By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The Christmas fear continues past the holiday in the latest sequel.
Executive producer John Klyza (SUMMERHOUSE SLAUGHTER, SLEEPAWAY CAMP IV: THE SURVIVOR) sent along the exclusive pics seen above and below from SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 3: DESCENT, the second follow-up to Theodore Gershuny’s 1972 horror film. That movie marked future Troma topper Lloyd Kaufman’s first horror credit (as associate producer), and he returns as an actor in the new entry, which follows up 2015’s SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 2: REVIVAL (scripted by Klyza). The cast also includes indie scream queen Tina Krause (2nd photo below) and Carl J. Grasso of THE MUTILATOR 2; Buddy Cooper, the man behind both MUTILATORs, was an associate producer here.
Will Collazo and Julie Anne Prescott (AMITYVILLE THANKSGIVING) wrote and directed; the synopsis: “It’s Oscar’s [Grasso] first day working at Bradbury Asylum, where the helter-skelter patients are killing each other–when the staff aren’t trying to first. He reports to Dr. Isaac Cole [Kaufman], who has taken a keen interest in Angelica [Krause], survivor of the East Willard massacre. If the holidays weren’t stressful enough, not one but two Santa-clad slashers have arrived on the scene with opposing motives. From padded walls to splattered doors, Oscar’s about to learn that minimum wage can be murder.”
“I always thought the first film was like an American Hammer movie,” Klyza tells us. “For part two, I wrote it as more of a Roger Corman/New Horizons picture–in fact, we hired Roger’s niece Jennifer Runyon out of acting retirement for that, as we’d all loved her in David Hess’ TO ALL A GOODNIGHT. The third one ended up as more of a Troma-style movie, which I think came out of bringing Lloyd Kaufman back. You know what Lloyd’s like–he brought terrific energy to the set and ad-libbed the heck out of his role. His humor was infectious among the crew, really influencing the vibe of the movie and sending it on a direct elevator to Crazytown, if not Tromaville itself.
“SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 2 has been a steady seller over the years through my Retrosploitation Video Club distribution label,” he continues. “So I waited patiently and burned through countless different iterations of a part three with other directors, until I settled on Julie Anne Prescott and Will Collazo, who really got that I was trying to tell this continuous storyline over a 50-year saga. They wrote and directed a sequel as stylistically different from the second movie as that one was from the first. I’m really happy with it, and now it’s back to the drawing board as I’m developing SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 4 and 5. I’m going to have to get them made back to back, only because it takes so damn long to get these off the ground! There’s plenty more story to tell.”
SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 3 is currently available for rental or purchase on Vimeo, and also on single- and double-disc Blu-ray as well as DVD from Retrosploitation. The two-Blu-ray set comes with an anaglyphic 3D version, and both Blu-rays include:
- Deleted scenes
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Trilogy trailers
- Original pitch promo video
- Lloyd Kaufman photo roll
