In this movie a troubled young man recounts in great detail the events of Silent Night Deadly Night (part 1), complete with lengthy flashbacks, so if you liked that movie you can see it again here without the boring talky bits. That young man is the little brother of the original Santa killer, and is affected by the exact same psychosis regarding Santa suits, nuns, sexual predators, and the colour red, any of which will trigger a murder spree.

Humans are greedy bastards. This was simply a sleazy cash grab repackaging of the original movie. But sometimes, just sometimes, good can accidentally arise from attempted fraud. The profiteers who "made" this movie couldn't have guessed that the random actor they grabbed off the street to play... Billy or Ricky or whatever his name was, would be master thespian Eric Freeman, whose nuanced portrayal of mental illness has become legend.

Much has been made of his shockingly expressive delivery of the line "garbage day", but too often overlooked are the equally thought provoking "eat shit" and "red car". No other actor has so effectively put us inside the mind of a spree killer. Instead of the stereotypical brooding, sinister performance we might get from some hack like Mads Mikkelsen, Freeman shows us the unbridled joy of criminal insanity. Only he can actually make you, yes you, want to stroll through the suburbs on garbage day with the Sun on your shoulders and murder in your heart, laughing every time you notice the gun in your hand.

And that damn nun we wanted to die in the first movie finally gets what's coming to her despite the strategically placed escape wheelchairs. It's a wonderful life.

And is it really such a bad thing that most of the movie is some other movie? I like Silent Night Deadly Night as much as the next guy, but I have to admit it's a bit much to sit through the whole thing when I just want to uphold holiday tradition by watching a little killer Santa while I brood over the end of another shitty year. Sadly though the flashbacks are missing my favourite scene - where Santa realises that in his zeal to punish the naughty he's neglected to bring any presents for nice children, so he gives a little girl his bloody box-cutter. On the original DVD extras there are also reproduced a number of outraged letters from parents and clergy to perversely heighten our enjoyment of the film. It seems strange to us now in our modern world of compulsory porn and state funded crackhouses, but people could still be offended by a Santa suit killer in 1984.

That's my mini review of the first movie 'cause I don't want to watch it again.

Only negative about the new movie part is it has pretty much nothing to do with Christmas. Billy only wears a Santa suit for the last few minutes, preferring to do most of his killing in a hideous sweater. Anyway go watch some garbage day memes and be careful carrying garbage cans everybody.