It's not Christmas day, it's GARBAGE DAY!
Consisting of about fifty percent flashbacks to the original film, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 follows Billy's brother Richard "Ricky" Caldwell, who followed in his sibling's footsteps and grew up to be a psychotic murderer. After going on a rampage, Ricky winds up in an institution, where he tells his story to a psychiatrist named Henry Bloom. Unintentionally Played for Laughs.
But let's face it, you're probably only here because of the Garbage Day
scene.
This film has examples of:
- Artistic License – Religion: Nuns who have to retire after being rendered invalid and unable to serve are typically housed in senior homes run or funded by the covenant, not just living in a suburban home by themselves. It's even more ludicrous that Mother Superior would be living completely alone with no carer as a wheelchair-bound stroke victim, or that someone as religiously fanatic as her would ever live in a house with 666 as its door number.
- Artistic License – Physics: Ricky would also have been electrocuted while maintaining his stranglehold on Chip as he attaches the crocodile clip to his tongue. To say nothing of the fact that Ricky somehow electrocutes Chip without creating a full circuit, as he only attaches one of the clips to Chip.
- Asshole Victim: Initially, Ricky kills only these. After he kills his girlfriend Jennifer, everyone is in danger.
- Attempted Rape: When Ricky was younger, he witnessed one and killed the perpetrator.
- Auto Erotica: Chip gloats about how he had his way with Jennifer in the backseat of his car. Too bad that he tells it to Ricky.
- Ax-Crazy: Ricky, both figuratively and literally.
- Axe Before Entering: Ricky, like Billy before him, makes use of a fire axe to confront Mother Superior. Presumably, he took it on his way out of the hospital.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While he gets shot by the police in the end, Ricky achieves what he set out to do by killing Mother Superior, something Billy wasn't able to manage in the first film.
- Bad Santa: Ricky steals a Santa costume for the climax.
- Berserk Button: The color red sets off Ricky's murderous urges.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Ricky (and to a lesser extent Chip's) crazy, fluttery eyebrows.
- Black Dude Dies First: Defied. A black orderly is the first character we see other than Ricky, and despite obviously being worried that he's going to become an example of this trope, is never seen to be killed on-screen. His voice can be heard trying to restrain Ricky as the tape plays back his killing of Dr. Bloom however, suggesting that Ricky may have killed him too.
- Bloodless Carnage: Although many of the kills do include blood, when Mother Superior's head rolls off after her Clean Cut there is a noticeable lack of blood on the floor or on her body.
- Bottomless Magazines: Surprisingly enough, the film averts this — Ricky uses one bullet to kill the cop, one to kill a random bystander, one in the "Garbage Day" sequence, three to take out a car, then when he goes to commit suicide on being confronted by the cops, discovers that his revolver is out of ammo.
- Cardboard Prison: Once Ricky dispatches Dr. Bloom, he is able to saunter out of the mental hospital, laughing maniacally (though, the background noise seems to imply that he kills the orderly on the way out).
- Car Fu: Ricky kills Eddie by repeatedly driving over him.
- Catchphrase: Ricky's "naughty", which was the last thing he said in the previous film. To a lesser extent, "Punish!" is one too.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Ricky is immensely strong, capable of lifting a grown man into the air with one hand and pinning down a Jerk Jock by the throat, as well as his Made of Iron qualities.
- Fitting, given that his actor, Eric Freeman, dabbled in bodybuilding and very obviously had a powerfully built physique at the time.
- As per the previous film, Billy displays similar feats of strength in flashbacks, such as wrapping Christmas lights around the neck of his first victim and hoisting him into the air with one hand.
- Clean Cut: Mother Superior is found seemingly all right, but when she's touched, it is revealed that her head has been cut cleanly off.
- Clip Show: About half the film consists of flashbacks to scenes from the first film, which are shown virtually unchanged.
- Cold Ham: When he's talking to Dr. Bloom, Ricky speaks primarily in a monotone voice, despite being clearly excitable.
- Cool Car: "Ol' Red".
- Crazy-Prepared: Mother Superior keeps a second wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs, which she uses when she falls out of the first one.
- Creator Cameo: Director/co-writer/editor Lee Harry plays one of the movie patrons and cinematographer Harvey Genkins later pops up as a charity collector who Ricky kills for his Santa outfit. Co-writer Joseph H. Earle dubs his voice.
- Also of note: Harry also provides the voice of the announcer of the Christmas parade on Mother Superior's TV.
- Chewing the Scenery: Ricky overacts with almost every line, barring some of his interactions with Jennifer. Hell, even his eyebrows do this to punctuate his more over the top lines.
- Determinator: Ricky gets shot several times at the end. And doesn't even flinch until another officer tries shooting him with a shotgun, which finally knocks him down.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ricky's already on a killing spree, but when he encounters a little girl in the middle of his rampage, he doesn't mistreat her or even try to hurt her whatsoever even despite her wearing a red ribbon. Ricky may be a psychopath going postal, but he's not a child killer. He also seems to have a distaste for non-consensual sexual acts, if running over a would-be rapist with his own car is anything to go by.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Ricky causes a car to blow up by shooting it in the grill. An Invoked Trope in this instance, since the car in question is a Pinto.
- Evil Laugh: Ricky during his shooting spree.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When told that Ricky's likely course of action after escaping is to go after Mother Superior, Sister Mary tells the police that can't be possible as the orphanage closed down after Mother Superior had a stroke, and she now lives in a house alone— Then the look of horror comes upon her face.
- Eye Awaken: In the ending.
- Eye Scream: Chip's eyes (and sunglasses) explode while he's being electrocuted by Ricky.
- Finger Wag: The quiet orderly wags his finger at Ricky when he leaves him alone with Dr. Bloom.
- For the Evulz: This becomes Ricky's main motive as the film progresses. The loan shark also professes to this, flat-out telling one of his customers that he actually hopes not to be paid back the following week, just so he can beat the crap out of the customer again.
- Gun Twirling: Done by Ricky after he shoots the guy taking out his trash.
- Hope Spot: Ricky seems like he's truly destined for a normal life rather than following in his brother's footsteps after he's adopted by a couple that grows to love him as their own son and even tries to understand how to deal with Ricky's PTSD with the help of a Sister, in stark contrast to how Mother Superior treated Billy. That all sinks when his adoptive father ends up passing away five years later, and he shortly after witnesses a young woman about to be raped by her boyfriend...
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Although Horror is willing to pencil in Garbage Day, if need be.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Right after Ricky kills Chip and Jennifer, an obviously rookie cop tries to arrest him, wielding his gun in a really impractical manner which winds up resulting in his death.
- Incoming Ham:
GARBAGE DAY! - Improbable Infant Survival: During his shooting spree, Ricky is bumped into by a little girl on a bike. He accepts her apology and moves on to kill more people.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Rocco getting impaled with an old umbrella (which pops open right before it rains).
- Improvised Weapon: Ricky is fond of these:
- He impales Rocco with an umbrella.
- Uses a battery charger to kill Chip.
- Strangles Dr. Bloom with the tape recording from the interview.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Basically, when Ricky kills Jennifer, any part of him that was in any way decent is gone.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Mother Superior finally gets what's coming.
- Large Ham: Ricky. His overacting is at memetic levels. Notably, it only occurs when he's gone crazy. During the scenes where he's in a relationship with Jennifer, he's a bit more restrained.
- Loud Gulp: Jennifer gives out one when she realizes that Ricky is going to kill her.
- Made of Iron: Ricky. Shooting him just makes him crazier and it takes a blast from a shotgun to bring him down. And he survives that.
- Made of Plasticine: Ricky manages to kill Rocco by shoving an umbrella completely through his torso.
- Magical Security Cam: A flashback variation. The clips from the first movie are justified in-universe as them being the film records of important events from Billy's life, since Ricky was clearly not present for most of them and so could not remember them. But then, that raises the question, who filmed these events? There just so happened to be a camera crew present in-universe throughout the first movie? Why wasn't this apparent at all in any of the first film's scenes?
- Meet Cute: Ricky and Jennifer meet each other when she accidentally bumps into his bike with her car.
- Mood Whiplash: The first film was much darker and more serious in tone, making the switches between the flashback clips and the narmy scenes shot for the sequel a bit jarring.
- Morality Chain: Jennifer for Ricky. When he kills her, it leads him to go on a killing spree.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Ricky somehow remembers his parents' murder when he was a baby. But then again, he also has flashbacks to events he wasn't even present for.
- Nonchalant Dodge: To avoid an out-of-control car barreling down on him, Ricky simply does a tiny little sidestep. All the more impressive given that the car reportedly was never supposed to get that close to the actor. The sidestep was the actor genuinely reacting to the car bearing down on him.
- No-Sell:
- Rocco's punches are completely ineffective against Ricky as Ricky lifts him into the air with one hand.
- Ricky tanks two rounds from a Colt Python without even flinching at the end of the film.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Initially, Ricky seems to be pursuing a form of vigilante justice, but by the time of "Garbage Day", it's clear that he's just killing people for the hell of it.
- The Nth Doctor: Mother Superior is played by a different actress. To hide this, it's mentioned she had a stroke, which horribly disfigured her face somehow.
- Number of the Beast: Mother Superior's home address.
- Off with His Head!: Mother Superior (who has her head put back on her body afterward).
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "GARBAGE DAY!"
- Pretty Little Headshots: Ricky shooting the cop with the cop's own gun leaves a clean headshot wound the size of a pea on the cop's forehead.
- Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Rocco punches Ricky when he is lifted up by him. All this does is provoke Ricky into stabbing him with an umbrella.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Ricky's first kill involves running over a guy who attempted to rape his own girlfriend using the guy's own car, mirroring Billy's first kill in the previous (and, thanks to recycled footage, this) movie. Unlike with Billy, the girl is grateful to Ricky for doing so.
- Recursive Canon: During the movie theater scene, the footage playing is footage from the first movie.
- Reveal Shot: The last flashback ends with Ricky in the hospital still telling the rest of his story to Henry Bloom, only for the camera to pan over as he's talking to reveal that he'd already strangled Dr. Bloom to death with the recording tape.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Ricky takes one and uses it in his rampage. Its low ammo capacity ends up getting him arrested in the end, though.
- Sanity Slippage: Not that Ricky was all that stable to begin with, but he undergoes various degrees of craziness, starting with his first kill. What really pushes him over the edge is Jennifer's reaction to him killing Chip, which triggers a rampage.
- Scary Black Man: The orderly from the hospital. He doesn't really say much, but has a rather mean Death Glare.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Ricky's last name is "Caldwell" now, instead of "Chapman" like it was in the first film.
- In the first film, a priest in a Santa suit is mistaken for the killer and is fatally shot after he failed to follow a cop's order to freeze. It turns out he was deaf. But here, it's said that the deaf man who was shot dead was the janitor at the orphanage. While the film-makers don't explicitly say why they made this change, they imply on the DVD commentary that they were uneasy about the thought of killing a priest. Killing a nun is apparently just fine and dandy, though. Then again, the nun was Mother Superior.
- Another one is that the film says Mother Superior got Billy a job as a store Santa, when in the first film it was Sister Margaret who got him the job as stockroom worker, and the store's owner was the one who made him dress up as Santa.
- Shoot the Television: Ricky sees a Christmas parade on the television and subsequently puts an axe through it.
- Smoking Barrel Blowout: Ricky does this after he's done with the "Garbage Day" kill.
- Stock Footage: Literally half the movie is recycled scenes from the first movie.
- Sudden Name Change: Ricky's last name is Caldwell, even though it was Chapman in the first movie, and he was adopted by a family with the surname Rosenberg.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Sister Mary is meant to fulfill the same role as Sister Margaret in the first film. Considering the film's rather... loose attitude towards casting, it seems unusual that they didn't just try to pass off the new actress as Sister Margaret.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ricky does this quite a lot, most noticeably after he somehow gets his axe stuck in a wheelchair seat in the climax, causing him to shout "I'm REALLY mad now!"
- 13 Is Unlucky: Ricky tells Dr. Bloom that he is very unlucky, as he is his 13th shrink. Dr. Bloom then retorts that 13 is his lucky number. Ricky backs this up by strangling him with the tape he's been recording with.
- Timeshifted Actor:
- Happens in a really odd way, as the actor playing the teenaged Ricky is actually several years older than Eric Freeman in real-life.
- Ricky looks younger at twelve when he is adopted than when he is actually at the orphanage. And has a different hair colour.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Jennifer; after Ricky fries Chip with a car battery charger. Instead of running for help or trying to placate Ricky until she can call the police, she grabs hold of him, starts screaming that he's crazy, and repeatedly shouts "I hate you, Ricky!" Naturally, this doesn't end well.
- Barely a minute after Jennifer's bout of suicidal stupidity, a policeman catches Ricky, and rather than telling Ricky to get on the ground and then making him handcuff himself, he walks up to Ricky, waves a gun in his face, and then boasts "I know how to use this." Ricky duly proves that he really, really doesn't.
- Dr. Bloom interviews Ricky unsupervised and unrestrained. He is a psychotic killer, what could go wrong? Even one of the orderlies seems aware of how idiotic this is.
- Mother Superior, instead of fleeing or calling the police, decides to taunt Ricky, who is at this stage an axe-wielding maniac, and tells him that he is being very very naughty. This goes about as well as can be expected.
- Ungrateful Bitch:
- Inverted. Ricky happens on a near-identical situation like his brother in the first film and flattens the attempted rapist with his own car, and this time the girl seems really pleased about Ricky's actions.
- Played straight with Jennifer, although one might argue that Ricky went overboard by killing Chip over some crude comments he made.
- [Verb] This!: Ricky's Pre-Mortem One-Liner to Mother Superior when she tells him that he's being naughty is "Naughty THIS!"
- Villain Protagonist: Ricky. He commits two murders at a young age, goes on a rampage, resulting in six deaths, them escapes from a psychiatric hospital to kill a nun, murdering several people on the way.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Ricky is confronted with a young child in the middle of his rampage. He lets her go. Despite the fact that she was wearing a red ribbon in her hair.
