So, I’m not sure what happened, but in 1987 a couple of the executive producers who retained the rights to the whole Silent Night, Deadly Night concept (and I use that term loosely) decided the initial controversy had blown over safely enough to the point where now a sequel was not only possible, but flat-out desirable, so they formed e a one-off partnership called “Silent Night Releasing” and set about hustling up $250,00 to make a quick, cheap sequel to a film nobody was exactly clamoring to see a sequel for . And sure enough, it did, in fact, turn out to be a good thing that this particular horror property was vaulted into “franchise” territory. But not because of this one.
Even for slasher junkies and horror completists out there, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is a tough slog. A very tough slog. First off we’re introduced to one Ricky Caldwell, brother of Billy (who funnily enough wasn’t mentioned in the first movie). Ricky’s 18 now and he’s headed out into the world after spending the last few years in a mental hospital. Ricky grew up in the same Catholic orphanage as his brother, but his elder sibling’s crime spree as a psycho Santa, and his subsequent murder, sent Ricky over the brink. But he’s cured now. Maybe.
Well, of course not. If he were, in fact, cured, we wouldn’t have much of a movie here, now would we?? And as it is, we don’t have much of a movie anyway.
Now, if you liked the first Silent Night, Deadly Night flick, you might like the first half of this one — that’s because damn near the first 45 minutes of this movie’s just-shy-of-90-minutes runtime is a flashback to the previous movie! I mean, I know they had to refresh the audience’s memory a bit because it had been a few years, but come on. the thing is, though, that flashback stuff is the best thing on offer here, because after it’s all done, all you’ve got is Ricky deciding pretty quickly to don the Santa suit and start killing. He kills some folks, and utilizies some Christmas-themed props, like a string of tree lights, in doing so, and then he gets shot by the cops.
Seriously. That’s it. End of story. This movie’s an (extremely) extended recap of the first flick topped off with less than 40 minutes of by-the-numbers slasher carnage. His ultimate target, as with his brother, is the cruel Mother Superior. There’s absolutely, positively nothing new here. The director was some guy named Lee harry who’s primarily worked as a B-movie and TV show editor. He brings even less style to the proceedings than Charles Sellier did to the first one. And, as with the first one, there are no “stars” worth mentioning (okay, you could argue that Linnea Quigley’s appearance in the first flick would have been worth at least a mention on my part, but come on — sew as in every horror movie back then).
As I mentioned in the previous review, this is available on DVD from Anchor Bay on a twin bill with its cinematic progenitor, and the anamorphic widescreen picture and?mono sound are both nice. The only extra’s the trailer. It’s also available as a stand-alone release from the fine folks at Flesh Wound Video, complete with a commentary, so it must have had an “official” solo release somewhere in the world at some point, but not here in good ol’ Region 1.
I wish there was more worth saying about this movie, I really do, because I’m covering them all and should really go into detail, shouldn’t I? But in all seriousness, I already have. I’ve told you everything you need to know about Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 — there’s literally nothing more to say about it (or at least nothing interesting, at any rate). You can skip it as long as you know, going into the third installment, that we’re dealing with Ricky, not Billy, from here on out.
And that about wraps things up here (hell, no “about” is even necessary, that really does wrap things up here, completely and entirely). Let’s move on to the next one, shall we?
