14. Silent Night, Deadly Night part 2

It's your Horror Review Advent Calendar.

25 Christmas themed movies.

Ho, ho, ho.

Director: Lee Harry (1987)

Starring: Eric Freeman, James Newman, Elizabeth Kaitan

Find it: IMDB

The sort of sequel that consists mostly of footage from the original movie. Billy's brother Ricky (Freeman) talks to a psychiatrist about how he came to follow in Billy's bastardly footsteps and become a Christmas killer too. Silent Night, Deadly Night part 2 re-uses even more footage from the original than The Hills Have Eyes 2. No doggy flashbacks this time, but baby ones instead. Ricky even has flashbacks to events he wasn't even present for. There's so much recycled footage that I felt cheated by having watched the previous film in preparation.

But at least the bit where police officers shoot an innocent Santa Claus in the back is repeated. Every Christmas movie should be required by law to have a scene in which police officers shoot Santa in the back. It would certainly make Tim Allen movies seem more entertaining. Later in the movie, Kris Kringle's execution is utilised to amusing effect. But Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 retells literally the whole of the previous film to the extent where there are only fifty minutes of original sequel.

Finally Ricky gets around to telling his own story. He was adopted by a family who gave the kid a decent upbringing but failed to recognise the trauma underneath. If cinema has taught us anything, it's that careful parenting can turn a serial killer into a Batman or a nicer kind of serial killer who only preys on criminals. Where Billy was terrified of Santa Claus, Ricky has a phobia of Nuns. I suppose Nuns are pretty scary. Pause for my favourite Nun joke:

Two Nuns are walking through Transylvania late one night, on the way home from a Transylvanian convention for Nuns. A vampire jumps out at them, from the undergrowth. "Agh!" shouts one of the Nuns, "a vampire. Quickly, show him your cross!" The other Nun shakes her fist at the vampire. "Grr," she says, "I am so angry with you right now."

As Ricky's stepfather passes away, the lad's demons begin to surface. He relieves himself by indulging in his brother's favourite hobby - a little Christmassy murder. But where Billy seemed genuinely disturbed and conflicted, Ricky is a bit of a dick. He's an annoying, overly talkative sort of killer, smugly bragging about his murderous conquests and swearing at his put-upon psychiatrist. Although there is the best utilisation of an umbrella that I've ever seen in a horror movie:

Eric Freeman does some great things with his eyes throughout. Ricky finally loses his shit completely when he finds out that his girlfriend isn't a virgin. It culminates with an Internet meme in which Ricky shoots a man taking taking out his garbage. In a series of increasingly brilliant murders, Ricky kills a guy who looks like Fred from Scooby Doo and strangles his girlfriend with a car aerial.

His rampage ends with him exploding a car with a pistol. This sequence of events is an incredible bit of trashy horror cinema, outdoing anything in the original movie. Indeed, were it not for the abundance of flashbacks and filler, Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 would make an even better movie than its predecessor. At once, it is one of the best and worst sequels ever made.