Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987) **1/2 [Quadruple Feature Pt. 4]

Well, I finally got around to seeing Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987). While I can't say that it will become a yearly tradition for me to watch this, as I almost always do with its 1984 predecessor (my review here), I still had a good deal of fun with SNDN2.

Eric Freeman's overacting, overactive eyebrows, and maniacal laughter are all greatly amusing. His rampage in the second half of the film is pretty hilarious, full of crazy carnage and memorable dialogue (and one infamous moment). Honestly, the film could have been a trash classic in its own right if the filmmakers hadn’t chosen to recycle so much of the first film (seriously, I think there was five minutes of new footage in the first forty of this sequel). 

The voice-over during all that recycled footage is funny but having just watched the first film immediately before this one, it was a chore to sit through. There’s a scene in a movie theater where a character says, “This movie’s so bogus”—that about sums up this film. But SNDN2 is a pretty cynical (and I have to imagine intentionally, campy) affair that even goes where the first film wouldn't in the end. Someday, when I haven't watched SNDN just prior, I'll revisit this one—maybe with some friends—for some major laughs.