Friday the 13th: Part 2

Friday the 13th: Part 2

Released: 1981

MPAA Rating: R

Genre: Slasher

Nuts and Bolts: Five years after the bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, Paul Holt does his best to try and bring people back. But the campground is shrouded in terror as people begin turning up dead. Has the ghost of Pamela Voorhees come back to wreak more havoc? Or is it…something else?

Summary: Two months after the events of the first movie, we find Camp Crystal Lake's sole survivor Alice Luker in her home nearby. She suffers from horrible nightmares of the night she was forced to take the life of Pamela Voorhees. After a shower and a telephone conversation with her mother, Alice goes to the refrigerator. Inside the fridge is the rotting head of Pamela Voorhees. Before Alice can react, a man wielding a screwdriver attacks her from behind. Burying the tool into Alice's temple, Jason Voorhees finally avenges the death of his mother.

Flash forward five years. Paul Holt renovates a campground that lies adjacent to Camp Crystal Lake. This is the first time these grounds have seen any activity since the tragic massacre on Friday the 13th five years prior. A new group of councilors are hired and Paul is determined to get the campground ready for Summer. Amongst the new cast of characters are: Jeff and Sandra (Two trouble-making lovers), Terri (Hubba Hubba), Ted (The prankster), Mark (The crippled athlete), Vicki (Mark's love interest), Scott (The token horn-dog) and finally Ginny (The Child Psychology major and girlfriend to Paul).

Paul reveals the legend of Camp Blood and makes mention of the mythical Jason Voorhees. He also warns everyone that the nearby Crystal Lake grounds are 'off-limits'. A rule that Jeff and Sandra are only too happy to ignore.

Rounding out the cast is the return of crazy Ralph, the doomsayer from the first film. However Ralph gets very little time to preach his rhetoric as he is killed fairly early in the movie (Poor Ralph)

A small contingent of camp councilors decide to have one more night on the town before the busy season work begins, and so, Paul, Ginny and Ted go to a nearby pub while the other councilors remain at the campground.

Jason makes little distinction between the camp run by Paul Holt and nearby Camp Crystal Lake. Its all the same locale to him; Camp Blood. Using a variety of tools at his disposal (most noticeably a machete), Jason begins slaughtering his way through the kids like a hot knife through butter.

Before long, Paul and Ginny return to the camp. (Ted decided to stay at the bar and thus survives. Yay Teddie!) When they get there they discover blood-soaked sheets and faulty electrical surges. Jason leaps out and attacks the both of them. He quickly knocks Paul to the side and takes off after Ginny. Ginny eventually finds her way back to Jason's own private cottage, a makeshift cabin built from the stolen refuse of Crystal Lake.

As Ginny enters the killer's private sanctum she discovers something that chills her blood. Jason has erected a shrine to his mother, placing her rotting head and the sweater she wore the night she died upon a table filled with candles. Proficient in the field of child psychology, Ginny dons the sweater of Pamela Voorhees and ties her hair back in the hopes of being able to pass herself off as Jason's mother. Jason enters his cabin and sees Ginny. Jason is taken aback as Ginny shouts his name. She is probably the only other person to ever speak his name to him other than his mother. But Jason soon snaps back to reality as he realizes that Ginny is trying to fool him and attacks her anew. Paul arrives again and provides a distraction allowing Ginny the opportunity to sink a rusty machete deep into Jason's shoulder. The killer passes out from shock and falls to the floor.

Paul and Ginny return to one of the other cabins to nurse their wounds. But they barely get a chance to rest as Jason attacks them one final time.

The outcome of the film is dubious. Ginny survives but apparently there is no sign of Paul. It's safe to assume that he was killed by Jason. Jason apparently escapes as well. The most obvious sign of this is the final scene where we see Pamela Voorhees' shrine once again. The sweater that Ginny had wore, which she had since discarded has been neatly tucked back into place on top of the table before the dead woman's head.

Acting/Dialogue: Very well done. Amy Steele is extremely convincing as the sassy Ginny, and the rest of the cast do commendable jobs as well. Especially Stu Charno (Teddy) and Walt Gorney (Ralph). The dialogue is very natural sounding and moves fluidly throughout the script. There is a nice blend of arbitrary conversation mixed with humor. Very well done all around.

Gore: Like its satellite films, Friday Part 2 offers copious amounts of gore. Special scenes of note include: A screwdriver through the temple, A metal wire across the throat, A machete across the face, A claw hammer to the back of the head, A spear through two bodies at once as well as an assorted array of sliced throats and gut-stabs. Tom Savini proves once again why he is the master of Horror FX.

Guilty Pleasures: This one has full frontal and rear female nudity. This is almost exclusively from the character of Terri (Kirsten Baker) who learns the hard way why no one should go skinny-dipping alone.

A few more scenes of note: Ginny kicking Jason in the balls; Teddy doing a weird caveman dance; and Vicky spraying her crotch down with perfume. (And Paul even TOLD her not to wear any perfume! Stupid bitch.

We also get to see the POLITE side of Jason Voorhees! After spearing the bitch that killed his mum, our boy even removes the whistling teakettle from the stove. And people say Jason has no class. Pshaw!

The Good: Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, this is one of my all-time favorite Horror movies. It has a great balance of suspense, drama, humor and over all eeriness. Harry Manfredini once again terrifies us with his high-paced music score. This time around the theme is one of great anxiety and is even more energetic than the somewhat somber tones from the first film.

This film is also the progenitor of what will one day become two over-used slasher film cliches. The first of which is the notion of the car never starting. Ginny drives a piece of shit Volkswagen beetle and needless to say, the thing conks out on her right when she needs it most. The other cliche is that of the false attack. At the end of the film Paul and Ginny ready themselves in a cabin for what they believe will be an oncoming attack by Jason Voorhees. But as Paul opens the door, we find that it is only Terri's little dog Muffin scratching to get in. It works brilliantly because it forces the audience to exhale in relaxation and conclude that this must be the END of the movie. And just as they are getting ready to get up and leave the theater...BAM! There's Jason crashing through the window in all of his hoary ugliness. I really wish I had seen this one in the theater just so I could judge the audience's reaction. This ending parallels the shock ending of the first film and director Steve Miner pulls it off flawlessly.

Special mention should be made of the heroines from both films. In Part 1 we had Alice whom was an innocent, insecure, naive starving artist trying to find direction in her life. In Part 2 we meet Ginny who is her complete opposite. Ginny is smart, sassy and brimming with confidence. Even when she's four sheets to the wind she accurately conducts a psychological evaluation of Jason Voorhees completely based off of his urban legend. In fact, it is this evaluation that gives Ginny the resolve to come up with her 'plan' to mess with Jason's mind. I really enjoyed how Miner contrasted the two leading ladies of both films.

I also really liked the look of Jason in this movie. Remember kiddies, our hero has yet to don his famous hockey mask at this point. Instead he simply wears a pillowcase wrapped about his head with two holes cut for the eyes. I don't know why, but I find this to be much creepier looking than the afore mentioned hockey mask.

We also get to see the REAL face of the human adult Jason in this. (Without all the swamp muck this time.) He is uglier than a bag full of assholes. No wonder he covers his face. Yuck!

The Bad: I really only have one complaint about this flick. A glaring blooper that is tough to ignore. During the 'Death of Ralph' scene, we see our favorite crackpot backing up against a tree. Jason is apparently behind the tree armed with some kind of metal wire. Jason (somehow) manages to swing the wire UP AND OVER the tree in order to get it around Ralph's neck! Wow! Jason must have really long arms to pull THAT type of stunt off. He should try to hook up with the Chicago Bulls, I bet he's got some SERIOUS game!

Oh yeah...and the actress who played Sandra Dire sucked total ass too.

Great Lines:

"Paul there's somebody in this room. Paul there's somebody in this fucking room!"

--Ginny shouting to Paul as Jason creeps up from out of the corner

"...so keep clean during your menstrual cycle." --Paul advising the other councilors on safety issues.

Overall Rating: 10 out of 10 severed heads.

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