Sick of Christmas cheer? Then how about some Christmas FEAR! Luke Owen’s look back at the killer Santa franchise continues with a review of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2…
Yes, it’s the movie with the “GARBAGE DAY!” scene.
If ever there was an argument as to why the Internet is a wonderful place, then Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is a great example to put forward. Despite flying under the radar of virtually everyone, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 found new life when a 9-second clip of our main character reading two lines of unreadable dialogue became a hugely watched video on Youtube. Since then, the film has garnered something of a cult reputation and the scene in particular has become a popular meme. Although, the funniest thing about the video is that those two lines are probably the most a lot of people have seen of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2.
Which is a shame, because GARBAGE DAY is really just the tip of the iceberg.
Like Godzilla Raids Again or Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the production of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is pretty much more interesting than the actual movie. After the backlash received from the first Silent Night, Deadly Night, the movie’s producers tasked director Lee Harry to re-cut the movie with some new scenes to tie them together featuring Eric Freeman as Billy’s little brother Ricky (which was teased in the closing shot of Silent Night, Deadly Night). However, when they started to enjoy Freeman’s work during filming, Harry began to write more scenes to the point where Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 was becoming its own movie. Sadly though, the budget couldn’t accommodate a feature length picture so around 75% of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is just re-used footage from the first movie. This creates a massive imbalance as you go from watching long stretches of the first movie to wacky scenes featuring Freeman and then a closing 20 minute killing spree. Furthermore, Ricky recaps scenes from the first movie which he wasn’t present for, which means the movie doesn’t even make sense. Plus, we also have plenty of recapped scenes with Mother Superior played by Lilyan Chauvin only for this movie’ Mother Superior to be played by Jean Miller. Not only that, but there’s a scene in the movie where Ricky and his girlfriend go to the cinema to watch Silent Night, Deadly Night. The re-cutting of the movie is a huge mess of nonsensical idiocy which really makes the film hard to sit through.
So rather than focus on why watching the first half of Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is tough going as it’s all stuff you’ve seen before (that often doesn’t make sense), let’s focus on what makes this movie an Internet cult classic – Eric Freeman’s absurd performance.
Very few actors could give a performance like Eric Freeman does in Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2. In fact, it would be fair to say that no other actor could give a performance like he does. While many would read his lines with a level of range, Freeman is either overly-sinister or manically laughing and grinning. His scenery-chewing knows no bounds and then his final rampage is one of the most unintentionally hilarious killing sprees in movie history. The movie may be only known for “Garbage Day”, but this is a murderous rampage that deserves to be seen in its entirety. According to the producers, Freeman was cast despite having no acting experience over a qualified actor because he was a better looking guy that would play well against the leading lady and his lack of experience is evident. But this is not like other first-time performances which are wooden and unwatchable, Freeman is actually the best thing in the movie and he does well with the god-awful dialogue he was presented with. It may be laughed at, but every line he was given (including GARBAGE DAY) are hard to deliver without sounding like a lunatic. Like Robert Brian Wilson is Silent Night, Deadly Night, he really did do the best with what he had.
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is what it is – a re-cut of the first one that sprawled into a movie pretending to be a sequel. Ricky’s final 20 minutes may be a joy to watch, but they cannot make up for a rather boring and nonsensical opening. The over use of stock footage grows incredibly tiresome and Freeman’s insane performance can only carry it so far. Like Tommy Wiseau in The Room, Eric Freeman’s performance as Ricky has to be seen to be believed. This isn’t a movie you’d choose to watch on you’re own, but with a group of friends Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is a pretty enjoyable (and unintentionally hilarious) experience.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published December 17, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
