13 Weeks of Friday the 13th: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- Written by Zechs on Saturday, August 21 2010 and posted in Reviews
Jason takes on the spotlight smashing through a whole new batch of victims in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981).
Credits & Solicit Info:
Written by: Ron Kurz and Phil Scuderi
Directed by: Steve Miner
Cast
Amy Steel as Ginny Field
John Furey as Paul Holt
Adrienne King as Alice Hardy
Tom McBride as Mark
Walt Gorney as Crazy Ralph
Warrington Gillette as Jason Voorhees
Betsy Palmer as Mrs. Voorhees
Stu Charno as Ted
Marta Kober as Sandra Dier
Bill Randolph as Jeff
Lauren-Marie Taylor as Vicki
Russell Todd as Scott
Review:
Zechs: Oh I can already hear the gittiness of Greg and he hasn't
said a word. The movie starts two months after the original Friday
the 13th the only survivor, Alice (Adrienne King), has gone missing.
Well okay not really, Jason Voorhees saw what she did to his momma
and paid her back for the deed. Flash-forward five years later, some
more teens habiting near the area of Camp Crystal Lake. People should
just really listen to Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney), but then again this
time Jason isn't playing by the normal means of horror rules. You get
in his path. You're so going to meet a grisly end.
With
his entry the Friday the 13th series takes off with Jason takes over
where mommy left off for all but one more of the series. So let's get
right to the point of Jason Voorhees, he's a beast. Unlike mommy
which where the kills made sense given the killer was an elderly
crazy woman. Jason is just brutal in his butchery. Plus he just so
hates unfinished business he takes out not one, but two people from
the original movie.
Which leads me to my first confession, I like this movie but not really like it. It's not my all time favorite Friday, but it's not my least favorite either. Sure this isn't Jason at his most iconic, but the presence he has in this film is damned thrilling to watch. The pacing is really great with some cheap shocks before getting to the real, POP your dead. Some may have a problem with bag head Jason, but really the dude's been supposedly out in the wilderness. What else do you think the dude's going to have another to wear? He wears what he can get, which will come more into play in the third sequel. Back to what I like though.
The kills in
this are alright, but not as good compared to the original still.
Sure they're not as fully graphic or detailed as the original, but
damned if they don't make you utter, “OW!” when that sharp object
is plunged in a vital area. Alas to say this was the first of
many Friday films the MPAA decided to mangle (though not as horribly
as future Friday installments). So that's the reason why it's not
fully graphic. Still, I have to admit there's a lot of kills to love
here given the originality (more on very soon). The actors act very
well when they get hit.
Oh and speaking of the actors or
should I say the ladies in this. Damn are they smoking in this. Of
all the Friday's this one had the best looking females in the entire
series. Some great eye candy to go along with the carnage unlike the
original or it's successors.
The thing that saves this film for me is the
added bonus of use of chainsaw (which anyone in a film uses ups the
points of how much I love film for me), even if they didn't wield it
with mad glee like Dennis Hopper did in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
(1986). Someone using a garden object to kill is always fun to watch. So yeah that gets a instant point for me.
However there are flaws to this film about more so than the original. The main issue I have for this film, is like Greg
did with the original, I really haven't a clue nor really care of the
characters in this for the most part. They're just meat to be chopped
apart by Jason alas. And truly that's the film's biggest
flaw.
Really the only character who's name I could
remember was Mark (Tom McBride) which is due to the fact he really
didn't deserve his fate dealt to him by Jason. He didn't sin, and he
actually cared for the previous victim. Still what a damn death he
had (machete to the head with his corpse in the wheelchair just
plowing down the long outside staircase). It's probably my second
favorite of the series just for the utter brutality and
surprise.
Another issue I had with the movie though revolve
around is all about Jason. He's just kinda short when you fully see
him (and has some hair to him which is mostly forgotten in the
remaining sequels). I kind was expected a huge brute given the way he
was doing things. Warrington Gillette who plays Jason isn't bad, but he's not good either. He's just like this movie, alright.
Then there's the fact that this
film never truly answers one simple question I had (which hilariously
was even asked in the mock documentary that appears on the DVD
special features to Part 4): where in the heck has Jason been? Other
than slumming around Camp Crystal Lake? It seems to suggest that he
saw mommy bite it in the original, but really he just happened upon
the Camp and recognized his mom only to see her beheaded? I need some
more info, people! You gave us it at the last minute with Mrs.
Voorhees in the original why not here?
The last problem I
had is the ending. I love that this one has an even better jump out
of your seat moment cause you just didn't see it coming, but there's
no real end to this film. It just ends ambiguously. Did that last
survivor's boyfriend survive? Why did they end it with her in the
darn ambulance? It would have been so much superior to have it end
with Jason just springing from outta the window and pulling that girl
to her fate given the tone set throughout this film. Stupid somewhat
happy ending. *grumble grumble*
But I digress it's still a
damn good end that leaves Jason open to unleash hell upon future
hormonal teenagers. Plus after all that hell Jason puts everyone film
someone just had to survive all of that. I just think it made it
truly a superior sequel if that was the end.
Greg:… So
you’re finished? Okay, so I guess it’s my turn
now.
Zechs: Well now that you mention it I.. fi..
*hammer smashes into the back of his head and falls to the ground*
..............................................................
........................................
.....
Greg: Well, without further ado, I thought
this movie was all types of frakkin’ boring. I want to curse right
now about how bored as hell I was watching this film but I won’t
give Zechs the satisfaction… you know what, screw it. This movie
fuckin’ sucked! It started out with promise with a recap of the
first film and a focus on the main character of the first film who
survived. She’s having nightmares about Mrs. Vorhees and of Jason
pulling her down and is very damn paranoid. Hell, we then get a
cliché cat scare when she goes slowly to a window and her pet pops
out, screeching and scaring the day lights out of her. A cliché in
horror movies but I absolutely love it. Then she opens the fridge and
sees a head, Mrs. Voorhees I’m assuming, and then she gets killed by
Jason by getting stabbed in the head. And cue the awesome theme
music. And then cue the long ass hell boredom.
The characters
introduced sucked and we got hardly any real development. I’m
guessing this is a trend with Jason movies and if so, prepare for me
to curse you out, Zechs, for putting me through this with all these
upcoming Jason movies. And not only do the characters suck, but the
kills suck also. They are NOTHING compared to the first movie.
After
about an hour or so of complete and utter boredom, I pretty much
stopped caring about the movie. Even when Jason finally became more
prominent, I just wanted to turn this off. I didn’t finally get
back into the movie when the final female survivor found Jason’s
lair with the dead body parts and Mrs. Voorhees' head in the center of
the table. Then she got the idea of wearing Mrs. Voorhees' sweater and
pretend to Jason that she is his mother. Excellent scene which became
the one true only bright spot of the film for me. Well, not really.
There were two scenes I loved with Jason’s shadows. The first when
the campers go to the cabin and turn off the lights and we see a
shadow move and later when Vicky goes to the car and lightning
strikes and a shadow abruptly moves upward. And the ending. Yes, I
saw that coming a mile away, but it was still a ton of fun.
Besides
that, not my type of film. I actually had to take several breaks
because I lost so much interest in this. If this is better than the
next one in the series, I don’t think I can take it,
Zechs.
Zechs: ....
*rises back up*
But the next one is in 3-D!!!!!!!!!! Sort of like Avatar.. only more awesome. Because we get tits in 3-D!
Greg: *face palm*
Zechs: 3 out of 5 (it was a 2 but use of chainsaw gives it an added point)
Kills: 3 out of 5
Greg: 1 out of 5 (It
gets a 1 for the shadow parts and the Jason’s lair scene)
Kills: 1 out of 5
Zech’s Favorite Kill:
Mark, the wheelchair teen getting a machete smashed into his face and then his
lifeless body tumbling down a flight of stairs.
Greg’s
Favorite Kill: Barbed wire strangling of the old crazy man from the last movie, although
I liked him.
Tune in Next Friday when Greg and Zechs go three dimensional when they look at Friday
the 13th Part 3-D (1982)!!
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About the Author - Zechs
Zechs is the lord and master of The Toy Shed, Character Spotlight, and Cartoon Reviews. He's also an aspiring comic book writer trying to get some of his works published on the Outhouse. If there's any greater quality to Zechs, it's that he's an avid fan of comic book characters and would defend them to the bitter end against the companies that use them wrongly. Zechs walks the lonely path in Chicagoland area.
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