he comes off as a cross between Jack from The Shining and Freddy Kruger. Meanwhile the end of the movie plays off like an extended rip off of the opening from Friday the 13th Part 2. Nothing new here.

But wait...I forgot to mention that they use EVEN MORE footage from the original when Ricky takes his girlfriend to the movies to see a killer Santa film. Now this is just getting stupid!

There is nothing subtle or remotely interesting about this cheese ball sequel. While the original had a kind of sleazy charm, this one failed to keep me entertained. I am glad that I picked up this Christmas Survival Double Feature DVD set so that I could re-live the original, now I know why I couldn't remember anything about Part 2. There really wasn't enough new material  to stand out in my mind. Oh, and it's also sad that there are much more Special Features on the disc for Part 2 than the original.

I would only recommend this movie to people that haven't seen the original film yet, but to be honest, you're probably better off just waiting till you can get your hands on Part 1.

imdb listing for Silent Night, Deadly Night 2

Holiday Edition - Silent Night Deadly Night (1984)

A yuletide classic if ever there was one, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), is a true video store classic. A morality tale that hits you over the head (sometimes literally) with its message about the dangers of being naughty. It also reminds you that sometimes the holidays can be pretty brutal.

Charles E. Sellier's Silent Night, Deadly Night is the story of a young boy who watches his parents get murdered by a criminal in a Santa Claus costume. This obviously causes severe trauma and the grows up equating being naughty with a vengeful Santa. Years later the boy grows up to be a strapping teenager who gets a job at the local toy store. Everything seems to be going just fine till the store's Santa calls out sick and the boss asks their newest employee to step into the red suit. Then all hell breaks loose and the naughty must be punished!

I must have been a young teen when I first rented this cult classic. Paired with the Santa story at the end of the original Tales from the Crypt movie from 1970, there was quite a reputation for these killer Santa flicks. Fangoria loved the Silent Night series (there are a handful of squeals) and the gory moments they highlighted made me fall in love with them too. I also have a soft spot in in my heart for the original film because it was one of the first laserdiscs I owned. To be honest though, I only know part one and two, so I can't speak for the second half of the series or the recent remake.

The pacing, acting, costuming and kills all feel like rejected scenes from the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises. This film is so 80s that the toy store sequences feature Smurf Shrinky Dinks, the Krull boardgame and the Return of the Jedi Jabba's Palace playset (a personal favorite from childhood). The only thing that makes it even more 80s is that one of the naughty, fornicating teens is a young Linea Quigley.

Watching the original film now, I can honestly say that I can't think of any other films the use so many flashbacks. There are event moments that feature flashbacks in the flashbacks. We constantly relive the original murder scene from the beginning of the movie.It's like they weren't sure we could follow the main character's correlation between naughty behavior leading to death by Santa. It's the premise of the freaking movie! It's safe to assume we figured it out in the first 15 minutes.

Regardless of some of the klunkiness of the plot and the "premarital sex leads to violent death" trope, this film still holds up pretty well. It is a great example of the slasher genre and has had a major influence on the world of horror. There were many imitators, but this film stands out as the first of its kind. It may be a little sleazy and a little schlocky, but its still a good little movie.

As a nice added feature on this "Christmas Survival Double Feature" edition was the look at how controversy added to the legacy of the movie. In a collection of text re-prints from articles and reviews of the film, we get to see how adults from all over the country freaked out from the posters and ads. The clever filmmakers started to turn the tables and use the negative comments to fuel the fire for their revised ad campaign. "The film they didn't want you to see!" and "They tried to ban it!" just made the posters all the more alluring. The real moral to the story of Silent Night, Deadly Night is that there is no such things as bad press!

So snuggle up by the fire and break out the eggnog and holiday cooking while you enjoy this holiday video nasty. I recommend this film to all fans of slashers, grindhouse films and sleazy video rentals of the 80s. Oh and Merry Christmas!

Silent Night, Deadly Night on IMDB