The laughable Christmas horror remembered for its meme
Directed by: Lee Harry
Written by: Lee Harry, Joseph H. Earle, Dennis Patterson, & Lawrence Appelbaum
Starring: Eric Freeman, James Newman, Elizabeth Kaitan
Rated R for violence, language throughout and sexual reference
Release Date: April 10, 1987
Runtime: 1:28
This review may contain spoilers and Garbage Day memes
Yes, Virginia, there is a killer Santa Claus
Quick question: has anyone seen the first movie? The Santa Killer movie where little Billy and his baby brother witnessed their parents getting brutally murdered by a crazed, drunk mall Santa (with the bonus of their mom being sexually assaulted before her death)? Billy then grew up, lost his mind wearing a Santa Claus outfit, and went on a murderous rampage, slaying anyone he deems “naughty.”
No, not ringing any (jingle) bells? Well, good news – Most of this movie is just recapping the first one.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
The film starts with Ricky Caldwell (Eric Freeman), the little brother of Silent Night, Deadly Night’s Billy, now in a mental institution. It turns out Ricky was also traumatized by their parents’ gruesome murder, even though he was only a baby. Yes, before you even say anything, even the film acknowledges how insanely impossible that sounds. But Ricky clears any doubt by simply explaining – “I was there.”
Anyways, Ricky talks about his brother’s rampage (through extensive flashbacks of the previous movie) before telling the psychiatrist about his own disturbed life and killings. He breaks free and kills his way to find Billy’s intended victim – Mother Superior (played by Jean Miller), their childhood tormentor from their orphanage.
A killer Christmas series
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a weird franchise. Before Part 2, it started with Billy as a traumatized man in a Santa Claus suit who butchers people with an ax. It was an actual good slasher of a movie that took time to show the killer as truly traumatized before he went on a killing spree. Then it went silly with his brother as a kooky psycho. The third, Better Watch Out, continued with Ricky somehow surviving being shot by police as he stalks a clairvoyant blind girl.
Movie four, Initiation, gives up on psychos in Santa suits and is instead about a Christmas witch cult led by Octopussy’s Maud Adams. It’s a weird little movie, filled with ritual rape, bizarre insects going in and out of different female orifices, and Clint Howard being Clint Howard.
The fifth one is called The Toy Maker. It’s basically toys attacking people and Mickey Rooney being a weird toy store owner with a weirder son.
A remake was made in 2012, and the title was shortened to just Silent Night. There’s no Billy or Ricky but it does bring back the killer in a Santa Claus suit. The killer now wears a Santa mask, hiding his identity until having a Scooby-Doo reveal – Old Man Withers!!
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 1.5
So what is the deal with the ton of stock footage? There actually is an easy answer to this – Part 2 was originally meant to be a release of the original movie, with Ricky’s scenes in the asylum as narration. Eventually, it became a sequel, but there wasn’t enough material to make a full-length film. So, they use a ton of stock footage from the original as flashbacks.
In fact, so much of the first film is shown that the end credits have the cast and crew from the first one. Even with end credits showing everyone from both films, it still is under 90 minutes.
“Naughty This!”
Eric Freeman should be a study case for actors and filmmakers. Not for his outstanding talent, line deliveries, facial expressions, or playing a functional human being, but for the absolute opposite of all those things. It’s actually an amazing feat to pull off (or not pulling off).
The tone for Ricky was weird. It’s like Freeman was told to play Ricky seriously in one shot and then over the top in another. Sometimes, those conflicting shots crisscross in the same scene, especially in the neighborhood killing spree. Ricky shoots innocent bystanders off the street (yes, including the “Garbage Day” guy, I’m getting to that) with a dark, angry tone, and then suddenly, he’s cackling at gunpoint like he’s just having the time of his life (and never hearing of laughter, apparently). And yet, Freeman’s performance really makes the movie worth watching. Just imagine Charlie Sheen trying to play Hannibal Lecter. Go on, just think about it.
And supposedly casting for Ricky came down to Freeman and another actor and he won due to being better looking.
“GARBAGE DAY!”
And now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. If you know, you know. Go ahead and say it…
This is what the movie is famous for, even if people don’t know the movie. It’s such a simple, silly moment in a horror film and comes out of nowhere. Just a nameless man in the neighborhood taking out the trash, and Ricky shoots him. Somehow, that made internet fame, and the film (at least this moment) lives forever online in memes.
The Night Santa Went Crazy… Again
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is the type of movie that was saved by being really bad. Otherwise, this would just be another low-budget slasher film lost in obscurity. And trust me, cheap slasher movies come by the millions. Eric Freeman’s awful acting really makes each scene memorable (for all the wrong reasons) and makes the film so bad, it’s good. But still, it’s really bad.
So, thank God for Eric Freeman. Without that genuine, crazy performance, this movie wouldn’t even be worth mentioning.
Merry Christmas, and don’t forget to take your GARBAGE out early on GARBAGE DAY! See you next X-mas.
