Tis the Season

 



Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)

I can honestly say that I mainly wanted to pop in and watch Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 out of tradition now since I have had it on in December since probably 2010. I think it is terrible, I won’t lie about it. I have read that those who directed and wrote this sequel were given little resources and did the best they could with what they had…which simply wasn’t much. I don’t plan on writing much about it this year; however, it has some fun moments that do entertain me. I won’t deny that much; straight-shooter, I try to be. Eric Freeman’s performance/character will stand the test of time for all the wrong reasons. People have often commented on Joseph Pilato’s performance in Day of the Dead for its overtly intentionally loathsome qualities, but Freeman, to me, one ups him. There’s no doubt to me that Freeman was dead set on you hating his stinking guts. He had that snarl and that grouchy cartoonish scowl that I couldn’t resist chuckling at. It is a pro wrestling kind of heelish nastiness that has a viewing audience delightfully mocking Freeman. Not the intent (or was it?), Freeman’s performance (love how he uses his eyes and that foul, odious attitude he exhibits while interviewed by the stupid doc regarding the previous film’s footage, utilized as flashback to cut corners and save as much money as possible) lives and never dies in infamy.

The Cult of Freeman, alive and well, will always be the lifeforce that drives Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. Of course, Elizabeth Kaitan is the reason I enjoy any part of it whatsoever, besides Freeman’s masterpiece of performance art. The kill scenes amuse me in their cartoonishness, too. The umbrella kill I saw not too long ago on David Letterman, and the shock Kaitan’s blond dork former boyfriend gets thanks to Freeman and jumper cables had me just in ribbons. But Kaitan’s “Uh oh” moment is my favorite by far.

I particularly grinned when Ricky tells the doc he could squash him like a bug. I was amused at how Freeman is used as a device to segue his flashbacks with the doc into the footage from the previous film. This seems so desperate and lazy if one doesn’t know what the filmmakers stuck with their budget faced. I didn’t know the whole story myself until reading about the film. One of my chief regrets when first renting the SNDN was not listening to the audio commentary track accompanying Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. This could have given me more knowledge on their unfortunate position absent a serious budget and resources. I noticed Wikipedia listed the budget at $250,000, but I’m curious to how much was in getting the rights and footage to the old film instead of what made it into the sequel. Whatever the case, the results of what did make it into the film indicate a full budget would have still produced a suckfest…albeit a funny suckfest.

I don’t know what was up with the “teenage” actor portraying Ricky. He looks absolutely nothing like Freeman, and so his casting seems ludicrous. It just falls in line with the glorious ineptitude of the whole thing. Encountering a thug attempting to rape his girl, correlating this current act with the Santa killer that murdered and assaulted his mother, Ricky runs him over with a jeep multiple times. The color red (established when Ricky, as a child, goes psychologically cataleptic at the sight of a red fabric), as it showed up in that murder sequence with the jeep (it was red) is illustrated as the catalyst in Ricky's unleashed psychopathy.

Everything Ricky says is through this crude tone and snide delivery. Freeman makes Ricky a prick, plain and simple. Even when the film tries (and fails miserably) to earn Ricky sympathy, Freeman couldn’t sell it. He didn’t have it in him.

The back and forth of the doc and Ricky for such a long time (the footage and additional flashback footage filmed especially for the sequel) kind of places the film in a claustrophobic cage, only opened at the very end when Ricky goes after Mother Superior.

The “What?!?!” response from Ricky to his girlfriend in the theater is priceless. Not quite as funny to me as the “Uh oh” Kaitan moment, but close. Oh, the jumper cables at high voltage…yuk, yuk. In his shades no less. I like how the shades explode and this even surprises Ricky. I had forgotten until this viewing that Kaitan even gulps prior to getting strangled with a car antenna.  While strangling her, Freeman is even cross-eyed. Then the “Garbage day” suburban day massacre commences. As Ricky snickers, all he would need is a Fu Manchu mustache to twirl. This is the moment where the film finally goes off the rails and becomes that train wreck you can’t take your eyes off of.

The problem with allowing Ricky to get revenge on Mother Superior is that the casting of the role is with a different actress. Jean Miller isn’t Lilyan Chauvin. You can put her in a wheelchair and have skin leprosy, but if it isn’t Chauvin, that emotional impact of seeing a hatchet show taken out on her won’t exist. It returns to the first film in that regard, also. Chauvin is allowed to look down on Billy, hold her head high, and maintain her superiority. So Mother Superior has Ricky, in Santa costume and ax in hand (what else, right?), pursuing her, in an apartment (far removed from power in the orphanage). The police and a Sister show up in the film for like five minutes and the result is Ricky (supposedly, although the ending is open, of course; what did you expect, right?) gunned down.

Once the film is over, every year, I move on and the sequel eventually fades until the Yuletide season once again emerges. This has a solid fanbase and all the right wrong reasons continue to allow it to remain with a pulse.