FRIDAY THE 13th PART 2 (1981)

Studio:       Paramount Pictures
Director:    Steve Miner
Writer:       Ron Kurz
Producer:  Steve Miner
Stars:     Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Kirsten Baker, Stuart Charno, Warrington Gillette, Walt Gorney, Marta Kober, Tom McBride

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A new group of camp counselors is stalked by Jason Voorhees as he seeks revenge for the death of his mother. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In a dream, Alice Hardy relives the deadly encounters with Mrs. Voorhees and her drowned son Jason at Camp Crystal Lake. After a phone call with her mother, Alice finds Mrs. Voorhees’ decapitated head inside her refrigerator. An adult Jason Voorhees then grabs Alice from behind and kills her with an ice pick driven into her skull.

In town, teenagers Sandra Dyer and her boyfriend Jeffrey park their truck and use a payphone to call their friend Ted for directions. Crazy Ralph gives the two teens a cryptic warning. Meanwhile, their truck is towed, but they discover that it was only a prank orchestrated by Ted. On the road, Ted and Jeff stop the truck to move a tree blocking their path while Sandra finds a sign for Camp Crystal Lake in the nearby bushes. Ted refers to Crystal Lake as “Camp Blood,” which sparks Sandra’s interest in seeing the infamous location.

Ted, Jeff, and Sandra arrive at the Packanack Lodge to attend the Packanack Lake Region Counselor Training Center operated by Paul Holt. The other ten counselors include Terry, Vicki, Scott, and wheelchair bound Mark. Ginny Field arrives late due to car trouble. Paul scolds her privately, but he and Ginny also have a relationship.

Around a campfire that night, Paul tells the counselors a ghost story about Jason Voorhees and Camp Crystal Lake that ends with Ted scaring the group. He stresses that the camp is off limits. Afterwards, the counselors dance and play games indoors. Jason strangles Crazy Ralph against a tree as the old man spies on Ginny and Paul making out in one of the cabins.

Terry’s dog Muffin goes missing the following day. While the rest of the group goes swimming, Sandra convinces Jeff to sneak into Camp Blood, where they see what looks like Terry’s mangled dog. Deputy Winslow catches the couple trespassing and returns them to the lodge. Winslow also gives Paul a lecture about keeping his people away from Camp Crystal Lake. On his drive out, Winslow stops to pursue a man through the woods. He follows the figure to a small shack. Behind a door inside the shack, Winslow sees something shocking just as Jason kills him from behind with a hammer to the head.

After dinner, Paul takes several counselors into town for one last night of fun at The Casino bar. As punishment for trespassing, Jeff and Sandra are forced to remain at the camp. Terry, Scott, Vicki, and Mark also stay behind. Scott hides Terry’s clothes while she goes skinny-dipping. Terry chases him and Scott steps in a snare that hangs him upside down from a tree branch. Terry leaves him to retrieve a knife. While she is gone, Jason slices Scott’s throat. Terry screams when she returns to Scott and discovers that he has been murdered.

Ned, Paul, and Ginny discuss Jason Voorhees at the bar in town. Back at camp, Vicki flirts with Mark while Jeff and Sandra go upstairs to have sex. Vicki leaves to change her clothes just before a rainstorm begins outside. Mark goes out to the porch when Vicki does not return and Jason puts a machete into Mark’s face. Mark tumbles down the outside stairs in his wheelchair. Jason then kills Jeff and Sandra by putting a spear through them while they lie on top of one another.

Paul and Ginny go back to camp while Ned stays at the bar with the other counselors. Vicki returns to the cabin and goes upstairs when she cannot find anyone. Jason lunges at her from underneath Sandra’s bed sheets. Jason slices at Vicki’s leg and she stumbles into Jeff’s body before Jason kills her with a large knife.

Ginny finds the bloody bed when she and Paul arrive at the cabin. After a struggle, Jason subdues Paul. Jason begins a long chase with Ginny until she finds the dilapidated cabin. Inside the secret room, Ginny discovers a shrine to Mrs. Voorhees that includes her severed head and sweater surrounded by candles and corpses that include Terry. Ginny dons the sweater and pretends to be Jason’s mother when he enters the room. When she moves to kill him, Jason sees the severed head behind her and realizes that Ginny is not his mother. Paul suddenly enters and struggles with Jason. Ginny recovers the machete and swings it into Jason’s shoulder. Jason collapses.

Ginny takes the sack off Jason’s head to see his face. Paul carries Ginny back to the cabin. They believe that Jason is stalking them again when they hear noises outside the bedroom door. Ginny arms herself with a pitchfork. Paul opens the door only to be surprised by the unexpected return of Terry’s dog Muffin. Jason suddenly lurches through the window and attacks Ginny. In the light of day, Ginny is strapped to a gurney and taken away by ambulance as she asks in vain about what happened to Paul.

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Review:

“Friday the 13th Part 2” is a quick 80 minutes of old school horror, the first six of which are comprised mainly of a clip montage from part one.  The next seven are Jason tying up a loose end from the original before moving on to new business.  That business being the usual agenda of any territorial slasher, which is to brutally butcher a new crop of teenagers participating in counselor training at a lodge adjacent to Camp Crystal Lake.  While not exactly intruding on his domain, they are close enough for motivating Jason to put a bag on his head and pick up a machete.

Like its predecessor, “Friday the 13th” is so light on plot that it defies gravity.  Once again, usual screenplay staples such as story and character depth are pushed aside to play in a sandbox whose primary purpose is to set up blood soaked kills.  How the movie moves things from death to death is irrelevant.  This is a true slasher film focused on straightforward scares and scenes of mayhem, and it makes no apologies for that fact.

Improving a bit over the original, the sequel at least makes more of an effort to inject its future corpses with some personality.  The wheelchair bound athlete is given a few personal moments to feel sorry for himself.  Prankster Ted provides his pals with a couple of yuk-yuks.  And camp operator Paul mixes jovial boss with stern professionalism to round out a cast that is easier to describe than the group that populated Camp Crystal Lake the first time around.

Amy Steel’s Ginny is perhaps the series’ best Final Girl with her balanced blend of attractive girl next door, clever minded brain, and able-bodied heroine.  Taking her limited knowledge of Jason’s backstory and the legend of Camp Crystal Lake and using it to think on her feet when Mrs. Voorhees’ sweater is the only thing standing between her and a dead end is the smartest thing that anyone in the franchise has ever done.  Her relatable resourcefulness and irresistible charm put her at the top of the list for “Friday the 13th” protagonists.

Something “Part 2” has that no other “Friday the 13th” movie does is a unique depiction of the franchise’s star Jason Voorhees.  As the series continued throughout the 80’s and 90’s, Jason’s iconic visage would become synonymous with a hockey masked hulking monstrosity that was little more than an invincible murder machine.  In addition to being the first film featuring Jason as the main villain picking up where his mother left off, “Friday the 13th Part 2” portrays Jason as a human being, who is arguably sympathetic in a certain light given the tragic conditions of his upbringing and feral lifestyle.  He displays a legitimate emotional connection to his beloved mother, emoted simply with a cock of the head while his face is obscured by sackcloth.

Far removed from the time when he would evolve into a zombified supernatural force resurrected by lightning bolts and shot into outer space, Jason is a much more down to earth antagonist in his first full outing.  With the hockey mask not entering the picture until “Part III,” Jason spends the second movie terrorizing teens while wearing a plain sack on his head with one lone eyehole cut out for sight.  Later movies would make Jason intimidating by appearance alone.  Here, Jason puts fear into his victims through action, gait, and genuine menace.

The Jason Voorhees of “Friday the 13th Part 2” runs, shattering the myth of him having always been a casually ambling stalker with the miraculous ability to stay ahead of those moving at five times the speed.  This Jason Voorhees is smart and calculating in his vengeance.  To track down his mother’s killer to her new home, set up a preplanned fright involving a severed head in the refrigerator, and only then finally stabbing an ice pick through her skull takes ingenuity, creativity, and an ice-cold heart.  The question of how he could manage to pull this off, much less devise the plan in the first place, is better left unasked. 

Which is essential advice for squeezing maximum enjoyment out of this sequel.  Raised expectations and inquiring minds will come face to face with the shortcomings of the movie’s longevity.  It is important to bear in mind that “Friday the 13th Part 2” is a product of its time, rooted in the days when simple slashers were kings of the horror box office.  And realizing it for its simple intentions and as the true birth of a universally recognized symbol of horror, “Part 2” successfully accomplishes what it sets out to do, much like Jason himself.

Review Score:  75

 Friday the 13th (1980) Review

Friday the 13th Part III Review

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