REVIEW DATE: 6:30:0:0
So, here you are. Friday the 13th Part 2: The One Without a Subtitle. It's been a long, long time since I reviewed the original Friday the 13th, and I should probably explain why. It's simple: I have no great love for the series.
I don't hate them (not in the way Dr. Freex seems to); I cut my teeth on them, in fact. This series opened whole new doors for me, through which I grew to love (really love), the horror genre. Without this series I would have never touched the likes of Hellraiser, A Nightmare on Elm Street or (down the road a bit), Scream.
But, let's face it, some of these movies really suck, particularly the early sequels, before anyone decided to actually do something creative. Unfortunately, for both of us, they didn't get to that until Part 6.
In the fallout of that Friday the 13th, Alice (Adrienne King), the sole survivor, is trying to put her life back together. In one of the longest pre-credit sequences in movie history, we see her mulling around her house, getting ready for bed while an Evil POV Cam creeps into her house and stabs her in the head with an ice pick. Bye, Alice.
Yes, here we see another Slasher Movie Rule in the making: You die in the sequel. Sorry, those are the rules.
Five years latter, uh-oh, here come even more (twenty-something's pretending to be) teenagers, heading up to a precariously located camp councilor training center. Led by the blonde pretty boy, Paul (John Furey) and his might-be girlfriend, Ginny (Amy Steel), the center is designed to teach you everything you need to know to be a camp counselor, including how to die a grisly death at the hands of a knife wielding maniac.
After the obligatory warning by Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney, reprising his role from the last time), our intrepid band begins their training, with a warning to stay away from "Camp Blood", which, apparently, is right next door. Early in the movie, Paul delivers a nice monologue telling everyone that Jason's body was never recovered from the lake when he drowned. And, if you listen to the old timers, they'll tell you he's still out there, waiting . . . watching . . . ready to kill anyone who enters "his" wilderness.
Sure enough, while peeping around the campsite, Crazy Ralph gets some barbed wire wrapped around his throat by the Evil POV Cam. And, as our cast members get freaky with each other, they meet similar fates.
I probably shouldn't have to tell you that, eventually, we're down to just Ginny, facing a surprising adult looking Jason (he was a kid in the first movie, remember?), with a burlap sack wrapped around his head. (You see, this movie represents Jason's "Frugal Ku Klux Klansman" phase.) Ginny is, after all, the only girl in the movie who doesn't prance around in cut-off shorts.
Okay, the good stuff first. Steve Miner is a pretty good director. And in movies like this, a director who can create tense scenes is a must. Take the death of Alice in the first 15 minuets. These scenes are almost boringly normal, with an undercurrent of unease. We know what's coming, we just don't know from where.
Most of the scares (especially during the deaths of the Designated Victims), however, remain hopelessly predictable. But that's not all Steve's fault. I can see him trying, "trying", mind you, to wring some degree of tension out of these set-ups. He gets an "A" for effort, but, hey, you see what he has to work with here.
That would be the script by Ron Kurz. A script which seems to think sexual innuendo and skinny-dipping are more important then character development. We know absolutely nothing about our "heroine", Ginny, and even less about the rest of these characters. If you don't give a crap about a character when they're alive, you won't give a crap about them when they die. It's that simple. And, I'm sorry, Ron, but halfway decent jokes to not a character make.
However (I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot), at least there are people in this movie who can act scared. Most of the councilors sell wood throughout their time on screen (which, of course, causes us to cheer for their deaths instead of being horrified by it), with the exception of Paul and Ginny. Both of them inject at least some kind of life into their characters. Probably comes from the knowledge that their characters get to survive the movie. Well . . . sorta.
In the final exam, Friday the 13th Part 2 is a necessary evil on your way to Part 3 and the much better Friday's beyond. It also serves as the litmus test for potential converts, as this flick sets the formula for the sequels to come. If you've survived this, and want to see more, well then, come on. The best (and worst) is yet to come.
Gs (out of a possible five)
MOCK O' METER
Buy it!
(For ten bucks, too. Damn, movies are expensive where I live)