“Paul, there’s someone in this room... Paul, there’s someone in this ****ing room!” Friday The 13th Part 2 We return to Camp Crystal Lake, aka Camp Blood for a new group to try to turn the camp into a Summer retreat for trouble youths. Most noble. They're all gonna die.
This was like the first grown-up Horror movie I ever saw (given that all the Hammer stuff was pretty much already considered campy by the time I was coming up in the late 70s) and it scared the ever-lovin' piss out of me. I was 9 years old and I said I wanted to watch it and my parents called my bluff. I watched part of the movie through holes in my blanket and then at one point I literally leaped backwards over the back of the couch and ran out of the room... but I came back.
It has been one of my favorites ever since, I've seen it at least a dozen times, and I've always loved it and always maintained that it is easily the best of the franchise. But it's been several years, close to a decade, I think. How will we do?
Good question?
I was prepared to say, just a few minutes in and then about 40% of the way in, that maybe I’d been wrong about this movie all these years, maybe it isn’t the best of the series, and maybe this was actually gonna end up being the biggest letdown of my Greatest Hits run here. And then the third act happened.
I swear it’s like a different director was brought in for the third act. It gets really f*cking tense and makes the whole rest of the movie more than worth it (not that it was terrible). There’s some neat tricks with the camera too and what point of view the audience is seeing and how this sets up some scares.
For example, that white spot outside the window behind her is him coming for her. She's managed to escape him for a good while at this point and then finds his shanty in the woods and tries to hide there. But we, the audience, get to see him coming, through the window before she does, which creates a wonderful little tension even if only for a few seconds.
This is what all the sequels failed to hit. Taking time and using craft to create actual tension.
Another funny thing about this movie, it almost feels like they weren’t sure when they started filming what movie they were making exactly or what they thought
Jason should be. Somehow
Jason is able to just walk through a town at the beginning of the movie. Now, we later see that he wears a potato-sack over his head. Did he take it off? Well, we also later see what he looks like if he did, and we know he didn't walk through town like
that. But in the beginning, he's more like a stalker/serial killer, deliberate and sneaky and seemingly very human. For example, in that opening scene, hilariously, after his first kill, he takes the shrieking tea-kettle off the hot burner and sets it on the back one. This Jason, from the third act, would do no such thing...
Fortunately by the third act, it’s established what he's going to be like for the rest of the film and it’s really good. He's just like this wild thing. Perhaps this is why, and I'm sure I don't even need to say it,
Potato-sack Jason > Hockey-mask Jason.
Now, the next best thing about the film, as we all know, is Ginny.
Ginny is the best. Like there's a reason she makes every intelligent list of the great FGs of all-time. She's smart. She's a little sassy. She's resilient. I mean, she beats the leading dude at chess and then uses a f*cking chainsaw. Like, not just in self defense, but straight up for what it’s supposed to be used for like to do work. She does work. We get to know her and she's not some virginal "nice girl" wallflower who finds the courage to survive, you have no doubt this gal's got the goods. She kicks Jason in the f*cking nuts and
not for comic relief, for legitimate self defense.
And when the time comes to simply open the door and face him, she doesn't flinch. She actually gives a little nod to whatever the dude's name is (Paul, actually) that she's
ready.
I love that the Paul actually opens the door, but she's the one ready with the pitchfork.
I swear, you’d almost think Jason would wanna give up this line of work after Ginny got through with him.
This movie clearly respects her.
Frankly, the movie respects all its characters. Even the girl who inevitably gets naked, she's not like "the slut" or anything, she's actually nice and pretty sharp, I think she's kind of an athlete or something, and she just takes her clothes off to go swimming not to make herself "the whore" for the formula (which may not have been finished yet).
Really, the movie comes together quite nicely after a bland and dubious start.
So, yes,
Friday The 13th Part 2 remains my favorite of the series. Truth be told, for the first maybe half of the film, it's not as good as the first one. But once it gets going, the kills are set up with actual suspense, the direction is actually quite clever several times, and the movie is genuinely intense.
I can go back to only watching the first two ever again now.
Post script - Some other thoughts.
WARNING: "all spoilers" spoilers below The recap of the climax of the first movie does slow this joint down a bit to start, it’s almost like “Last week on F13TV…”.
You have to get a chuckle at the intensely-Halloween POV camera right in the beginning. It's funny how unsure of itself this movie seems in the first half hour.
And, as I’ve said before, it’s a shame Alice had to die. Seems like there could have been a better way to introduce Jason. But, I guess they were worried, if they used the recap, which they thought they needed for new audiences or anyone who forgot, that people would get confused what she had to do with this movie.
Jeez the bit with the rat under the bed and Ginny peeing herself is just great. What a scene for a slasher. Of course, then she kicks his ass again.
The recap of the climax of the first movie does slow this joint down a bit to start, it’s almost like “Last week on F13TV…”.
You have to get a chuckle at the intensely-Halloween POV camera right in the beginning. It's funny how unsure of itself this movie seems in the first half hour.
And, as I’ve said before, it’s a shame Alice had to die. Seems like there could have been a better way to introduce Jason. But, I guess they were worried, if they used the recap, which they thought they needed for new audiences or anyone who forgot, that people would get confused what she had to do with this movie.
Jeez the bit with the rat under the bed and Ginny peeing herself is just great. What a scene for a slasher. Of course, then she kicks his ass again.
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