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Much like the Brit-pop rivalry between The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, so we have the horror franchise battle between Friday the 13th and Halloween. In this reviewer’s humble opinion, Carpenter’s 1978 classic outranks Sean Cunningham’s low-rent rip-off (no matter how enjoyable) in quality and (dare I say) intelligence. However, the subsequent Halloween sequels never lived up to the original’s entertainment quotient. At least with the Friday the 13th films, there was an attempt to give the fans something slightly different every time (yes, even with the stock tropes)
Friday the 13th, Part 2 takes up where the original left off. At this stage of the franchise’s history, everyone knows that Jason Voorhees was not the slasher on that fateful day in 1980; Jason’s mother (played by Betsy Palmer) was the creative hack-and-slash phantom who took revenge on those sinful teenagers. So how does Part 2 differ? Well, this time, the killer actually is Jason, who’s come back to seek revenge on his mother’s killer.
In the first ten minutes, Alice (Adrienne King), the original movie’s survivor, gets a ice pick in the temple and is heard from no more. Cut to a camp counselors’ training weekend (on the outskirts of Camp Crystal Lake) and a group of dumb teenagers spouting inane dialogue and trying to make the beast with two backs. Personalities are not a requirement in these movies; each teen is equally as vacuous as the next. Suffice to say, Jason is pissed off that these interlopers, chock-full of sexual energy, are intruding on his territory. So he goes on a killing spree: wheelchair bound jock gets machete in the face; two lovers get skewered in bed with the aid of a spear. ‘Nuff said.
The Friday the 13th movies are like comfort food for horror fans. We know what the flavor will be, but no matter how bland and generic the product, we come back for more. They’re a staple of our diet.
One thing that struck me about revisiting Part 2 after nearly twenty years was that the violence, compared to the slasher movies today, is practically chaste (if that were possible in a serial killer movie). The suspense is expertly played out, and director Steve Miner doesn’t linger on the kills. Today’s horror is all about the spectacle of the end product: the dead body and the exposed flesh. Don’t get me wrong; this type of entertainment certainly has its place. But with Friday the 13th, Part 2, there’s almost an innocence to the process. Very little time is actually given over to Jason and his deeds. It’s all about the buildup.
Carpenter, Cunningham, and Miner were exploitation filmmakers at the forefront of a genre that, for 30 years, has been much-loved by a fanatical fan base. For evidence of this, simply look at the extras: some are devoted specifically to this fan base and the horror conventions they populate. Back in those innocent times of the ‘80s, filmmakers were ready to have fun—and make a buck in the process. As examples of low-budget filmmaking, and some old-school scares, it doesn’t get much better than these movies.
Friday the 13th, Part 2 isn’t for everyone, and those who will run out to buy these reissues (Friday the 13th 3D also gets a re-mastering this month) are the formerly converted or horror fans priming themselves for the remake, which arrives in theatres on—you guessed it—Friday the 13th.
Extras on the disc include a short film, Lost Tales From Camp Blood, Part 2, and Jason Forever, a Q&A at a horror-con, where a number of the actors who have played Jason over the years answer questions for salivating fanboys. The supplementary material, while informative, is relatively sparse. For more insight into the franchise, I’d recommend the documentary, His Name Was Jason, from Anchor Bay.
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