A
disturbed patient Ricky Caldwell
(Eric Freeman) is talking to a
psychiatrist in a room of a mental
hospital while being recorded Dr.
Henry Bloom (James Newman) about why he
killed many people around the area
including his lovelife with the lovely
Jennifer Statson (Elizabeth Kaitan), his
childhood and teenage life as well as
about his brother Billy and his
terrifying memory on Billy's death as
this mainly caused by two things. A
killer in a Santa suit who slayed their
family and their abusive Mother Superior
at the orphanage posioning their minds
about punishments. Of course Ricky was
scarred by Mother Superior's evil
discipline on Billy and Ricky's main
focus is killing her for all this
especially when Ricky sees red he goes
even more berserk.
Mother Superior (Jean Miller) will be
getting the horror of her night on
Christmas Eve when Ricky comes to pay a
visit to her that not even her prayers
will save her from his evil grasp.
Good god what a
real disappointment this sequel turned
out to be. I mean I've seen disappointing
sequels but nothing unorganised like this
one.
Most of it is flashbacks from the first
one almost halfway through the film
probably to save money while Ricky talks
about the history of his brother but it
does explain why Ricky's brother did the
stuff he did.
There's an impressive opening to the film
showing Ricky holding a cigarette in a silent room and
then we see an emotionless but yet a
vicious look on his face as the camera
really pans in on him.
There was a dispute between Dr. Henry Bloom and Ricky when
therapy starts as it looks slightly
cheesy but passable.
Then of course the flashbacks begins from
the first film with Ricky himself narrating it
in an icy voice and we see good shots on
him in between takes on him and the
flashbacks.
We spot a perfect shot on him and a flashback sequence involving Mother Superior giving
young Billy the strap and Ricky jumps
in during the whacks each time driving
his anger saying SHE-WAS-NAUGHTY! which
made that moment effective and how it
drove him to be angry at Superior for
what she did to his older brother with
all the child abuse.
We see great blocking on Ricky present day along with a take on him as a kid reaching out his hand to a
man dressed as Santa walking towards the
orphanage and the terrifying incidents
that are about to unravel.
We spot a perfect slow motion camera shot
on two
nuns walking to each store giving it a
true horror feel to the picture with
Ricky at 10 staring at them a little disturbed by
this.
We have a nice look on Ricky's face during an alleyway scene when he is
picking up somebody and about to kill him.
A perfect camera shot on scream
queen Jennifer Statson when she gets out of her car
and smiles.
There's almost a touching discussion
between her and Ricky with
their conversations together in a movie
theatre with someone being
a shit disturber there which makes you
want to tell him to shut the f**k up.
Yet he was supposed to snap
when he is told what he is going to be
watching and it looks badly done and so
does the rest of the moments when he is
approaching this shit disturber ready to kill
him without anyone noticing as that
looked terribly trashy.
During this we see a decent discussion
with a dispute betweenand ex boyfriend towards Jennifer in
the theatre as it looks not too badly
done off one another as ex-lovers.
There was a moment during the next day
with Jennifer, her ex and Ricky making it look intense and hard to watch
but it does look intense of what happens
to her ex yet the scene with Ricky snapping making the plot hard to watch is
so rushed with no inspiration and then he tries to act like a Krueger type
killer when he shoots people in the
neighborhood which bombs big time
due to terrible writing.
The best moment was during close to
the ending when Ricky comes in
for the kill with Mother Superior as they both react perfectly
towards one another and he is
portraying the Krueger type personality
but this time alot better especially when
he uses an axe and tearing things apart
and the camera on him holding his axe
walking around the house waiting for her
looked superb.
Bottom line is that the film tried to use dark comedy like
they did with those other slasher flicks
like A Nightmare On Elm Street and
Child's Play but this
one falls flat which includes Ricky deciding to go on a shooting spree in his neighborhood. It does get interesting when the film is
half over when Ricky is about to attack
Mother Superior as that setting looked
dark which saves the film from bombing.
The acting is a
real disappointment as well in this film
as Eric Freeman (Ricky Caldwell) as the new Santa
killer doesn't pull his weight too much
even if he tries to. Yet he has a good
icy voice to his character and knows how
to look psychotic. But he overly does his
part a little too much. He reacts to a certain flashback scene very well when he does his
blocking and tells his story. He has a
perfect evil look on his face when he is about to kill someone.
James Newman (Dr. Henry Bloom) is just average with
his part as his shrink but seems to pull
off okay by being a disturbed and
intimidated one.
Temporary scream queen Elizabeth Kaitan
(Jennifer Statson) seems to do great as the light hearted
and romantic girlfriend in the film
really showing her stuff during her part
in it.
Jean Miller (Mother Superior) this time steps in to play
the nasty old Superior retired from the orphanage but doesn't
have the original actress' charisma but
again no one could pull it off like her.
She still seems fairly powerful and dark
by portraying this part nonetheless. She seemed to stand out well when
she warns him not to kill her acting
courageous.
Supporting actor Kenneth Brian James (Chip)
is not bad as a scumbag ex-boyfriend in
the film as a slasher film needs someone
like this to slay away. He is not award
winning material though.
Most of these actors remained virtual
unknowns as alot of
them seemed fairly wooden.
We have all the nudity used
on the flashbacks including with scream
queen Linnea Quigley
Elizabeth
Kaitan has a brief full body shot on
her including her breasts and butt while
being pressed against Freeman's
character during a sex scene.
We spot most of the gore in
the flashback's as well especially the
decapitated head of a bully riding a
sleigh
A guys eyes
explode
A retired nun's head is decapitated
Some bloody gunshots
The music is
nowhere near as good or impressive like
in the first movie composed by Michael
Armstrong as most of the time he
uses cheap synthesizer playing for it but
yet as some creepy piano playing and dark
gloomy wind type synth playing in some
parts especially during the opening and
closing credits.
Ricky Caldwell:
Daddy... almost got his present early |
