Review #3: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Steve Miner (Director): Friday the 13th Part 3, House (1986), Warlock (1989), H2O, Lake Placid (1999), Texas Rangers (2001), Day of the Dead

Amy Steel (Ginny): April Fool's Day

Adrienne King (Alice): Friday the 13th

Stuart Charno (Ted): Once Bitten (1985), Sleepwalkers (1992), Christine

Marta Kober (Sandra): Rad (1986)

Russell Todd (Scott): Chopping Mall (1986)

Trailer:

Plot:

The success and ending of the first movie demanded the making of a sequel. Demanded I say! Now that mommy's dead, the legend of Jason Voohrees can take the stage for years to come.

The story picks up two months after the events of the first movie. The lone survivor of the first film, Alice, is slain at home by a mysterious prowler. Hmm. Who could that be? Fast forward into the future five more years and we have a group of young adults attending a camp counselor training center at Crystal Lake. It's not the same camp as the first movie, it's a similar camp on the other side of the lake. The original camp has been now condemned.

Paul is the boss of the new camp and his girlfriend, Ginny shows up to help. A new group of counselors attend this training camp as Paul and a few others teaches them the ropes of being a counselor. One night, they're all sitting down at the campfire and Paul tells them the story of Camp Blood. Paul warns all of them not to attempt to go over at the deserted camp on the other side of the lake.

Well what ya know, the next day, two of the trainees venture off into the forbidden zone, Camp Blood. They are caught by a local police man for trespassing. He turns them over to Paul who gives them a stern warning and pretty much grounds them for a day.

The cop leaves the camp and is traveling down the road when a hooded figure jumps out in front of the car and dashes into the woods. The cop follows him on foot through the woods. The chase leads the cop to a pieced together shack/trailer looking structure. Inside appears to be a rundown, make shift home of a woodsman. For the cop, it turns out to be a regrettable mistake, because he's just stumbled into the home of Jason. Needless to say, he doesn't make it out alive.

Night fall comes, and after a group dinner, most trainees leave camp for a night out on the town. A few of them are left behind to watch camp. With a sparse crew left to hold down the fort, Jason starts his rein of terror. Let the slaughtering of counselors begin! Only this time, it's not by a pissed off middle aged chick, but by a revenge seeking retard.

Villain:

Jason Voohrees. Self explanatory. My favorite horror movie icon. This is the movie that starts it all. At least for Jason. In this film, Jason is pretty much a confused teenage retard, living off the land and seeking revenge on anyone who comes onto his lands. His raged is fueled by the murder of his mother that he had witnessed at the end of the first.

Unlike the other Friday movies, Jason has a realistic touch to him. At this point his character was still a mystery. Did he actually drown years ago? Or has he been hiding out all these years living off the land? He is not yet an indestructible force of nature. He's just a troubled, mutated wild boy seeking revenge. I believe this characteristic makes this Jason character scarier than any of the other upcoming Jason’s. It's a sense of realism in the world. Jason's one of those crazy hill billies killing people. Not a Frankenstein monster who can't be killed. Who cares if he wears a sack over his head in this one?

Cast:

I might have over rated this category, but oh well it's my scoring. I liked the cast of the film. They were nothing special, it was a typical cast of twenty year old teenagers. At least, none of them were as annoying as I've seen in most horror movie films. I thought they did a good job staying with in the boundaries of their acting abilities.

Ginny was the "strong" female in the film. She was studying child's psychology in college and gave some insight to the development and psyche of Jason. She had a pretty physical role in the film, constantly being chased and roughed up by Jason towards the end of the film.

SFX/Gore:

Considering it was an early 80’s film, the special effects were pretty descent on the kills. There were a total of nine deaths in all. For the most part, they were all creative and nothing was overly gory or bloody. Apparently 48 seconds were cut from film to keep it from a “X” rating. I guessing it has something to do with the upstairs bed room scene. Because most of the deaths were quickly cut away or not shown.

I had two favorite deaths, so I'll list them both. * Highlight to Read * 1. Roller boy. Mark, one of the counselors, had gotten injured in a motorcycle incident some time prior to the film. He was left paralyzed and ridden to his wheelchair. It was some time late in the evening and it started to rain and thunderstorm. His girlfriend, Vicki, had left to her cabin to freshen up and he hears something outside of the main cabin.

He rolls out onto the front deck to investigate. Mark's sitting in his chair looking out into the dark stormy night. We get multiple angles of Mark sitting there looking out into the darkness, and the film's suspense builds up. Then out of nowhere...BAM! He takes a machete implant to the head and the force pushes him and his wheelchair off the deck and stumbling down a flight of walk up stairs. The timing of it was awesome.
2. Love Spear. It's the perfect way to die or go out. Two of our lovely young counselors, Sandra and Jeff, have taken their evening plans upstairs and to the bedroom. They start to do what young adults do, when Jason sneaks up the stairs and enters the room. As they have sex, Jason rams a spear down Jeff's back and impales the both of them in the process. * End. If you're going to die, then go out havin' sex!

TNA:

We are welcomed to one set of twins thanks to a late night skinny dipping in the lake scene. One sex act seals the deal for the "premarital sex" theory labeled with these films. There are roughly four hot chicks (Shark factor). It was actually pretty light and harmless in the film. I guess the film makers haven’t figured out the sex sells thing yet.

T.Gun's Take:

The film had a great creepy, dark atmosphere attached to it. There was no modern artificial lighting involved. The night scenes were purely realistic due to the lack of lighting. Of course, a violent stormy night takes play in the film. That has become a staple in the series. It's not a Friday film if it's not bad weather and raining.

As for the style of the photography, I LOVED the killer’s point of view shots. I always liked not seeing the killer, but seeing what he sees instead. The hiding behind the trees and bushes looking at it's prey, is an awesome idea.

There were quite a few jump factors in the film, like roller boy's death. I think the "jump" scenes are essential to a good horror film. You don't always need buckets of blood and guts to frighten the viewers. Let the film build the suspense and throw something out there when the nerves are rattled.

Again, the musical score is classic! This film also uses the great, tense, fast pace score during key points in the film. The soundtrack alone gets the blood rushing through the body. Have I mention that is one of the best sequels ever!!!

I believed this movie is totally underrated. I believe it's better than the first film. It's also way better than the next ten plus sequels. There were many memorable scenes from the flick. The coolest sequence was the late in the film when Paul and Ginny went into the dark office to investigate the sudden power outage. It had a great feel to it.

Another great scene is the legendary campfire scene. This is the scene we've seen at the beginning of other movies recapping the series. This is where Paul is sitting around the latte night campfire with the other counselors explaining the tale of Camp Blood and warning them of the legend of Jason. I loved that campfire scene! Nothing better than a good scary campfire story!

If the “Mask” had appeared in this one...then it would be THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!! Hands down.

Part 2 is my favorite horror movie. For me, it has all the key elements needed to be one of the greats. In a perfect world, it would have applied a little bit more TNA and maybe just a smudge bit more bloodier deaths. Also it would have been great if it happened to be the first in the franchise. But that's in a perfect world. It sounds like the re imagining of the series is going to be a lot like this. Old School Horror! Let's hope so. It's a great blue print to work off of.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on May 1, 1981 and made $21.7 million at the Box Office ($6.4 million opening weekend)
-Two men played the role of Jason; Warrington Gillette did not do his own stunts