For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Films With Santa Claus or Santa Claus impersonators., here’s a review of Silent Night Deadly Night 2 (1987) by David of BluePrint: Review.
Thanks again to James of Blogging By Cinemalight for choosing this month’s genre.
Next month’s genre has been chosen by Me and we will be reviewing our favorite Movies that take place in Cold weather situations (snow, ice, hail, etc).
Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jan by sending them to winter@movierob.net
Try to think out of the box!
Let’s see what David thought of this movie:
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Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
Director: Lee Harvey
Script: Lee Harvey & J.H. Earle
Cast: Eric Freeman, James L. Newman, Elizabeth Cayton, Jean Miller, Darrel Guilbeau, Brian Michael Henley, Corinne Gelfan
Running time: 88 minutes
Year: 1987
Certificate: 18
Made a couple of years after the first film, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 comes across as being a bit of a quick cash-in on the first film, but is still quite a lot of fun on its own merits and has become something of a cult film these days. Most detractors of the movie complain that much of the first half of the film is made up of large chunks from the first film, as the younger brother of Billy (the killer from the first film) is interviewed by a psychiatrist trying to get to the bottom of what set Ricky (Freeman) off on his own copy-cat killing spree. I guess if you hadn’t just seen the first film it acts as a handy recap, but I found myself fast-forwarding through it as I’d only recently seen the first film!
Where Silent Night 2 comes into its own is during the second half, from around the 40 minute mark, where the new stuff starts to happen. Ricky is set off after witnessing a sexual assault very similar to that perpetrated by the robber who killed his parents – not that he really witnessed that (he was just a baby at the time), but who needs logic in films like this one! This time the rescued damsel in distress doesn’t attack him for killing her nasty boyfriend so he lets her live…
Ricky then goes on quite a comical kill-spree, randomly attacking people (mostly shooting them) and laughing like a pantomime villain as he does so, shouting “naughty” or “Its garbage day!” as he murders them. He finally ends up seeking revenge on the nasty Mother Superior who seems to be hideously disfigured in this film, for some reason, probably because they couldn’t get the original actress to return and had to disguise the fact… Amusingly, the door to her room is numbered 666, but this doesn’t last long when Ricky takes an axe to it. There’s a fairly tense game of cat and mouse between her (in a wheelchair no less) and her murderous stalker before it all culminates in a familiar sort of way.
While the production values are inferior to the first film, Silent Night 2 still has much to recommend it, especially its sense of manic energy and fun once Ricky’s kill spree gets going. Although Freeman’s acting is somewhat ‘larger than life’ it all kind of adds to the fun and charm (?) of the film and I can clearly see why this has become a well-loved cult film over the years.
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