Stille Nacht, Horror Nacht Teil 2

This movie is so awful it's fantastic. It has everything -- a lead actor who moves his eyebrows up and down to convey strong emotion, unnecessary (ludicrously unnecessary) nudity, idiotic death scenes (the best one is when Ricky shoots a car with a handgun and it flips over and explodes). Yeah, that makes sense. Oh, and the script is outstanding. Watch for a provoked Ricky saying, "Punish!!!" and "Garbage Day!"

If you get a chance to see this one, don't miss it. It's one of my favorite movies ever.

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.

The first thing anyone will admit when mentioning this movie is that it is terrible. It is even admitted in the Anchor Bay DVD release that it was mostly edited from the original to extend the video shelf-life of the first film, which was also less than Citizen Kane. The new material is acted with less talent than a grade school play, and those same grade school children could have written the script were it not for the not so child-like subject. The movie is merely an attempt to capitalize on gore, nudity, and controversy. As such, if you haven't seen the original in a while, this is a decent horror film. The slasher genre makes no claims to being Oscar worthy, so don't expect it to be and you'll be fine.If you go into this movie wanting to watch a badly made gore-fest you won't be disappointed. I find the delivery of the line "Garbage Day" makes this film one of my horror favorites despite the fact I rate it 4/10.

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