The fifth writing in my terrifying two reviews is for the slasher classic “Friday the 13th Part II” that finally introduces us to Jason Voorhees in his signature… burlap sack? Yeah, the infamous hockey mask wouldn’t show up until the next film. This movie has a lot of general teen shenanigans and nudity that was par for the course in this genre, but the movie really drags in places because of it. That doesn’t mean that there weren’t some pretty good kills.
Jason gets his revenge early on for the death of his mother less than 15 minutes into the film by driving an ice pick into Alice’s head while his rotting mother’s head blankly stares on from the fridge. The opening credits kick off with suspenseful music and an explosion, which is better than some of the strange choices like the funky jam that would open the next film.
Crazy Ralph, my personal favorite character in the series, meets his demise after being strangled around a tree. One of the best sequences of the film happens next when we see Jason sprinting across the road in Sasquatch like form, and Deputy Winslow following him to find Jason’s shrine to his mother right before getting claw hammered in the back of the head.
The killing spree goes off the rails quickly as the campers are split up. Scott is hung upside down and has his throat slit with a machete; wheelchair bound Mark is chopped across the face and his totally not fake body rolls out the door and down an absurdly long flight of steps. A couple in the throes of passion are impaled with a spear in a reference to the Italian horror film “A Bay of Blood.”
A stabbing and an off screen kill later, we are left with two teens and Jason. Jenny stumbles upon Jason’s shrine and has the brilliant plan to impersonate his mom. It throws him off just in time for Paul to chop him with a machete and kil—- JASON JUMPS THROUGH THE WINDOW! Now a maskless Jason with his best flannel and overalls looking like Sloth from “The Goonies” if he had Chucky’s red hair grabs Jenny. Like the original film, this is really just a ploy, and we cut to her being stretchered away, and the film peters out ending on a looming shot of Pamela Voorhees’ head.
I’ll give this movie 6 burlap sacks out of 10. “Friday the 13th Part II” doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. It follows the pattern of what other slashers had laid, but when you look at the franchise’s legacy as a whole, this movie plays the most pivotal role. The pallet is washed clean from “Part I,” and we are introduced to one of the most prolific horror icons of all time. This movie takes the self contained story of Part I and with a leap of faith makes Jason the killer. Most of the problems with the movie come from its lackluster execution of Jason’s kills. “Part II” already has the fewest kills of the franchise, and coupling that with the fact that special effects extraordinaire Tom Savini was unable to work on this film and the strict guidelines that came down from the MPAA hindered production equate to a subdued slasher film. This is definitely not a movie to skip, but don’t go into it looking for a gorefest.
