I love slasher movies. The genre is pretty tired and boring, but nothing excites me more than an indestructible killer in a creepy mask, stalking people with sharp and creative weaponry. Of the many slasher franchises, I'm especially fond of Friday the 13th and Halloween. I also enjoy reading reviews of the many films (22!) from both franchises. So now I'm going to add my own take, starting with Friday the 13th part 2. I chose 2 because it is the first film with Jason Voorhees as the prime antagonist, and I think Mr. Voorhees is just great.
Before I get to the highlights of this film, I want to quickly address some of the lowlights. I know that criticising the faults of a Friday the 13th movie is about as challenging as beating the crap out of a toddler, but whatever.
My first problem with this movie starts in the very first scene. Alice, the "Final Girl" from the original film has returned to the Crystal Lake area about a year (I think) after beheading Mrs. Voorhees. I have no idea why she would want to return there, but we quickly discover that some mysterious stranger is stalking her. This is the first appearance of a grown-up Jason, although the audience is unaware of this so far.
So as Jason lumbers along, we see Alice inside her house, speaking to her mother on the phone. She hangs up, and goes into the bathroom for a shower that literally lasts less than 30 seconds of screen time. The camera never cuts away, so we can only assume that this is the shortest shower in human history. The phone rings. Jason is on the other end, and he asks Alice if she wants to play a game. No, there's just silence, but we know it's him. Which leads me to two of my objections to this premise.
1) How the HELL does Jason know where she lives??
2) How the HELL does he know her phone number??
Now, I'm willing to ignore the question of how Jason got to her house. Maybe he took a bus, although he would have looked mighty strange getting onto a Greyhound while wearing a potato sack and carrying his mother's decapitated head. But are we seriously supposed to accept that Jason called 411 to get her phone number? Or that he figured out her address?
But wait, there's more. First, he's supposed to be mentally disabled. Second, he doesn't even know Alice's full name, much less her city and street address. From the phone conversation with her mother, we can infer that Alice has just recently returned to the area. So perhaps she lives very close to Jason's Crystal Lake stomping ground. That's reasonable, and could explain how Mr. Voorhees was able to get there without any transportation.
However, it doesn't even begin to explain how Jason could know that she just returned there, how he knew where she lived, and how he found her phone number. Or, for that matter, how he found a phone to use. I suppose he could have broken into a neighbor's house and used their phone. He didn't even need to call her in the first place. Unless he calls her house every night until she answers? Sorry, there are just too many questions here and I can only suspend my disbelief for so long.
Shortly after Jason's creepy phone call, he finds Alice and drives an icepick into her brain. It's the first of many murders for the iconic serial killer. Seconds before her head is perforated, Alice opens her refrigerator and finds Mrs. Voorhees decapitated head. From her hysterical reaction, we can tell that Alice didn't put the head there herself. Which means that Jason must have done it....which leads to my final objection to this portion of the movie, albeit a minor one. Did Jason seriously just carry his mother's head with him to the house? Did he at least put it in a bag or something?
That being said, the rest of the movie is a pretty basic, modest slasher film which creates far less questions than the opening sequence. And for this reason, I will list no more objections.
Actually, I lied. There is one more scene I have to nitpick, and it is the scene where "Crazy Ralph" from part 1 meets his demise. Ok, he's standing with his back to a tree, when Jason wraps a length of wire around his throat and ends him. When this happens, take a good look at the tree Ralph is standing in front of. It's pretty tall, taller than him, and it extends up past the view of the camera. If someone is standing behind the tree, it wouldn't be difficult to strangle Ralph. However, that would require a person to hold the wire with one hand while reaching around the tree, right? But if you watch closely, Jason's hands never leave the wire. So next time you're standing behind a tall tree with a wire, try wrapping the wire around the tree while still gripping it with both hands.
This one is decent, but it's very much a clone of the original. A competent sequel but nothing special here.
Lowlight: The potato sack, and all of the objections listed above.
Highlight: Unmasked Jason crashing through the window at the conclusion of the movie. That must have scared the shit out of people in the theater.
2.5 out of 5 stars, 5th best movie of the original 10
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