DVD Movie Review: Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1982)

Photo of Amy Steel from Dinner With

Max Jenke

I know what you're thinking, Friday the 13th again? Well, back when I was in my 20s, and too shy to date, I spent a lot of my time watching--and rewatching--horror movies on video. Video stores were the new thing, and cheesy horror movies were plentiful. The FT13th series had a lot to do with that, picking up on the success of Halloween, and creating the multi-sequel slasher series.

These days, when The Other Half is away on a trip, I sometimes revert to that twenty-something self, even if he's now double that age. And today, I made my way to Best Buy to buy the newly remastered first sequel to Friday. I'd hoped to find it on Blu-Ray, but have been unsuccessful in that quest. No matter, this version looks almost--but not quite--as clear as the remastered original, and has quite a few added features too.

Part 2 is as nearly a remake of Part 1, with a very similar vibe, just a different killer. For the first time, it is Jason Voorhees doing the slashing, and he learned a lot from his mother. The explanation for Jason's existence--when he supposedly drowned as a child--is fairly weak. But his survival is explained only by the speculation of characters five years removed from the original story. They could be wrong, they could be right. We'll never know. Because no further sequel--not even this year's remake--ever really says why Jason didn't drown. And yet, every Friday movie from this point hinges upon that fact!

Many Friday fans will tell you that Jason was a real man until Part VI, where he is resurrected as an all-powerful zombie. This isn't quite true, unless you can explain how he survived a machete-chop through his trapezius muscle, his collar bone, a couple of ribs, major blood vessels and probably his left lung and his heart. And then managed to not fall into two pieces, while retaining the ability to use his arm for several sequels!

Continuity was never very strong in these movies, though it didn't have time to unravel yet in this second movie. Jason looks like the logical grown up version of the (probably) hallucinated junior-sized Jason from the twist ending of Part 1. And while we're talking hallucinations, the ending of Part 2 may be a hallucination as well, if the opening of Part 3 is to be believed.

Good parts of the film: Amy Steel is terrific as the heroine, Ginny. Her VW Beetle convertible plays nearly as big a part, and is featured in an iconic scene. John Furey manages to stay alive (almost) to the end, and his survival has been speculated about by fans for 27 years. He must have made an impression, for anyone to care, right? Ginny's "child psychology" on Jason, with his imagining of his mother (Betsy Palmer) is a highlight of the film.

Not so good: Most of the rest of the cast is forgettable, not for their performances, but for the fact that the movie is so short. The intro rehashes Part 1, and follows the survivor of that film (Adrienne King) through her house for one of the longest pre-credit sequences in film history. This crams the rest of the film into seventy-something minutes, hardly time for us to care about the characters. Wheelchair guy (Tom McBride) was a promising character, but gets whacked (in an an impossibly staged death, unless Jason can become invisible) early. Half the cast departs to a bar, never to be seen again. But at least they survived!

The usual sex, nudity and pot smoking are here, though the skin is curiously given short shrift. A "fun times at the swimming hole" daylight scene is shot from afar, with almost no camera time for the fairly sexy cast. There is a fully naked girl--skinny dipping at night, like any normal person would do--but more attention is paid to the nearly naked, lanky nerd guy (Stuart Charno). Not sure what that's about.

All in all, this is not a classic film. It's nearly 100% nostalgia, though Amy Steel's acting nearly redeems it. But it is a must for the Friday fan, and I've never seen it looking (and sounding) this good. And it's fun to see Jason before he found his hockey mask (or about 100 extra pounds). Look for the actor who plays the maskless Jason (Warrington Gillette) as the tow truck driver earlier in the film.

Recommendation: For fans only

I wrote a Halloween recaplet of the entire series here:
Halloween Horrors: Guide to Friday the 13th

Blu-Ray Movie Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

Image from source, Amazon.com

Yesterday, I headed into Fry's Electronics to pick up Bill Maher's Religulous. While I was there, I happened upon the newly re-released Friday the 13th Uncut on Blu-Ray. As a (very) long-time fan, I had to have it. Even though I've previously owned the VHS, possibly on laserdisc, and later on DVD. But I'd heard that the "uncut" version had come out to coincide with the remake film, which is scaring up money in theaters right now.

I've related my personal experiences with the film on this blog before, so I promise, this is the last time. It was Summer, 1980. I was between junior and senior high, and snuck out with my brother and our friend. We knew of a hole in the fence at the drive-in, that came out in a trailer park. So, we took lawn chairs, snacks and sodas and ducked into the hole. We set up under a speaker in the front row, and were shortly joined by three similarly aged girls. My brother and friend had a good time acting older than they were with their "hot chicks." Me, I just played along.

Anyway, at the final "shock scene," I jumped up out of my lawn chair--spilling the girl onto the gravel--and struck my head on the speaker. When I plopped back into my chair, the dislodged speaker than came down onto my head. Needless to say, the scene worked. So my nostalgia for the film and series in general is more than just the quality of the movie.

The first thing I noticed about the new Blu-Ray version of the film was how clear the images were. Now, I know, they're supposed to be--this is Blu-Ray--but I've seen this film a dozen times, once on the big screen. And it never, I mean never looked this good. My memory of this (and subsequent) films has been the washed out, muddy colors and no particular artistry to the cinematography. This film fixes that. It's gorgeous. . .and it was shot in New Jersey! The second thing was how young Kevin Bacon looked, and how dated the clothing and hairstyles were. Why we ever thought short-short cut-off jeans looked good on guys I'll never know.

The "uncut" portions are hard to figure out. I gather that they originally snipped fragments of seconds from each of the "kills," and have put that back, holding each shot just a moment longer. But no scene stands out as dramatically new. There is an axe to the face shot that may have been put back in, but as a Fangoria reader, I'm so familiar with the makeup, I can't be sure. What I can say is that Tom Savini did a bang-up job on a shoestring budget. Blu-Ray (and time) do not render the effects "fake," at least they didn't to me.

The picture is great. The sound is great. The special features are for the most part as clear as the movie, with lots of interesting things. Adrianne King, Betsy Palmer, Tom Savini, Sean S. Cunningham, even the kid that played the fantasy "Jason" are there relating their making of the film. If you're a film buff, especially if you have an affinity for this movie, it is definitely worth your $22. If you are under 30, and have no nostalgia for the film or the series, don't bother. I've seen a few reviews from "kids" like this, and to paraphrase Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "They didn't make it for YOU!"

It's for we children of the 70s and 80s, who remember the first days of MTV. The days of changing channels with a knob. The days of rotary phones, transistor radios, vinyl records, and goofy slasher films. If you're a Friday the 13th fan, you can't explain it. You kinda had to be there.