FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2

The franchise that takes a licking and still keeps on ticking.

The Friday films are a massive part of my love of horror films. Probably the first non-Universal Monsters toy I ever bought would have been a Billikin vinyl model kit of Jason walking down stairs. It didn’t just change the type of model kits I make (I’m currently doing a kit of Betty Page undressing the Creature from the Black Lagoon costume) but it also stopped me from watching Universal and Hammer films, and turned me on to slashers, which in turn turned me onto my real true love, giallo films.

I wasn’t aware of the Friday films when they first came out, but I became a fan when I started hanging out at my local video shop in the early to mid-eighties, a place I eventually worked at, and started making my way through their horror section, and loved them, and have ever since.

Friday the 13th Part 2 is a surprise for two reasons. One, and if I need to place a spoiler alert for a Friday the 13th film, you may have discovered this site by accident, the killer from the first film is definitely dead… there is some extreme injuries the human body can come back from, but decapitation isn’t one of them. The second is the return of Jason, who was the motivation for his mother to kill all the teenagers, and was only seen as a child in a fantasy that Adrienne King’s Alice had after the trauma of seeing all her friends murdered and being pursued herself. This film takes place a short time later and for some reason our new killer, Jason himself, is a fully grown man, even though he died years ago.

Insert ‘what the hell’ emoji here.

I find it hilarious that EVERYONE who worked on the second film will say in various documentaries and extras about the film that they did t know how a sequel could be made. I think that that is hilarious that even the cast and crew shrugged their shoulders and went with it.

Friday the 13th Part 2 was written by Ron Kurz, who would also give us part 3 a year later and the Final Chapter soon after than, and was directed by Steve Miner whose list of directorial efforts are a mile long, but include both genre pieces like Friday the 13th Part 3 and House, but also episodes of The Wonder Years and Dawson’s Creek.

Friday the 13th Part 2 starts 2 months after the events of the first film with us revisiting Alice (Adrienne King) who is living alone and suffering with the PTSD (aka flashbacks to the previous film) of what happened to her, when she finds the head of Mrs. Voorhees in her fridge and is promptly dispatched by a very large man.

We flash forward five years later to the Packanack Lake Region Summer Camp Councillor Training Camp, near Camp Crystal Lake, run by Paul (John Furey) and his assistant/ partner Ginny (Amy Steel), and a bunch of youngsters all willing and eager to learn how to become camp councillors.

Paul tells the legend of Camp Crystal Lake, of Jason Voorhees, who drowned there and whose body went missing, and of his mother, Pamela Voorhees who killed a bunch of councillors for revenge against the kids who weren’t watching her son when he drowned, and how they believed Jason survived the drowning and lived in the wood like an animal… what? Ok, anyway…

One night, most of the councillors go into town for a bit of fun, but as the night wears on, those left behind start to get picked off by… something, or someONE!

For me it’s hard to get over the nonsensical mistreatment of the story, but I am prepared to climb over that obstacle to get to the rest of the Friday films which I do love as a whole, and it gave me my beloved Part V which is easily my favourite one. I think if there were more of an explanation of the story other than this massive suspension of disbelief I would like it more, but as a viewer you are just offered ‘the dead kid from the first film is back… we don’t know why, but deal with it.’ It’s one thing for a character like Michael Myers to get shot six times and fall off a balcony and survive but a zombie child stalking the woods for about 30 years and his mother who still grieved for him didn’t know about it seems unbelievable (even for horror) and assumes the viewer won’t care and will swallow anything… which we did, and still do.

There are things I do really like about this film, though. The first is the group of young people who are playing the camp councillors. I found them to be a little more real and less cartoony than the actor played the ones in the first film. I honestly can’t pinpoint exactly what it is but maybe it’s just that they are more likeable. I’m also still surprised to this day that they even has a really charming disabled character killed… when I first saw this film I assumed he would have survived! I think Amy Steel is a great final girl too, and a cinematic crush of mine as a teenager.

The other is the gore gags. They all look great and are inventive. Not only did they do things like double up on the human kebab, but also some of the other bits that made it next level: a blade to the face is one thing, but then a fall down theory odd steps just unlined the non-survivability of the situation.

It’s a Friday film: you know that you will get what’s on the box, and you will love it regardless of its issues. It’s also the start of the Jason era, so I can’t be too harsh on it.

Extras: As I said in my review for the original film, it’s hard to really judge extras on a F13 disc fairly anymore as the doco and book of Crystal Lake Memories collates all the stories and anecdotes together in one place.

Speaking of which…

Inside Crystal Lake Memories is an interview with Peter Bracke who wrote the Crystal Lake

Friday’s Legacy: Horror Conventions looks at horror fans at horror conventions. I’m not really a convention guy so this didn’t really mean anything to me at all. I write so I DON’T have to interact with others.

Lost Tales of Camp Blood Part 1is a short film that was also seen on the disc for the first Friday the 13th Bluray. I didn’t th*ni much of it then and I don’t think much of it now.

Jason Forever sees 4 of the actors who played Jason Voorhees come together to do a Q and A and a Fangoria convention.

Original theatrical trailer is what it says it is.

Film: 6/10

Extras: 5/10

Rewatchability: 10/10

This Bluray was purchased from JB Hifi