SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2 (USA/1987/LEE HARRY)

Opening with a promising meditative shot of the protagonist, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 follows the story of Ricky, younger brother of the murderous Billy from the first installment. Having committed a string of murders, Ricky languishes in a mental institute awaiting trial. Speaking with his psychiatrist, he begins to tell his own story, explaining to some extent his motives for carrying on his brother’s dirty work. Despite being a baby at the time, he somehow recalls his parents’ murder at the hands of a man in a Santa outfit, a grisly affair which had been the trigger for Billy. Ricky goes on to lose his new foster parents too, and somehow inherits Billy’s ‘naughty or nice’ murder mechanism, going out on a killing spree to avenge his brother’s death.

It’s a wonder how this sequel managed to cost more than its predecessor, given that it donates considerable time to ‘recapping’ the previous entry. Even more wondrous is how Ricky managed to remember so much of the first film, given that he was in it for all of two seconds. Lead actor Eric Freeman’s performance is marvellously over-the-top, producing some wonderful scenes such as the infamous “Garbage Day!” scene (link posted below). The saddest thing is that the filmmakers – and the actors, natch – clearly thought they were doing a great job with this sequel, given the histrionics of the screenplay. Needless to say, they were sorely mistaken – this sits up there (down there?) with Troll 2 and The Room.

"GARBAGE DAY!"