WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS BODYCOUNT. HIGH RISK OF SPOILERS. ENTER IF YOU DARE.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

IT'S GARBAGE DAY!: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)
Rating:***
starring:  Eric Freeman, James Newman and Elizabeth Kaitan

recycled or not, least the gore counts.
I dunno what I ate the day I watched this, but  after hearing that it is so bad that it's good, I just had to satisfy my curiosity for this supposed sequel to one of the most notorious slasher films made about Father Christmas.

Psychiatrists.
Always a disappointment
I don't know what to say, but I think this "sequel" couldn't get any lazier; The first Silent Night Deadly Night was and always will be a certified cult gem, but this, this is just sloth on film. We first see late Billy Chapman's younger brother Ricky, who ended up in an insane asylum where he recalls detailed information of his late brother's descent to madness, quite unusual as that all of his description hit right in the nail, even if he's not old enough to remember or be around those particular moments. I mean he's barely a year old and he recalls how how ma and pa got killed off by Sick Nick that fateful night! Not to mention remember how Billy killed off those store owners even if he's miles away from that area. I'm putting my money on detailed explanation from his step parents, but bleh. Rubber logic at its finest, mates.

two Santa deaths in one day?
it's a miracle only one kid broke down
Okay, so around forty minutes, we see the shortened and narrated version of Silent Night, Deadly Night; featuring all of the messy kills and sleaze, chopped into little bits and plastered hastily together until the part where Billy met his demise from a gunning. By then we got treated on how Ricky fared after witnessing the death of his older brother. He later got adopted by a Jewish couple, (easy way out of Christmas!) and was fine until that one fateful day he recalls everything (the murder spree, the orphanage, the gunning down of Santa twice in one day) after seeing two nuns walks by and suffers a "seizure". So he got his broken psyche back and it didn't flowered until much later when his pa passed away and he's old enough to have muscles; by then, he started seeing folks who acts like A-holes, and has develops zero tolerance for such people.

Oh Fortuna~
Velut Luna~
But things gotten more interesting- or complicated, depending on how you perceive it- when he fell for a random blonde who somewhat gains feelings for him in return. Cheesy love-fest here and saxophone-soaked love scene there, and we get a messier end as this crud didn't last long. Shit goes down when the gal's A-hole ex (who ruined her best sweater!) came back and starts harassing them both, first at the cinema (where Ricky got hold of two murders with a clean slate) and later, out in the public suburbs, where it all escalates into a murder spree and the now famous "Garbage Day" line, before the cops corners him and he tries to commit suicide.

Let's face it,
he would never be in that
Tracy Thorn music video.
This all leads to the present once again, some time after Ricky's on four walls of isolation and his psychiatrist is trying to figure him out. Psychiatrist got killed eventually, Ricky made his escape, stole a Santa suit from some guy and now makes his way to end the one who started all of this: that bitch Mother Superior! (Who for some reason is scarred).

Least he can finally
reach that high-note
While the first's mean spirited approach to the Killer Santa trope got people cringing for moral upliftment, Silent Night Deadly Night part 2 pokes fun on that cringing by redoing the entire first film and merging it with its sequel, so all those little boys and girls who didn't get to see the first film will get their Christmas wish come true. But, as gimmicky as it sounds, that doesn't excuse this film's lazy plot and story; then again, it is the late 80s, and Freddy Kruger got hold of the audience with tongue-in-cheek humor and Jason's jamming with Alice Cooper, for a sequel to survive those years of the neon 80s, they got to be fun and brainless. The Bah!-humbug spirit of the first is lost, and coming in to the rescue is the cheese. Lots and lots of cheese.

Here's Ricky!
But, told true, I got to say the cheese worked for most, as the once considered "worst" of the series is starting to water down into a "so-bad-it's-good" type of hype. Yeah, I agree, it's terrible, unevenly paced and badly acted, but laughable enough to forgive. It's dumb, stupid and braindead, and even if all three of these words meant the same thing, I got to say it all as separate entities to deeply point out how terrible it was, production-wise. But if you got a shot for the weird and wonderful, then Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 may be your cup of tea. I should suggest, like always, not to take it seriously. I mean it. Doing so might give you brain cancer tumor pus. Just switch off, learn to laugh like Ricky and have a merry, cheesy, deadly Christmas!

Bodycount:
1 Male shot in head (flashback)
1 Female has neck slit with switchblade (flashback)
1 Male strangled with Christmas lights (flashback)
1 Female killed with boxcutter (flashback)
1 Male hammer clawed in the head (flashback)
1 Female arrow shot to her back (flashback)
1 Female impaled on deer antlers (flashback)
1 Male thrown through window, falls to his death (flashback)
1 Male decapitated with axe (flashback)
1 male repeatedly shot on the back (flashback)
1 Male axed on the chest (flashback)
1 Male shot repeatedly in back (flashback)
1 Male dies, cause unknown
1 Male  repeatedly ran over with car
1 Male impaled on umbrella
1 Male disappears, presumably killed
1 Male seen being killed
1 Male jump-lead to the mouth, electrocuted until eye balls explode
1 Female strangled with car antennae
1 Male shot on the head
1 Male shot
1 Male shot
1 driver immolated in exploding car
1 Male strangled with tape
2 Males killed off-camera, sounds heard
a number of orderlies were presumably killed off during escape. Screams heard.
1 Male killed off-screen
1 Female found decapitated
total: 28+

IT'S GARBAGE DAY!

4 comments:

  1. Wow - even back in my less discerning younger years I found this to be a slapdash and lazy offering - I mean - like you said - a third of the movie is footage from the first movie! But, on the other hand - it's an impressive bodycount, even if you don't count the flashback repeat kills - and there's GARBAGE DAY! Guess I'm just going to have to watch it again (found it on VHS at a church yard sale about a year ago) and pronounce my final verdict. Cheers!

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    1. A slasher film in a Church yard? There's a joke them somewhere...

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  2. I was coming back from the beach with my grandparents and saw this on a theater marquee. Sadly, they wouldn't stop to take me to see this, lol. I can't understand people calling this the worst. That award should be reserved for the atrocious third movie which has this films Ricky character, now with an exposed brain seen within a clear bowl on his head, goes on another killing spree. Bill Moseley plays him this time.

    Oh, the Mother Superior was supposed to have suffered a stroke, which accounts for why she's scarred. Nice touch with the body counts, Kaijinu.

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