FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)

 

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)

DIR: STEVE MINER

SYNOPSIS:

Set five years after the events of the first movie, Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down; however, a neighbouring camp is being stalked by an unknown assailant.

REVIEW:

It’s JASON. The nearby camp is being stalked by JASON. There’s literally no need to sell this one as anything other than what it is; JASON’s murderous debut.

It’s not worth trying to work out the timeline of these movies. The implication here is that JASON is alive and well, and living in a rudimentary shack out in the woods. Don’t worry, I’ll say it for you; it’s dumb. It’s fucking so dumb. BUT I love this movie. It’s my absolute favourite of the entire franchise. It’s something of a perfect balance, whereby it retains the sincerity and the chills of the first movie but incorporates more of the slaughter you immediately think of when anyone mentions JASON or the franchise as a whole. It’s also pretty low on the zany humour that later entries would incorporate and that’s just fine with me.

Special mention needs to go to the character of TED, the gangly, gawky, awkward comic-relief character, and one of the few counsellors to never see the sharp side of JASON’s axe/machete/hedge strimmer, but debatably one of the counsellors who deserved it the most. Every single frame of this movie in which TED appears physically makes the shit in my asshole itch. He avoids an axe blow by staying on in the nearby town in search of beer and gash, and the thought of his stringy, milky-white body contorted in the throes of sexual ecstasy is more hideous and more grotesque than the crimes of JASON themselves.

So, the kills in PART 2 are 👌🏼, the final-girl in PART 2 is 👌🏼, the assorted girls at the camp are 👌🏼 and the infamous wheel-chair murder is 👌🏼👌🏼. It’s crazier than PART 1, but genuinely chilling in places;

“Paul, there’s someone in this room…”

RATING: 🪓🪓🪓🪓🪓