Amy Steel in Friday The 13th Part II

The folks at the Friday The 13th writing department have finally fleshed it out and created a decent slasher flick. Too bad they still haven't found the perfect look for their serial killer Jason 'elephant man-in-hillbilly-overalls-n-checkered-plaid-shirt' Voorhees.

Unlike the first film that was painfully slow and tedious, Friday The 13th Part II made it interesting. The new cast is both attractive and amiable. I really actually began to care for this sweet bunch of teenagers.

Approximately eighty-six minutes in length, the first five are spent rehashing what happened in the first film, along with the necessary killing of the film's only survivor. Well, except for the 'Your DOOMED!' old man, but he'll get his eventually.

The show starts up now with a new group of camp counsellors who all attend some kind of training camp for counsellors. This camp unfortunately isn't located far enough from 'Camp Blood' aka Camp Crystal Lake where a whole bunch of grisly murders have taken place in the past.

We are slowly introduced to each character and each one is mostly likeable enough so that you really do care a little when they eventually meet their DOOM!

After the untimely death of his mother in the first film, Young Jason Voorhees is out for revenge! He wants his Mama back dangit! Those counsellors are gonna pay!

After all the characters have been developed nicely, they begin to, um, die. Jason systematically kills off attractive counsellor after counsellor. Eventually there are only two people left.

The lone female survivor Ginny Field (Amy Steel) stumbles into what looks like an old barn, or perhaps cabin where Jason has setup a shrine to his dead mother, complete with her severed head! Trapped, how can young Ginny survive? Is she smart enough to outwit this southern dimwit?

Jason is quite interesting in this film. In the first one we can see brief glimpses of what he looked like while swimming. It looks like he has some weird deformed head. In this one, he sports jean-overalls, and an Eddie Vedder plaid shirt. Pretty hillbilly looking if you ask me. Then there's the cool Elephant man accessory head wrap (a pillow case with a hole cut out for the eyes). Thank goodness John Carpenter came up with the William Shatner mask right from the start of his Halloween film, otherwise we'd have a billion Elephant man horror icons! Anyhow, it looks like Jason is just beginning to learn the art of killing. He stumbles around and even trips over things which is quite unlike the slow brooding menace he becomes in later films. Jason is even knocked unconcious by a measly wooden chair! Wow, I suppose he hasn't become supernatural yet. Aside from not being able to see his face, Mr. Voorhees himself looks actually quite human. He has normal hands, arms, legs, and well...could really be anybody. Which is good because once Jason becomes superhuman in later films, one just goes to see him slice and dice. In Friday The 13th Part II he could be any weird psychopath we normally can meet up with on the street. It adds to the fear factor for me.

I know the story progesses film to film with this series, but Jason just looks silly in this film even though he's terrorizing people. If only they had gotten the old-school hockey mask out, then this would have been the friday to end all fridays. As it stands this is really where the series picks up and is quite good regardless of his outfit.

One thing of note. I actually jumped once during my last viewing. That's quite an accomplishment for a filmmaker considering what an irritably jaded horror fan I am.