Though Friday the 13th may have created the legend of Jason Voorhees, Friday the 13th Part 2 is where the killer finally gets to enjoy himself.
Adrienne King returns as Alice, still reeling from the events at Camp Crystal Lake, but Jason clearly has no intention of letting her rest easy. Finding Pamela Voorhees’s severed head in her refrigerator later seems less important to her than getting an ice pick through her temple.
A group of counsellors turn up at a training centre near the abandoned camp five years later. Of course, everyone knows about the local legend and Crystal Lake is best avoided. Naturally, that encourages some to head to the forbidden area anyway.
Enter Jason Voorhees.
Jason isn’t the hockey-masked lunatic we’d soon come to know and love. He’s in dungarees and has a sack over his head, it looks as if he robbed an old yokel and stole his spud bag and I bloody well love this look.
Jason is also much more human in this movie, in comparison to the seemingly indestructible mass-murderer that we are familiar with in the movies down the line. He can be hurt but he will be on his feet again, but he is just as much a bastard when it comes to killing those counsellors.
Mark’s death is one of the most memorable of any Friday the 13th film. Jason shoves a machete into his face and sends the unfortunate bloke flying backwards down a set of stairs in his wheelchair. Brutal, unneeded and completely classic Friday the 13th.
As for Jeff and Sandra, they’re having a far better night than most until Jason decides he wants to end their evening. With a spear he drives straight through both of them while they are in bed. Along with the aforementioned Mark and wheelchair trip, Part 2 makes it clear that Jason Voorhees takes no prisoners.
The counsellors help the film’s case, too. There’s a lot of time spent with them and this is which has more of an impact when Jason’s kills. Main characters, Paul and Ginny are both pretty likeable and Amy Steel’s Ginny is one of the strongest final girls the series would ever produce.
The film’s highlight is the final stretch involving Ginny, as she manages to outwit Jason by figuring out how to get into his head. After Paul has had a bit of a fight with Jason, Ginny flees into the woods and manages to discover Jason’s makeshift home.
What a lovely little shack he’s got.
Jason lives in the wilderness with a shrine to his mother, Pamela Voorhees. Her severed head and sweater are on prominently on display. She refuses to cry and wait for rescue. Ginny then makes Jason believe she is his mother. She puts on the blue jumper and talks to him, tricking him….. briefly.
The thing I love about this Jason is there’s still something of a damaged human being under all that sack on his face, and Ginny is clever enough to see that and use it to her advantage. Of course, it doesn’t last and Ginny has to use his machete against him.
Friday the 13th Part 2 is one of my favourites of the series and part of what made the earlier movies so strong. The first four films are my favourites in the franchise, and this is a great sequel to the first film. The first Friday the 13th gave us Pamela Voorhees and the legend of the boy who drowned in Crystal Lake.
Part 2 gave us the killer who would go on to define the series.
He just needed a better mask.
Oh yes, he also gets his end jump scare which is classic!
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