Natal Sangrento 2 - Retorno Macabro

My review for Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) was a favourable one because I was surprised by how well made it was despite the furore surrounding it on it's release, however the same cannot be said for Part 2 that was made 3 years later.

We're used to seeing sequels where filmmakers spend a few minutes at the start recapping events that have gone before however this one takes that to a whole new level by dedicating a whopping 40 minutes to do just that. There is extensive use of footage from the first movie intended as flashbacks as we meet Ricky, the brother of the original Santa killer Billy, recalling every painstaking moment to his psychiatrist.

Producer Lawrence Applebaum had tried to re-edit the original to create a sequel. Tri-Star had pulled the original from theatres due to a public backlash so he may have thought not a lot of people actually saw the first one so decided to blatantly reuse all the footage for a follow up. Writer and director Lee Harry was brought on board to film new footage to fill the second half and fashion a half baked sequel as a cheap cash in.

If this situation wasn't bad enough we have actor Eric Freeman's strange performance as Ricky whose stoic delivery is often laughable and makes watching this a more bizarre experience than it already is. At least in the second half he gets to go on a killing spree himself by hunting down the Mother Superior from the orphanage in revenge for traumatising him and his brother Billy as children.

It's a threadbare effort that is not very Christmassy but worth checking out for curiosity and the creative kill with an umbrella, something I hadn't seen before. Freeman's larger than life performance is so bad at times he becomes mesmerising to watch.

Unbelievably this went on to spawn 3 direct to video sequels.

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.

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)

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) is basically a re-cap of the original with a few improvements. Firstly it continues the story through the eyes of the other (and younger) brother, Ricky. As an even more homicidal and insane killer he narrates the story that was part one until he breaks free from jail and goes after "Mother Superior" and finally manages to behead the control-freak. Secondly, if you watch closely you'll notice several story changes and unused footage from the original Silent Night, Deadly Night. Finally, Ricky makes his older brother, Billy look very tame with such eye-candy as a killing spree taking up several urban city blocks. Such familiar yells like "Naughty" are met with new shouts like "Garbage Day!" This 88 minute video tape is out of print and a necessary addition to any horror freaks collection.

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.