Why Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 Was So Legendarily Bad
Christmas-themed slasher sequel Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 is often regarded as being "so bad it's good," and there are several reasons it ended up the way it did. It is no secret that horror movies love to be set on holidays. Many people assume that dates back to John Carpenter's original Halloween, but it actually goes back further to 1974's original Black Christmas. Yuletide fear has been a favorite target of horror filmmakers ever since, and director Harry Lee's Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 is no exception here.
To be sure, 1984's original Silent Night, Deadly Night was far from great. It was made on the cheap with the sole intent of making a quick buck off the slasher craze, featured mostly poor acting, and dragged in spots despite being short. However, what earned Silent Night, Deadly Night its cult fanbase is the film's gory and creative kills, unintentionally hilarious moments, and of course, the controversy surrounding it; as protests hounded Silent Night, Deadly Night out of theaters after only two weeks.
Related: All Black Christmas Movies Ranked, Worst To Best
In many ways, Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 is objectively even worse than its predecessor. Half its running time is slightly altered footage from the first movie, and the acting ranges from abysmal to entertainingly ridiculous. Of course, that makes sense when considering its origin story. It turns out Silent Night, Deadly Night's producers came to sequel director Lee Harry, an editor by trade, and asked him to somehow use the first movie's footage to make a new movie. Naturally, that proved impossible, but Harry met them halfway, asking for a mere $100,000 and a couple of weeks to shoot new footage to fill things out. Given those constraints, Harry
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