Friday the 13th: Part 2

Lapsing away from the campiness of the original Friday the 13th, the first in a long line of sequels tends to also be known as one of the most frightening. We soon learn, during the film's intro sequence, that no one is safe from the film's killer - not even the heroic survivor of the original picture, Alice (Adrienne King). As it turns out, Pamela Voorhees, the original's mass murderer, didn't lose her son in a drowning accident after all. The boy, who found his way out of the lake, lost and disturbed, grew up in the wild, harboring animal-like tendencies and savage means of self-preservation. When his mother was savagely killed, it awoke the homicidal tendencies in him and his bloodlust soon would become a reality. The boy, who viewers first thought was only a distant memory, was still very alive... and very angry. His name? Jason.

It is here, in Steve Miner's Friday The 13th Part 2, that we first meet the full-grown Jason Voorhees, a man of insurmountable strength and anger.

After the murder of the original's heroine, we are introduced to another summer camp, this one being built on the opposite end of Crystal Lake to avoid connection with the brutal murders that plauged the original's site. Little do these folks know, Jason has no desire to have anyone living on his lake, no matter where they plan on setting up camp. One by one, he hunts them down with methodical rage, slowly taking out his revenge on the campers for the untimely death of his beloved mother.

With deaths inspired by the dark horror classics of Italian greats, Friday the 13th Part 2 whips demise after demise at you at a furious pace once the film gets going. Although the first half of the picture is, by slasher standards, pretty tame, the second half gets really ugly when the councellors split up and half go to town for their last night of freedom while the other half stays in the woods for the night - sealing their fates with a hooded stranger. Bodies are chopped to pieces, impaled, and otherwise mutilated, while the film's finest tribute comes in the form of a dual impalement while a couple has sex - reminescent of old Mario Bava pictures of the early 1970's.

Jason, although probably best-known for his trademark hockey mask, does not wear it in this, his first appearance. Instead, his disguise is an Elephant Man-like sack over his cranium, with one small hole ripped for his eye. The image is both startling and eerie, especially with the sheer volume of emotion that Warrington Gilette, the actor behind the mask, was able to convey through his body motions and that one dark eye. If there's one reason you feel like you should see this flick, it's the final ten minute showdown between the murderous madman and heroine Ginny (Amy Steel). It's everything you could want from a good slasher film, with just a bit extra thrown in for good measure.

At first, I wasn't prone to enjoying this film, simply because I felt as though Jason lacked character by not having his mask. However, after multiple viewings, I feel as though this darkest chapter of the Friday films is by far one of the finest. Following very closely with the events of the original, attempting to tie everything together in a viable way, and giving some of the best scares in the entire series, Friday the 13th Part 2 is an all-around winner. See it with someone you love... and freak the shit outta' them.