A tiny-budgeted, modestly cast but briskly directed - and unrelentingly gory - little shocker called "Friday the 13th" is released on the day bearing its namesake. In a packed summer which also saw the release of "The Empire Strikes Back," said movie becomes a huge hit on a nationwide basis, eventually grossing more than $39 million dollars domestically - and that's just at the theaters. It sets off a firestorm of controversy among critics declaring it obscene and immoral (the latter of which coming from no less an authority than Gene Siskel), but this furor only seems to add fuel to the fire that is "Friday the 13th." In terms of profit margin, it's easily one of the most successful films of all time. And considering how little it would cost to repeat this formula - unknown cast of nubile, attractive teens or twenty-somethings, only one set (a remote forest setting), and a good makeup artist - it came as little surprise when the first in the long, and some say never-ending, series of sequels to "Friday the 13th" was announced.One thing I forgot to mention in last week's review of the original "Friday the 13th" was its shock ending showing Jason Voorhees - the long-deceased son of Betsy Palmer's character - jumping out of Crystal Lake and scaring the ever-loving bejesus out of Alice (Adrienne King), the film's heroine. Of course, the sequence is nothing but a dream, and original director Sean S. Cunningham freely admits that it was nothing more than a "ripoff" of the classic "hand popping out of the grave" shocker ending to Brian De Palma's "Carrie." Nonetheless, due to this ONE scene that was in the movie as nothing more than a lark, we now have the "Friday the 13th" franchise. Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to meet Jason, the not-quite-so-deceased son that Pamela Voorhees had been attempting to avenge all these years by killing all the nasty, fornicating, Godless teens entering Crystal Lake over the years. And I guess since Jason loves his momma so much, he figured he'd take her job description...
The movie begins with a flashback to the ending of the original "Friday the 13th," showing the awesome Tom Savini-created beheading death of Pamela Voorhees and the aforementioned shock ending. Alice, the star character of the original, is dreaming these scenes in remembrance. She wakes up and has a phone conversation with her mother, once again reminding us of something that horror films used to do very well - namely, build up sympathy for its victims, as we get the sense of Alice's nobility. The scene ends with Alice getting a vicious icepick through the head, shown in grisly detail. We don't know who did it, as only the killer's hands are shown, but yeah, we totally know who did it. So begins the rampage of the fully-grown, adult Jason Voorhees, logic of just how the hell a mongoloid who was never educated and grew up in the woods presumably eating fox ears and rabbits knew how to locate a woman living far away from Crystal Lake without anyone noticing him be damned.
The storyline here is essentially the same as it was in the original "Friday the 13th," except after Alice's death we shoot forward five years. Paul Holt (John Furey) is opening up a counselor training center directly adjacent to the legendary "Camp Blood" (the nickname for Camp Crystal Lake in these films, for F13 virgins). A new colorful, assorted cast of teens and college students arrive at the center for counselor training...but the real reason they're there is the same reason that all kids seem to go out of their way to be in the woods in "Friday the 13th" films. Namely, it's far away from prying adult eyes, and there's plenty of opportunities for smoking weed, drinking alcohol, having premarital sex, and other taboo things. And if you've seen a single slasher film in your life, you know that killers don't like teens doing any of these things. It's a surefire way to get yourself killed in a heartbeat.
Anyway, it's around this time that this movie unleashes its ace in the hole in the form of Ginny, played by Amy Steel, who serves as Paul's second-in-command at the training center. In the massive history of the "Friday the 13th" franchise, I believe that Ginny STILL stands as the best character in the entire series with the exception of Jason himself, and ranks as one of my five favorite "final girls" in all of horrordom. Watching many modern horror movies, our main "group" in a horror film is almost exclusively made up of vaguely hateable characters that leave us rooting for the damned villain. For as much crap as critics just LOVE to sling at "Friday the 13th" and its many sequels, this is a series that almost ALWAYS did something BETTER than many other, more "respectable" films...namely, get you to care about its protagonists. Much of the credit must go to Steel; to this day, I can't believe she wasn't in more films. She's a terrific actress who doesn't get nearly enough credit for single-handedly making this one of the most beloved entries in the series. But the character is also scripted well - instead of just being the hottest chick and thus Jason's main adversary, Ginny is a smart, witty, and strong character. She's also a child psychology student who has a few theories about Paul's campfire ghost story involving the legend of Jason, granting the movie a nice depth and true enmity/understanding between its villain and hero. Nonetheless, five gold stars for Ginny Field.
Eventually, after all of our characters are introduced, we get our excuse for slaughter - half of the counselors decide to go into town to get blitzed, while half stay behind to watch the camp. When this movie's round of deaths begin, accompanied (just as it was in the first film) by a rain storm, I wasn't QUITE as enthralled with this film as I was with its predecessor for a couple reasons. Interestingly enough, at one point, this was my favorite "Friday" film; it no longer claims that title. It's still very comfortably in the top three, but it doesn't do quite the job of the original film in pulling the grand switch on the audience. Perhaps this is the nature of the beast when it comes to sequels, but the supporting cast in this film (with the exception of Mark, a perfectly normal, everyday guy who just happens to be in a wheelchair) just isn't as involving as Kevin Bacon and crew.
Second, the movie doesn't deliver on the visceral level quite as much as "Friday the 13th." It surprises many who read my reviews, but I'm not a goremonger. I believe that blood, when used effectively, really makes an impact; when it's thrown on the screen just for the sake of having more red stuff floating around, it gets tiresome. But there are certain things we expect from a "Friday" film - we need to see blood. "Friday the 13th Part II" had one of the most talented makeup effects teams in the entire series, with lead makeup man Carl Fullerton supervising a young up-and-comer named Stan Winston in creating the movie's grisly death scenes. And...the MPAA murdered this movie, cutting away at the moment of impact of every slice and dice. Of course, EVERY "Friday" movie until the remake had to have scenes removed to avoid an NC-17 or R rating, but this is the film where it feels the most noticeable.
Of course, these are really minor gripes. The movie's real money sequence is what ranks today as perhaps the absolute BEST "Final Girl" sequence in the annals of slasher films; the near fifteen-minute chase/showdown between the mysterious man in the sack mask and Ginny is truly electric stuff, combining our genuine like for the character in peril and some pretty damn ingenious writing and ways of prolonging the suspense.
As for ol' Sacky himself (yes, folks, he doesn't get the hockey mask until Part III...so you're just going to have to keep reading these things if you want that captivating story), the Jason in this film is...different. It's very interesting watching this first film with Jason Voorhees as the lead villain, and how raw the character is before he became locked in as the cultural icon we know today. Looking less like a terminator and wearing farmer's overalls, this Jason is decidedly human, which he is for the first three films where he serves as lead killer. He doesn't kill his victims with brute strength; he's just very, very good at sneaking up and stabbing people. As played by Steve Dash (Warrington Gillette is credited for the role, but in reality only played the role for the scene where the unmasked Jason bursts through a window to snatch Ginny; Dash did all the rest), this Jason has a wild menace that's unlike anything else in the series; definitely not the BEST interpretation, but definitely the most unique.
"Friday the 13th Part II" is a pretty damn good film. It's perhaps the best movie in the series in terms of straight horror, and it's one of the most-seen films in the franchise. For some reason, this flick gets a ton of airplay on cable movie channels. I mean, a real lot. More than any other "Friday" film and "Nightmare on Elm Street" film put together. There's a chance that this isn't an accident- "Friday the 13th" virgins are probably best off starting with this one. As it stands today, it's a suspenseful introduction to a different monster who is decidedly less monstrous than what he would become in later films. And since you're watching a film about a backwoods killer holding a grudge against all camp counselors because one of them killed his mother, the fantastic performance by Amy Steel as the lead heroine serves as a very unexpected icing on the cake.
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