Hello! I've broken from my writing rut to give you a new discussion series where I talk about one of my favorite fictional killers and all his shenanigans! I’ve decided to work my way through the Friday the 13th franchise, one of my favorite horror franchises, from part 2 to Crystal Lake Memories. I’m skipping the original film because I’ve seen it many, many times and going from part 2 onward. I’m very eager to watch the F13 movies I haven’t seen (5, 6, 7, 9, and since I’ve only seen parts of 10 I obviously plan on watching the whole thing) and I’m excited to rewatch the 2009 remake because unlike most I remember really liking it. And with that out of the way, let’s dive into Part 2!
Released in 1981, Friday the 13th Part 2 is by far one of the best slasher sequels we’ve ever been blessed with. It’s a film that really excels as a continuation of Friday the 13th but also shines on its own. But if you’re like me and decided to skip the first film don’t worry, there’s a fifteen minute recap of it in the beginning of part 2 that treats us to a little surprise for our original final girl Alice (played again by the amazing Adrienne King). This film picks up 5 years after the events of the first and gives us our first taste of a now famous killer. Jason Voorhees will become synonymous with wearing a hockey mask and wielding a machete, but this movie actually only gives us one of those. Jason, not appearing in full until an hour and five minutes into the film, dons a white bag with a single eye hole and tied around his neck with a piece of rope. Overalls and a blue flannel complete his very stylish outfit. This is one of my favorite Jason looks and one I also think is vastly underrated. In an episode of Eli Roth’s History of Horror Steve Miner, the director of Friday the 13th part 2 and 3, said one of his regrets was putting a bag over Jason’s head. For me there’s something so eerie about the bag. It’s the audiences first taste of Jason as a killer and even though it’s not as scary or iconic as a hockey mask, it still adds a level of uncertainty because there’s nothing to his face at all: just a blank bag.
Having Jason not fully appear in the film until an hour was a bold choice that really ends up paying off. Up until Vickie discovers Jeff and Sandra dead in the bedroom, which prompts Jason to bolt from underneath the covers and give her (and the audience) a nice scare, we’d only seen his feet and legs or his hands and arms, never anything more. The frequent Jason POV shots are also fun because who doesn’t want to briefly follow the eyes of a famous movie killer? Miner’s direction really improves upon what Sean S. Cunningham laid down in the first movie. It’s evident he knows and understands how to construct a horror film, especially in the opening scene with Alice in her apartment. The tension he builds as she goes about her morning is almost unbearable until we get what we’re waiting for: a nice jump scare and the first kill of the movie. The rest of the film follows the set-up nicely; Miner really has an eye for creating horror in the film.
The cast of counselors are also an improvement to the first film (Kevin Bacon being the exception of course), which may be the result of some better dialogue, some being the key word here; not everything spoken is a winner. They play off each other well and even though all of them except Ginny (a fantastic performance from Amy Steel) die, I feel there’s a sort of twist on the very common “sex = death” trope made famous by eighties horror. For those who aren’t aware, if you have sex in a horror movie it usually means you meet your demise. Obviously this isn’t always true, but there was a massive boom in the eighties for this trope. This movie came out during what is now considered the Golden Age of Slashers (‘78-’84) and though only one couple actually has sex, the rest still die.
The only couple to follow through with actually having sex are Jeff and Sandra and they meet their demise while laying together after sex with Jason impaling one spear through both their bodies. Ginny and Paul have clearly slept together before but her being on her period stops their consummation, which probably ends up saving her life. The other counselors die in fun and gruesome ways but all before they have sex. It’s obvious one couple, Vickie and Mark, were planning on sleeping together but were killed separately while getting ready to meet up. The motives of the other two counselors, Terry and Scott, are debatable mainly because Scott had been ogling and harassing her the whole movie. Ginny obviously has to survive because she’s our final girl and I think the clear decision she makes to not have sex is what saves her. She denies Paul’s request because she’s on her period which he then jokes about the next morning when he writes “BEWARE OF BEARS” on the mirror. It’s an interesting way of messing with the trope by making Ginny a sexually active character outside the realm of the movie but within this timeframe specifically, her period saves her life.
It’s honestly a bit confusing trying to dissect the trope as it connects to this movie because it could easily be read in multiple ways. Ginny does say in the movie if Jason survived and witnessed his mom being murdered it would mess with the right and wrong of his psyche. It’s possible Jason doesn’t care about the sex stuff and just really likes to kill, with his mom’s mummified head in tow of course. And honestly I’m not opposed to that being his character trait.
Jumping back to Ginny, everything about her works so well as a Final Girl. She’s smart and sarcastic, likeable and plucky, and also pretty relatable. She wants to help out with this camp but she’s running late and you can’t help but really root for her the whole time. In my favorite scene in the movie she even goes as far to pretend she’s Mother Voorhees to manipulate Jason into surrendering, which she almost succeeds in doing. Near the end of the film there’s a shot that features Ginny and Paul ready to fight whoever is at their cabin door. Ginny is holding the pointed end of a pitchfork and Paul is valiantly holding the handle. That shot I think captures the roles men and women seem to frequently play in slasher movies: the women are ready to hack and slash the killer, the men think they’re helping but really it’s mostly useless. That alone makes this movie worth it as a standalone experience and as a sequel.
It’s not a perfect movie, of course. Friday the 13th clearly stated Pamela Voorhees came back to kill counselors because Jason drowned while they were having sex and ignoring him. Jason is dead, Mommy gets revenge. Part 2 retcons that and says “Well maybe Jason didn’t REALLY die” and throws the plot of the first movie out the window. Why would Pamela need to kill if Jason didn’t die? Did she know he survived? Did the now supposedly living Jason watch his mom get beheaded? Truth be told I don’t really care about plot holes and why Jason went from being a small drowned zombie boy to a full grown broad-shouldered man with a full head of hair. I watch these movies because I love slashers, I love final girls, and I love Jason Voorhees. He never speaks, you rarely see his face, but he still manages to be so large and terrifying you can’t help but love him. And I’m so excited to continue working my way through the franchise.
FAVORITE KILL: Scott getting his throat slit with the wrong side of a machete (woops!)
Friday the 13th Part 3 coming soon!!