Directed by: Steve Miner
Written by: Ron Kurz
Starring: Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Kirsten Baker, Stuart Charno, Warrington Gillette, Walt Gorney, Marta Kober
Music by: Harry Manfredini
Special makeup effects by: Carl Fullerton
Taglines: “The body count continues…”
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back to camp…”
“The day you count on for terror is not over”
STORY
Legend has it that Jason Voorhees didn’t actually drown in Crystal Lake as originally though, and actually witnessed the decapitation on his mother. The only survivor of the previous massacre is murdered in her apartment, and the killer was never caught, rumour has it that Jason himself was the killer.
Five years later, a camp councillor training facility has been set up on another part of Crystal Lake. The trainees are warned not to go anywhere near the original camp, which is now condemned. But, someone is watching and doesn’t take kindly to intruders near his home…
OPINION
When Friday the 13th was first filmed, the intention was for any future sequels to be separate stories based around the unlucky day (a similar concept was intended for the Halloween series). The final sequence of the movie was originally intended to be a shock sequence, combining the sudden jump scare of Carrie with the uneasy “is there still a killer out there/is he human?” ending of Halloween. However, it proved to be an extremely memorable and talked-about sequence. So, one of the producers demanded that a similar movie be made with Jason as the killer.
This is one of a number of decisions forced by circumstances onto the film-makers that leaves Friday the 13th Part 2 an uneven and bizarre, but entertaining, sequel. After a lengthy flashback sequence recapping the climax of the first movie, Adrienne King reprises her role as Alice for about 5 minutes before being killed by Jason. This was apparently done because King had been having a lots of problems with a real-life stalker and would only agree to appear in the movie if it was a short cameo (in fact, she has only done occasional voice work since, until the upcoming Walking Distance). Also, Tom Savini’s star was on the rise, and decided to work on Maniac, The Prowler and The Burning instead of returning to this series (he would return once more for part 4).
So, we’re left with a movie with no returning star for most of the film, an antagonist that was utterly and irrevocably dead at previous film, and a new killer who had only previously been glimpsed as a corpse/hallucination. Fortunately, director Steve Miner seemed to have watched plenty of giallo movies to borrow from and does have much more visual style and dramatic flair than Sean S. Cunningham.
This is especially fortunate as the script seems to play it quite safe. Once you get over the nutty premise of Jason returning as the killer, the bulk of the plot is a standard “let’s remake the first film” type of sequel. Yet again, we get a group of young people working to re-open a summer camp, again stalked by a mostly unseen killer. The mystery of the killer’s identity is essentially given away in the opening scenes, so when we work our way towards the inevitable unmasking (said mask being a sack, the iconic hockey mask didn’t appear till part 3), the suspense comes from wondering what the adult Jason would look like rather than his identity.
Having said that, there are a few shocks, with both of the returning non-Jason characters getting killed. The climax is built towards quite well, with the “final girl” sequence being quite interesting with some ingenious tricks played against Jason by his would-be victim. While the effects aren’t quite up to the standard set by Savini in the first movie (and obviously cut for a theatrical R rating), they’re pretty good. Miner has a sense of style, and while some sequences are blatantly cribbed from Mario Bava’s Bay Of Blood (a.k.a. Twitch Of The Death Nerve), he is definitely a better director than Cunningham.
Generally speaking, I find this movie much more entertaining than the first movie with better characters and little waiting around for the action (there’s only about an hour between the opening flashback and the start of the “final girl” sequence.
Rating: 
CENSORSHIP
Unfortunately, the biggest slasher in this movie was the MPAA. Steve Miner had massive problems getting this movie through the censors, which led to a lot of the gore being removed. This footage was never re-inserted for foreign releases, and Paramount is notoriously bad at removing cuts from movies. So, every version of the movie currently available plays like a tease – you get hints of some extreme gore but it never really appears.
It’s a shame, because the cuts are noticeable and I’m sure that in today’s climate the gore would seem a little tame. Maybe when the inevitable sequel to the recent remake of Friday the 13th comes around, Paramount will finally see the light? Who knows…
TRAILER
[...] the fight with Ginny that closed Part 2, Jason is not actually dead and manages to slip away unnoticed from the crime scene. After killing [...]