Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is one hell of a good bad movie thanks primarily to Eric Freeman’s hammy yet still amazing, may I say eye-brow raising, performance with one memorable line that has stood the test of time.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2
— Collector’s Edition —
(1987)
Genre(s): Horror, Comedy
Shout Factory | R – 88 min. – $34.93 | December 5, 2018
Date Published: 12/12/2018 | Author: The Movieman
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Shout Factory provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1.0/5 and 4.0/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 finds Billy’s little brother, Ricky (ERIC FREEMAN) housed in a psychiatric prison, being interviewed by Dr. Henry Bloom (JAMES L. NEWMAN) to determine the events that led him there. Ricky tells the story of his own childhood that for some reason he can remember despite being a baby, of his parents being murdered by a man dressed as Santa. Basically, what we get in between some cut-ins, is a replay of the highlights from the first film. Eventually, Ricky does reveal his murder spree and subsequently escapes with an eye on revenge against the heartless Mother Superior (JEAN MILLER).
Review: Often times I don’t ‘get’ the good bad movie; I watch them and think they pretty much stink. Perhaps it’s due to frequently seeing them by myself, but they tend to be miserable experiences. And then there’s Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. Maybe I was in a good mood, but this was one hell of an experience. I’ve seen plenty of online reviews but seeing it in its full and this is a thing of beauty. Sort of. The first half of the movie is pretty much comprised of clips (via flashbacks) from the first movie. The second half, its actor and star Eric Freeman in all of his eyebrow-raising glory. This sequel was directed by Lee Harry, who also co-scripted, and I suppose he did a commendable job considering the restrictions he was under by the studio, forced to use footage from the first film and had such a limited budget to more or less make half a movie, or about 45 minutes. Although, as I said, the first half of the film is a bit of a chore, especially if you’ve already seen the first Silent Night, Deadly Night, it’s rather tedious to sit through. But, that is more than made up with Eric Freeman’s magnificent performance because it was a thing of beauty, culminating with this iconic line, “GARBAGE DAY”, followed by some wonderfully delicious and hammy villainous cackling. Truly hilarious.
In the end, it’s not hard to see how Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 has become such a cult hit over the 30 years since its release and one hell of a good bad movie that, once you get past the “previously on” segments, is a treat to view. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 5.0/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover. The inner artwork is reversible revealing the film’s original poster art. Audio Commentaries:
Both tracks are rather fascinating, with the first one, new to this release, being the best with the trio recollecting, sometimes with some memory lapses, about the extremely tight schedule and working within the difficult parameters. Slay Bells Ring Again: The Story of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1:14:39) is a well done retrospective featurette with new interviews with Lee Harry, Eric Freeman, James Newman, Elizabeth Kaitan, Darrel Guilbeau, Kenny McCabe and Makeup Effects Artist Christopher Biggs. This is why I love some of these “Collector’s Edition” releases from Shout Factory where we get some fairly in-depth, as much as a 30+ year old shoe-string budget movie can be anyway, featurette. I Don’t Sleep (1:02:19) is an extensive new interview with Makeup Effects Artist Christopher Biggs discussing what drove his career and goes into working on SNDN2. Garbage Days Are Here Again (19:30) – Hosted by Robert Patterson. the audience is taken on a tour, with a guest appearance by Freeman, to the various locations as they stand today. Not bad though kind of prefer Sean Clark and his series, Horror’s Hallowed Grounds. Ricky Today Short Film (7:55) is a parody on the interview scenes from the film starring Eric Freeman. Also includes the Theatrical Trailer (1:57) and Finding Freeman Trailer (1:01). |
VIDEO – 3.0/5 |
| Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 comes to Blu-ray presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. As it’s stated on the disc and back cover, the transfer is a 2K scan of an archival theatrical print as the original film elements were lost, and the footage from the first film, was taken presumably from the HD print of its Blu-ray release. As such, this certainly has its flaws with some okay detail while colors are decent, though I did notice some color distortions in some spots (one instance, the frame went from cold to warm and back to cold) and there are plenty of specs and dirt. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track which sounds serviceable with some good dialogue levels and some nice depth for the music and score. However, there were some minor instances of pops and hisses that crop up here and there, though nothing overly distracting. |
OVERALL – 4.0/5 |
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Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is one hell of a good bad movie thanks primarily to Eric Freeman’s hammy yet still amazing, may I say eye-brow raising, performance with one memorable line that has stood the test of time. This “Collector’s Edition” Blu-ray offers up okay video and audio transfers to go along with a great selection of special features, yet another homerun by Shout Factory. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.