For our Classic Trailer Park series, we’re going to highlight effective genre movie trailers.  While these clips are highlighted, this doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of the film itself, only the effectiveness of the preview.  Some films have excellent trailers but the film is terrible like The Nightmare on Elm Street remake, while for others, the opposite can be true like the original Friday the 13th.

The SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT series is a peculiar franchise that is usually forgotten outside of the months of November and December. It’s a series whose roots are deeply embedded in protests and moralistic controversy in the early 1980’s and then morphed into a sequel carried on the back of its predecessor, a bizarre third entry and then, as was common place in the VHS era, two in-name only sequels, and a very loose remake. Within 6 films the franchise went from one of the most controversial films in modern history to a tepid remake that ultimately felt…soulless. And that’s saying a lot for a franchise that has a killer with an exposed brain encapsulated with a plastic dome and free flowing blood. Which brings us to SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3: BETTER WATCH OUT. While the first 1.5 films are the most (in)famous, I think part 3 deserves a little more attention.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3 is an interesting entry. The film follows Ricky Caldwell, the killer Santa who screamed “Garbage Day!” in the previous installment, as he awakens from a coma and begins a series of holiday killings again. However this time, Ricky has a Michael Myers-Jamie LLoyd HALLOWEEN 5 connection to the vision-impaired Laura. Oh, and as I previously mentioned, Ricky’s exposed brain is covered by some plastic dome thing that he hides under a skull cap. This film is 1/3 Little Red Riding hood, 1/3 HALLOWEEN 5, and 1/3 Laura Harring’s demo reel as she played 1 of the only 2 sympathetic characters in the film.

SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 3 isn’t for everyone. The slow pace is frustrating, the main character is unlikable, and the film makes no sense whatsoever. Of course I love it! It’s not as enjoyable as the first film and doesn’t have the cheese factor and a bulk of the first film like the second film but it does continue the story of Ricky in a way that’ll make you arch your right eyebrow and shake your head. If you’re a fan of the first 2 films, then I’m sure you won’t hate this third installment, but it’s truly for fans of those films. As much fun as I had watching Bill Moseley kill people in the snow, unfortunately, there’s only so much you can do with Ricky 2.0 in this series, hence which is probably why the next 2 installments tell completely separate stories and had a budget increase.