Released: April 30, 1981
Director: Steve Miner
Screenplay: Ron Kurz & Phil Scuderi
Tagline: "The body count continues...."
Cast:
Amy Steel as Ginny Fields
John Furey as Paul Holt
Marta Kober as Sandra Dier
Bill Randolph as Jeff
Stu Charno as Ted
Steve Daskawisz & Warrington Gillette as Jason Voorhees
First Time View?: Not on your life (or Jason's)
Five years after the horrific massacre at Camp Crystal Lake it seems that Jason Voorhees and his demented mother are firmly in the past. Ambitious Paul Holt opens a new camp across the lake from the infamous site, ignoring warnings from the locals to stay away. A group of new sexually-charged counselors show up for training, including child psychology student Ginny Fields all seems well at first. But Jason has been hiding out in the deep depths of the woods for years, waiting and watching. And now he wants revenge.
Director Steve Miner (who would go on to direct Part III and then later jump ship to direct the much beloved Halloween H20) doesn't stray too far from what Sean Cunningham set up in the original Friday the 13th (1980) but he really doesn't have to in order to create a strong sequel that's every bit as intense as the original if not as creative. Part 2 is a curious sequel in that it was one of the first of its kind in the slasher subgenre and sort of wrote the rules for what we could expect for the dozens and dozens of follow-up installments we would get in franchises from Halloween to Hellraiser to Nightmare on Elm Street to Child's Play.
This is also our official introduction to Jason Voorhees, now legendary and arguably the most popular of all horror movie slashers, possibly horror movie villains in general. It's not quite the Jason we recognize as he is sans hockey mask in his first outing here, but we see that classic Jason ingenuity that fans come to know and love throughout the franchise. Jason is the MacGyver of slashers. He can kill you with just about anything in the room.
And using only one eye, too.
The film can feel jarring and awkwardly edited at points, but that's due to studio interference rather than artistic choice. Miner and special effects chief Carl Fullerton (who replaced Tom Savini from the first Friday) assumed that they were going to be able to get away with just as much nastiness as the first film did but were completely unaware that the MPAA was cracking down on Paramount to tame things down a notch in the wake of part one.
All in all, Part 2 is a fun, curious sequel that cleared the path laid down by the original for a juggernaut horror franchise that currently clocks in at twelve installments. For more insight into how Part 2 influenced the slasher subgenre, the paradox of establishing yet breaking the rules of horror, the badassness of Final Girl Ginny Fields (played inimitably by Amy Steel), and the thoughts of my cohost Miss Mel on these and other topics, listen to Episode 35 of the Splatter Chatter podcast, available on SoundCloud and iTunes. Happy trails, campers!
Friday the 13th Part 2
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror
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