Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the "Reaction & Review Christmas Special". Yes, guys, it's that time of year again where I, once more, cover another Christmas related movie. And not only is it that, guys, but it's also a follow up to another Christmas movie that I already reviewed. Tonight's movie is a horror movie that came out in 1987. That movie is "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2".
Now for those of you who are reading this for the first time, I should probably fill you in. Back in July of this year, I reviewed the first "Silent Night, Deadly Night" film, and I loved it. I thought it was one of the best Christmas horror movies I had seen in a long time, and I now make it a tradition to try and watch it every year during the Christmas season. And I had said, back then, that I would review Part 2 as my yearly Christmas Special, and thus here we are.
Now, I only know of one scene in this movie, and it's a scene that anyone who had also seen this film would be very familiar with. I'm, of course, talking about the infamous Garbage Day scene. If, on the off chance, that you have never watched that scene...it's best that you look it up yourself. Because my words alone would not be able to do it any justice. I will say that I have seen a clip of this scene many times beforehand and it is really funny, at least out of context anyways. But now I get to see the whole scene in context and find out how it all leads up to that moment.
Beyond that, I also know that this movie follows Billy's little brother, who's now taken the mantle of doing the killing in Santa's outfit. Billy, for those of you who don't remember, was the Santa killer from the first movie. And, like I just said, it's his little brother's turn. So now, I'm gonna find out if this movie will be just as interesting as the first movie was. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2".
10 minutes later
You know, guys, I was just thinking about something. So they're showing stock footage of what happened in the first movie, where Billy's parents were being killed while his little baby brother in the car, and he, as a kid, had hid while his mother was being raped and killed as well. I'm curious as to why Billy didn't just distract the guy in the Santa outfit from killing his mother? I get that he was probably scared for his life, which makes a lot of sense, but the smallest part of me is thinking that he *could've* prevented it if he had intervened a little earlier. I don't know, perhaps maybe I'm just thinking way too deep into this, but it is something that did occur to me upon rewatching this scene again.
16 minutes later
I should let you guys know that we're still on this trip down memory lane where we're still seeing stock footage from the first movie. And normally, I would complain about the movie's pacing being complete shit. But somehow, I'm actually kinda willing to let this slide, and I'll let you guys know why when I eventually get to reviewing this movie.
6 minutes later
Guys, I said this before in my review for the first movie, but watching that awesome kill again here is fucking hilarious and amazing at the same time. I love it.
17 minutes later
Well, guys, it took a while, but Ricky finally has his first kill. And you know what? He's just about as psycho as his brother was. And honestly, I'm kinda loving it.
5 minutes later
OK, and now Ricky has killed this douchebag with an umbrella. And it was able to open itself up after impaling the guy, too. That's certainly really cool.
13 minutes later
Holy shit...! OK, guys, I just found the most creative death scene I have seen in a long time. Probably since the previous movie, at the very least. That is amazing beyond words, guys, I'm just gonna say.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2". And man, what a way to end a movie. Let me go ahead and shut this thing off here...OK. So...I may as well this answer this question first, seeing as how it's a sequel and all. Is this movie good? Oh yes, most certainly. Is it as good as the first movie was? Admittedly, no, it isn't. And I'll get to why in a moment, but I am still willing to admit that I really enjoyed this movie. So much so that I will be adding to my list of Christmas movies that I must watch every year around this time.
Why don't we go ahead and start this thing off proper by first discussing the writing. And I have to start off with a problem that could potentially ruin it for a lot of people who might be interested in this movie. You see, for the first 40 minutes or so, the movie is essentially a clip show of what happened in the first movie. And I know a lot of people who hate clip shows because they want to see new stuff happening in something like a movie or a TV show, rather than seeing old clips of the previous episode piled up into a compilation so that it can have an excuse for a plot. One example I can think of is with "Puppet Master: The Legacy". Which, for those who don't know, is the eighth movie in the "Puppet Master" series by Full Moon. All that movie is was basically a poorly put together clip show of the previous movies. And don't get me started on it's plot, beyond the clip show, because it is so fucking terrible that I personally don't count it as canon to the "Puppet Master" series as a whole.
But I'm getting off topic. I should probably get back to reviewing this movie. So, as I was saying, when it comes to clip shows, a lot of people get turned off by this concept. And I totally understand why. Even for someone like myself who understands why clip shows exist, they are mostly pointless at best. And I normally would say that for this movie as well, seeing as how almost the first half of the movie is basically just a clip show. However...I can't exactly do that here. Because, and I briefly mentioned it in my review of the first "Silent Night. Deadly Night" movie, not a lot of people watched the first movie. Mainly because, it was pulled out of theaters real quick for, not only how poorly it was doing, but because a lot of people really hated that film for the time when it came out. So for this movie to go out of it's way to show what exactly happened in a movie that not a lot of people saw then is completely justified. This is one of those rare occasions where I can accept the idea of the first half being a clip show for anyone who might've missed out on the first film.
And the best part about this is that it has a really good framing device. We're being told about the events of the first movie from Ricky, who is Billy's little brother from the first movie, as he tells his story to a therapist from his point of view. I should also point out that Ricky's in a mental ward while he's telling this story to the therapist. I'll get a little more into this when I get to talking about characters, but the one thing I could nitpick here is how exactly would Ricky have known the events in almost very sharp detail of what happened to his brother, prior to him getting killed? I should mention that Ricky was just a little kid back then. So how exactly would he have known all this is a little bit of an oddity. However, I get the impression that Ricky already knew what happened to his brother before he got all psycho, what with Billy's traumatic experience and everything. And I'm guessing that he probably already knew the details from either one of the nuns who worked at the orphanage that Ricky and his brother were staying at, or he might've heard about it from the police sometime after they had shot and killed his brother. Either example works in my book.
So let's talk about the only character who's even worth talking about: Ricky. Now, as I mentioned before, he's at a mental ward for the events that follow after his brother's death. I won't spoil that part for you guys, but I will say that his conversations with the therapist that he's answering questions for is gold. See, throughout these scenes, you're suppose to take Ricky seriously, as he's telling his story to the therapist. But you can't, because the way that Ricky talks is that he's suppose to sound menacing...but it almost comes off as comically cheesy at the same. And as some of you probably know, I love this sort of acting, provided that it's not trying too hard to sound forced. But this is the perfect kind of hamfisted dialogue that's suppose to be taken seriously, but because of the way that Ricky talks during these scenes, it's impossible to do that here because of how funny it comes off as. And it mainly has to do with the actor playing Ricky.
Which, you know what, I'm just gonna go straight into the acting here, since I'm already mentioning Ricky's actor and all. The actor who plays Ricky goes by the name of Eric Freeman. This guy takes his role and just runs with it. The man is just oozing with so much charm that you're not gonna be able to take him seriously, especially when he leaves the mental ward and, well, goes nuts, let's just put it that way. But yeah, his acting in this movie isn't what I would call "good", but it makes him stand out as the most memorable actor of the entire movie. Everyone else here is just kinda terrible. Nobody puts in any amount of decent effort. Some of it sounds really wooden, while others try to ham up their lines. However, in the case of the latter, they're never going to outshine what Eric Freeman for his character. So it's just a case of you just have to accept the acting for what it is. It's just terrible with a side of ham and wood to go with it.
I want to touch upon special effects for a moment. Now for the most part, the effects in this movie range on just standard blood effects and the occasional visual effects too, but there's one thing I want to talk about in regards to makeup effects. Now I am gonna spoil one other thing about this movie. Mother Superior, the nun in the first movie, is also in this one too. And it's been stated by one of the nuns that she had suffered a stoke, thus she retired and went to live on her own. Well, from between the first movie and this one, she also, somehow, developed some kind of skin disease on her face. I swear to god, guys, for some reason, the makeup on Mother Superior's face looks as if she was possessed by a lizard. I don't know why that is, and I also don't know how common it was for someone to look like half a lizard after they suffer a stroke back in the day, but it just looks *really* odd on her. I guess they wanted to make it look like she got older, but somehow, she ended up looking uglier than she did. Which, I don't know if that was meant to be intentional or not, but still. It is something that might throw you off the first time you watch it.
But overall, guys, despite that one bit, the special effects in this movie are pretty good. They're not amazing, mind you, but for the small budget that they had to work with, it's still decent for what it is. Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting is also good, too. The sound-mixing is mixed fine. Music here is pretty forgettable. While we're not flooded with stereotypical Christmas songs, the music here isn't really anything to write home about at all, aside from the infamous "Garbage Day" scene I mentioned earlier. But other than that, the music in this movie is rather forgetful.
Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2"? If you liked the first movie, or even loved it like I did, then yes, I would totally recommend this film to you guys. If you haven't seen the first movie, then it's possible that you might want to watch that one first before jumping into this one. Though it is debatable that you could skip the first film and just watch the clip show of the second movie, I still would highly recommend it because there's a lot more in it than just what was shown here for this movie. While this one is obviously not as good as the first film was, this film definitely fits into the "so bad, it's good" genre, to where it's funny as hell, and is definitely guaranteed to make you laugh. At least, if you're into these sorts of bad movies like I am, of course. Like I said earlier, I enjoyed this movie a lot to where I'm gonna add it to my list of Christmas movies that I plan to watch every year around this time. And speaking of which, I really want to go back and watch the first "Silent Night, Deadly Night" movie again, seeing as how this movie wanted to sum up what happened there. I'm gonna go watch it in it's entirety because I love it so much.
So anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of this year's "Reaction & Review Christmas Special". Until next time, guys, take care, and have a very Merry Christmas. Peace.
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