6. Silent Night, Deadly Night 2
The Setup: An institutionalized serial killer, Ricky Caldwell, recounts his traumatic childhood and how it leads him to become a Santa-themed mass murderer.
What Goes Wrong: It's a long-standing tradition for low budget horror sequels to include footage from the previous installment in the series as a means to recap what happened in the last feature and to pad out their runtime without having to create original material; 1988's sequel to Silent Night, Deadly Night, Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 takes this practice to a hilarious extreme that won it a panning from critics on its release. Our anti-hero Ricky, after being institutionalized for a Christmas-related murder spree, recounts the origins of his holiday mania, which stems from his brother Billy's escapades in the first Silent Night, Deadly Night; this give the filmmakers an excuse to show large sections of the first film smack dab in the middle of its sequel. Basically, the story goes that Ricky and Billy witnessed a gun-toting robber dressed as Santa shoot both their parents, which, in all fairness, would probably give you a hang-up about the holidays. Flash-forward ten years, after a traumatic stint in an orphanage, Billy is out in the world and turns psycho when he sees some Christmas naughtiness that inspires him to don a Saint Nick outfit and punish the naughty. Part 2 is basically the same thing but this time it's Ricky's turn to check off the naughty people on Santa's list and escape the asylum to give the gift of sweet revenge to the cruel Mother Superior who raised the psycho brothers.
The moral of the story: As Norman Bates would say, we can 'all go a little mad sometimes' especially, during the hectic and stressful holiday season. Also, re-using old footage is a cost effective way to pump out a sequel with minimal effort.