"Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II" lives up to every expectation you could imagine. When you think about it, you're really watching two movies in one. For those of you who do not know the plot (if you can even legitimately consider this movie as having one), Ricky is the brother of Billy, the Santa killer from the previous film. He is in a mental institution and not doing too well there. He doesn't like his psychiatrist and constantly undermines him while relaying his story.
Something to take into account is a lot of this movie is told in flashback. I'd say at least fifty to sixty percent. The flashbacks are mostly from the original movie. And while the original movie has it's own merits, it is pretty much worth it to just watch the sequel. The flashbacks eventually become things they filmed for this movie. Ricky gets a girlfriend and ends up going crazy for almost no reason.
The problem with movies like these is that the killers have almost no motivation whatsoever. We're supposed to assume that because he was a baby when he saw his father killed and his mother raped and then killed that this would cause him to grow up as a serial killer himself. I mean, granted, there's a part in the original, and subsequently the sequel, where Ricky as a kid thinks he's seeing his brother walk towards him. Ricky holds out his hands, trying to embrace his brother. Right then, the sheriff shows up and shoots the man in the Santa suit in the back. Turns out that the Santa the cop shot was not the Santa killer that was on the loose. It was the kindly, drunkard Santa that just got lost in the mix.
But that Santa was killed right in front of the child.
Now, I know, I don't know a ton about psychology and that kind of things. Different circumstances cause different symptoms and so on. But I don't imagine that a kid that was so inundated with violence would eventually want to dress up in his own Santa suit and go around, killing people. Another thing, if he saw Santa get shot by a cop, don't you think that he might not want to be like Santa? As a child, he could have drawn the conclusion that if you dress like Santa, you could be shot. Just a thought...
The thing is, I'm thinking way too much into all of this. I usually do, it's one of my weaknesses. Problems with this movie aside, it's really something to see for yourself. Me describing it won't come close to doing it justice at all, but Ricky ends up going on a rampage like nothing you've seen before. Just a lot of indiscriminate shooting at the expense of innocent bystanders. It's a really impressive couple of minutes in the movie. Those five or so minutes end up making up for the fact that the rest of the movie really wasn't all that good. You just keep harkening back to those ten minutes, realizing that he killed about seven people in that time. You don't get that kind of stuff in horror movies anymore.
That's another thing. This is really not a horror movie. I mean, sure, there's killings and gore and some guy gets a car battery hooked up to his wisdom teeth, ripe with the classic 80s electricity. But there is no suspense. You know from the get go that Ricky is gonna go nuts and kill a lot of people. You just don't really realize the extent of his killing.
I'd like to analyze that scene. I know I said that I wouldn't because I wouldn't be able to do it justice, but there's just something about it. A strange kind of allure. That being said, I'm gonna go against my word, logic be damned.
The scene begins with Ricky walking around with his girlfriend. His girlfriend is about three to six times hotter than any other blonde girl in a bad horror movie in the 80s. Ricky loves her, talking about different things when they encounter her ex-boyfriend named Chip. Chip follows the stereotype of every bad young adult being blonde. And I think this actor may have been pretty desperate because his hair looks as though it was bleached. I could just see this guy, begging to be in the movie and saying, "Look, I know my hair is brown, but please, let me be in the movie. I'll bleach it. I swear, I will. This movie is gonna be the next "Halloween", just please let me be in this movie."
So, as they happen upon the ex-boyfriend, he turns immediately with his eyebrows. I tend to believe that the director is a firm believer in the strength of the performances through eyebrows and laughing. Ricky and Chip get into an argument which leads to Ricky killing Chip by way of car battery. Impressive intuition for a guy that wears skin tight shirts. His girlfriend then gets upset with Ricky. Not scared, mind you. Upset.
And we're talking upset as if he left his dishes out from the previous night. Ricky just fucking KILLED her ex-boyfriend and while the boyfriend was an obvious prick, I don't see her just being like, "I hate you, Ricky!" Ricky's mind then goes on auto pilot. At least I assume that's what all of Ricky's erratic eyebrow movement meant. He suddenly says, "Punish!" and that's the end of his girlfriend. He takes the antenna off Chip's car and strangles his girlfriend to death with it. Ricky's eyes go cross (I don't think that was a deliberate choice.) and his girlfriend falls to the ground.
Just as this happens, a cop shows up out of the blue. The cop has his hat cocked to the side for no reason. I think possibly it was to show that the cop thought he was a tough guy. Judging by his dialogue, I'd assume that was what they were going for. He doesn't last too long because he holds the gun two inches from Ricky's head before Ricky grabs the barrel of the gun and points it to the cop's head. The cop instinctually pulls the trigger. Because, you know, anytime a killer grabs the barrel of my gun and points it at my forehead, I always just shoot. It's only natural.
Now Ricky has a gun and everyone is screwed.
He takes a few steps, laughing at the gun in his hand. I don't think he thought the gun was funny, I just think it was supposed to be him with an evil laugh. But he looks at the gun, laughs, looks at the gun, laughs. This goes on for about thirty seconds before he starts walking. The music then goes to the left side of the piano. Deep, dark piano music is played as Ricky begins his rampage.
A neighbor walks out of his house, yelling, "What the hell is going on out there?" Ricky turns, shoots and kills the guy. Couple of things wrong with this situation. Who, after hearing a gun go off, walks out of their house without looking out the window and yells at the top of their lungs in order to draw attention to themselves? I know, the easy answer is "That guy". But, realistically, who? If I heard a gunshot, I'd look out my window. After seeing the guy with the gun in his hand, laughing at it, I'd be like, "I'm staying the hell inside and taking cover." Another thing, the guy is about one hundred yards away. It'd be extremely difficult to pull this shot off even if he were a crack shot which I have my doubts of because later in the sequence, it takes him three shots to shoot the front of a car. Figure that one out.
As he keeps walking, he continues to laugh. Don't really know why. I guess this guy is just THAT evil. He then comes upon a guy taking out his trash. Which, being that the other guy was in his house when he heard the shot, you'd think this guy taking his garbage out would have heard it being that he was outside the entire time. But no, he doesn't even realize the guy in the blue sweater with the gun in his hand, laughing hysterically at nothing, is standing right there.
As the man picks up his garbage can, Ricky looks at him all wild-eyed and screams, "Garbage day!" This makes absolutely no sense, but that's fine. It's one of the great B-movie moments. You can't just watch that one part, you gotta watch the entire movie to appreciate it. It just comes out of nowhere and catches you off guard. It's great.
He continues to walk and laugh, sees a girl on a bike, doesn't kill her, shoots a car, the car blows up and he catches up with the cops. The cops all have their guns trained on him. Ricky sees his way out, laughing again, pointing the gun to his temple. He has no more bullets. Can't kill himself this time. Too bad too.
There are many excellent parts in this movie but you have to wade through the shit to get to it. To sum up the movie, there is one scene early in the movie when Ricky and his girlfriend are at a movie. There is an annoying movie patron that calls Ricky a "faggot" for not kissing his girlfriend. The girlfriend laughs, saying, "Well, we know that's not true." Ricky takes it in, thinking, "You know, she is right."
After that, this exchange happens:
Ricky: "What did you say this movie was about?"
Girlfriend: "Oh, it's great! It's about this guy that dresses up like Santa Claus and kills people."
Ricky: "What?!"
And the movie they're showing clips from is the original "Silent Night, Deadly Night". This is the type of movie that you watch late at night with some friends. You can be drunk if you want to, but you might miss out on some of the truly stupidly entertaining parts.
Just remember girls, if you're going to go out with a guy, just make sure you don't go to a movie that specifically chronicles his childhood fears, anxieties and tragedies. It's counterintuitive to a successful date.
Note: Eric Freeman was chosen because he was a better look for the killer as opposed to the better actor as admitted by the director. It shows, but when you think about it, Ricky has not become iconic because he was a well-written character. It was all because of Eric Freeman. Freeman throws himself into the role even though he doesn't really know what he's doing. That takes a special kind of risk and I believe it paid off. Freeman makes the movie worth watching, even if his acting is horrible.
Another note: The movie was originally supposed to be a re-edited version of the original which explains all the original footage. I guess the director thought there was still some more story to be told in the Santa killer genre. Realize too that after this movie, there were three other sequels. The third directed by Monte Hellman ("Two Lane Blacktop"), the fourth starring Clint Howard and the fifth starring Mickey Rooney, who, ironically, denounced the original as being perverted. Guess money changes things, what little money he could have made from the fourth sequel to a bad horror movie.
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