Friday The 13th Part Ii [1981]

Customer Reviews:

Jason Voorhees was born! (The film that actually started his infamous legacy!).......2008-02-24

Friday The 13th II (1981)

With Amy Steel, John Furey, Addrienne King, Betsy Palmer, Kristin Baker, Stu Charno, Russell Todd, Tom McBride, Lauren Marie Taylor, Walt Gorney, Bill Randolph, and Marta Kober

Friday The 13th II begins when the survivor from the first film, the young Alice Hardy is killed in her apartment by an unknown assailant, 2 months after the murders at Crystal Lake. Five years later, Paul Holt begins operating a new training facility for counselors. Crazy Ralph, the old drunk from the first installment who tried to warn everyone in the first film, tries to warn him, but he is dismissed. The unknown killer travels to the campground, where he begins killing them ff one by one, in some of the best kills in the series. At the end, it is revealed that the killer is none other than Jason Voorhees, Mrs. Voorhees's son, who was believed to have drowned in Crystal Lake at the tender young age of eleven, way back in 1957. Ginny Fields is the main character and heroine, and she puts a stop to the maniac.

A great film, Friday The 13th II will leave you wanting more, and it is basically the one that actually started it all, as Jason is finally seen in this installment.

Not bad for a sequel.......2008-01-24

I thought that Friday the 13th part 2 was an enjoyable but not particularly memorable (I watched it about 5 days ago and I cant really remember any of the charcters names or much of the storyline) as it was almost exactly the same as the first. A group of Camp Councelors arrive at Camp Crystal Lake to set up the camp before the kids arrivein a couple of week. As the day goes on and turns to night the teens start getting killed off one-by-one.

When you first see Jason (with his pillow case for a mask) he looks really scary but after about 10 seconds he looks kinda funny. Hard to imagine a psychopathic killer wearing pillowcase over his head, it made him look a bit like a demented nun.

Death scenes werent very gory because of all the controvery surrounding the first moving, but they were shown on screan and still featured some blood, so it's not too big a dissapointment.

Overall, a good sequel (but not as good as the origional movie). Would deffinatly reccomend to slasher fans or anybody who liked Friday the 13th.

Good, solid entertainment that is looking more and more quaint and old-fashioned.......2007-02-09

The filmmakers of Friday the 13th Part 2 (a good, solid sequel to the 1980 horror hit) have in no way attempted to tackle the discrepancies that exist in the entire Jason Vorhees mythology; indeed, the discrepencies that they themselves have idly engineered.
For example, if Jason Vorhees did actually drown as a young boy, sending his mother on the murderous spree that makes up the story of the first film, then how has he come to be living in the woods of Camp Crystal as a deformed maniac? Did his mother bury him all those years ago? Is he a ghost? And why the chip on the shoulder?
That said, if you're expecting narrative coherence, then the slasher genre isn't always the best place to be looking. Because if judicial sentences were handed out for cinematic incompetence, then most of those responsible for the Friday the 13th movies would probably each be doing a life stretch without the possibility of parole.
Friday the 13th 1 was an overrated film, mentioned for some reason in the same breath as John Carpenter's genuinely classic Halloween but displaying none of the cinematic intelligence that made Carpenter's groundbreaker such satisfying movie-going. But it should be said that, although artistically inferior, Part 1 does match Halloween in terms of influence.
The premise of the Friday the 13th franchise struck a cord with cinema goers and filmmakers back then in the early eighties, and now the North American woodlands and wooden summer-camp cabins will long be synonymous with a certain kind of cinematic bloodletting. To summarise, what Part 1's creators did do successfully was to build the foundations of a legend around a very iconic part of the American landscape.
Though not as substantial an achievement as Halloween, the Friday the 13th films are decent, saturday night entertainment. The acting and writing are often clumsy, the sexual politics apparently dubious, and the directors rarely rise above the bog-standard, but many cult movie lovers have retained a certain affection for these low-budget movies and their knock-about charm.
Part 2 is one of the stronger sequels, director Steve Miner demonstrating his skill at pacing and suspense, as well as a desire to invest more time in character development. The bunch of unwitting teens are also more sympathetic then their equivalents from the other instalments. Plotwise these films have always been weak and the screenplays banal, and Part 2 is no exception, but it will hardly matter, because once the lights are dimmed and the curtains drawn and you have locked and bolted the windows, and you've surrounded yourself with coca-cola and tortillo dips, then you are in for a certain thrill-ride. There are moments at the end of the film that are quite unnerving.
The DVD is a decent enough transfer but a lack of extras is a real shame. It would be nice for the creators to have looked up some of the film's young teen protagonists and found out what became of them. But nevermind. As for my four out of five stars, well, one of them was born out of nostalgia. At under £7, this along with the others, will always be a recommended purchase. Enjoy.

I HAVE RE-REVIEWED THE FILM SO PLEASE IGNORE THE 2 STAR RATING AND PLEASE READ ON.......2006-05-22

Friday the 13th Part 2 starts with the surviving Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) having a nightmare about the events of the original Friday the 13th (1980) in which she beheaded mass murderer Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) with a machete & had a close encounter with her supposedly dead son Jason. It's been several months since the gruesome events at Camp Crystal Lake & Alice is trying to get her life back on track, however her progress is cut short when one night she finds Mrs. Voorhees severed head in her fridge & is then brutally killed by having an ice pick shoved into the side of her head. It's now been 5 years Camp Crystal Lake has been closed & abandoned, the surrounding area is trying to forget about the horrific legacy left behind by Mrs. Voorhees killing spree. Two teenagers, Jeff (Bill Randolph) & Sandra (Marta Kober) drive into town looking for a new counsellor training centre that has recently opened in the area, just across the lake from Camp Crystal in fact. A old man known as Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) warns them both that they're "all doomed", Jeff & Sandra ignore his ramblings & continue on their way. The new camp is run by Paul Holt (John Furey) & his girlfriend who doubles up as his assistant Ginny Field (Amy Steel, apparently her character Ginny Field is named after Virginia Field this & the original Friday the 13th's production designer), there is a good turn out & things start well. After some initial light training Paul says that the hard works begins tomorrow & anyone who wants to have a big night out do it now. Half the group go & half stay behind, those staying include the attractive Terri (Kirsten Baker) & her unwanted admirer Scott (Russell Todd), Terri's friend Vicky (Lauren-Marie Taylor), a guy in a wheelchair named Mark (Tom McBride) plus Jeff & Sandra. But there is someone else there as well, as the rain begins to fall & lightening starts to strike a mysterious hooded figure is stalking the camp brutally killing everyone one-by-one...

Produced & directed by Steve Miner Friday the 13th Part 2 is a solid entry in the Frday the 13th series of films which have become my favourite horror film franchise & Jason my favourite killer, I have to say that I really missed the iconic hockey mask Jason has for the remainder of the series though as here all he gets is a bag over his head. The script by Ron Kurz is not a huge departure from what has gone before, or indeed since. It isolates a group of typical teenagers deep in the woods & has Jason kill them off in various ways. I found the stalking & slashing in this entry pretty neat, director Miner manages to create some decent tension & a few scares. The script throws in a bit more motive for Jason's killing spree than usual as it suggests that Jason is out for revenge after witnessing his Mother's death & whose head he still has on a table surrounded by candles. But what it basically all boils down to is that these films are all about the kills & they're pretty good in Friday the 13th Part 2 even though it's obvious that they are censored, which is a shame. There's an ice pick in the head, a machete slitting a throat, a double impalement, someone has a hammer whacked into the the back of their head, Jason cuts someones throat with some wire & someone ends up with a machete planted in their face. While none of these murders are particularly graphic I liked them, as usual Jason is unmasked at the end & here he looks like a deformed man rather than the rotting zombie he would latter become. The teenage character's are clichéd for sure but having said that I thought they were surprisingly all quite likable & no one really annoyed me, well except Jeff I suppose but then there's always one isn't there? The cinematography by Peter Stein in Friday the 13th Part 2 is very stylish & classy, the daytime shots are very rich in colour & the nighttime shots are well lit to create a good atmosphere. As a whole the production values on Friday the 13th Part 2 are above average & it has a nice polish about it. The cool sounding score & especially the main theme by Friday the 13th regular Harry Manfredini is unmistakably Friday the 13th & I think adds a little something all on it's own. Overall I'm a huge fan of the Friday the 13th series of films & this is a good one, while not terribly original it goes about it's job with professionalism & turns out to be an enjoyable slasher. You know what to expect so have a reasonable level of expectation & I'm sure most slasher fans will find something here to entertain & enjoy.

Scary (in 1802 perhaps...).......2004-08-14

This movie, like all the Friday the 13th's is complete pants. Please stop making there "Jason" movies, how many first film remakes do you want?

This movie looks like it was made on a £5 budget, as for gore some episodes of "A Touch of Frost" on TV are scarier and more realistic.

If you want quality check out the Halloween set on Amazon - all of them bar Halloween 2 are great.

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