The sequel to Friday the 13th went through various development stages. The initial thought was to do a different horror story every year, an anthology of sorts of Friday the 13th. Sound familiar? It should. John Carpenter attempted the same thing with his Halloween series, only later on. However, that option got turned down and the studio decided to make a film where Jason, the little boy who drowned who was the cause of Mrs. Voorhees motive, the killer.
As always, let's begin with the marketing. Yet again, the marketing for Part 2 is phenomenal. It's another body count, but this time it picks up from 14-23. Ingenious yet again. The taglines for the movie are genius as well: 1. The body count continues... and 2. The day you count on for terror is NOT over. I prefer the first tagline again. It's unashamed of what type of movie it is, fully embracing that these are body count movies with little character development.
As for the film itself, well...let's start with the good. They set up Jason as a menacing and powerful villain very smartly. Alice, the soul survivor of the film gets killed off in the prologue. This instantly signifies that whoever killed her is more powerful and dangerous than Mrs. Voorhees ever was. This killer was able to outsmart Alice! Also killing off Crazy Ralph, the prophet of doom in the first film, is another clever move. He tells the new counselors they're in danger, they don't believe him. He goes to the camp to warn them yet again, just like he did in the first film, but only this time...he doesn't leave the campsite alive. Another symbolic moment that shows how powerful Jason truly is.
Ginny as a heroine is once again a fantastic heroine. She's by far the smartest heroine of the entire series. She's a grad student studying child psych. Ginny, unlike Alice, doesn't seem to fit in nearly as well with the other counselors. She attempts to make a joke, but nobody finds it funny. She's second in command and has Paul's undivided attention, but that doesn't mean she's chummy with the rest of the counselors. She uses child psychology in the end to ultimately escape Jason as well. Another brilliant move by the filmmakers. It shows again just how powerful Jason is, while Alice beheaded Mrs. Voorhees, Ginny just barely escapes. She gives a fantastic fight, and ultimately she's rewarded with her life by escaping, but she didn't destroy Jason.
Now, onto the bad and trust me, there's loads. Having Jason truly be alive makes no sense at all. I get trying to make Jason an urban legend. That's way cool, the campfire scene was great fun in setting that up, however...the first film was so grounded in reality, almost a documentary of the day in those teens lives, that it's very jarring to go from very realistic to mythic proportions.
Another sad thing concerning Part 2 is the pacing of the film itself. The film has no sense of characterization or timing. Whereas the first film timed out each and every kill very carefully, the second film kills off a majority of their cast within a 15 minute time frame. That's way too fast! There's too much time before the counselors get knocked off and when they do, it happens way too quickly. The death scenes also leave a lot to be desired. However, I do not blame this on Carl Fullerton who took over for Tom Savini. I blame this on the MPAA who cut nearly a minute of footage that would have made all the effects 10 times better, but as it is, it's incredibly jumpy and unimpressive. The two standout deaths though, the only two I should add, are the deaths of Mark and Vickie. Mark's death is so shocking. I remember being thrown to the back of my seat in shock the first time I viewed the film! Having a guy in a wheelchair wheel down a flight of stairs moments after he's been killed, it's very twisted. Also, Vickie's death is a standout because she saw it coming and it was very slow and drawn out in comparison to the other kills, truly haunting.
Half of the cast disappears to go drinking. This is simply a ploy to get a few counselors alone at the camp and it happens way too late in the film to redeem such a large casting choice to begin with. Flashing back to the first film so much really shows the film's age as well. I get that understanding the first film is crucial to understanding Jason's motivation (revenge for the death of his mother and protection of his woods), but it's like five minutes of the film. They really did not need to flashback to everything. I'd be interested to see how they would do Part 2 today.
Friday the 13th Part 2 was released on May 1, 1981. The first sequel of any horror franchise, yes even before Halloween II. This film really started the sequel craze of the slasher genre and for that I owe it a lot as it's a genre that I love. On a budget of $1.25 million, the film opened #1 at the box office on it's first weekend. The film made a total of $21,722,776. Not a bad profit.
Friday the 13th Part 2 was nowhere near as solid of a film as the original movie was and the general audience agreed with me. Part 2 did not make nearly as much money as it's predecessor did. However, it made a profit that could not be ignored. A second sequel was just around the corner, but how could they keep the audiences interested? We'll discuss a new approach and a decision that changed the course of the entire series next time.
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