Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Okay, right now I know you're looking at the title for this review and recalling my previous opinions on Friday the 13th (1980). That being fresh enough in your mind, you would rightly ask yourself: "Dope, why???"

It's not like I don't have enough movies to look over, and I know that in the time I've had this blog I have had more than enough opportunity to give each and every one of my readers the chance to take in separate divisions of this genre (the Mad -and sometimes masked- Slasher genre in this case); after all, I haven't even touched on Halloween, Pieces, The Eyes of Laura Mars or anything by Dario Argento yet. So why take any time at all to talk about Friday the 13th Part 2?

Because I have the first four movies of the series, and I believe that if I'm going to talk about one, I might as well talk about the rest. Duh.

Remember the friend I mentioned a few reviews ago who saw the first Friday movie just to catch the Psycho references? Well (hi again, friend - I mentioned you in another review!), she and her son saw the next couple of movies in the series at the same time, just so they could say they gave each of the first films a fair comparison, one to the other.

Fair enough. What, then, is there to compare between Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th Part 2?

Believe it or not there are comparisons to be made between these films and I'll get to them all in a minute. But we must get to the technical stuff first.

The story...hee hee, I said "story" in a Mad Slasher film, hee hee...okay, I'm back. It's a year after the events of the first film and the final girl from said events (Adrienne King) has about five minutes or so of film time having nightmares in her apartment, taking a shower, arguing with her mother on the phone and getting a cup of tea started...just to establish that even though events in Friday the 13th came full circle, the nightmare isn't over (dun dun dunnnnn....).

Seems a fresh new batch of counselors are coming in from all points to head up counseling duties in a summer camp a few miles down the road from Crystal Lake. Now shut down, doubtless because of prior events, it is close enough for kids to be spooked by stories of Jason (the drowned boy who set things in motion) still roaming the woods, living off the land, hunting down and killing anyone who dares set foot in his woods. All of this is, of course, told around a campfire.

So much for exposition.

Soon after, one of the girls in camp, Ginny (Amy Steel, no relation to Alex Rebar or Drake Tungsten), starts wondering about Jason, real or legend, and what his psyche must be like after all he has gone through. Naturally, no one she talks to about this takes her seriously because they're either drunk or horny or both and sooner or later they're all going to be either dead or disappear mysteriously.

Only one person's responsible...and it sure ain't Jason's mom this time....

If everything in Part 2 feels kind of rushed and slap-dash it's for good reason; this sequel came out less than a year after the first movie was released. Judging from the box office receipts and want for product, the suits at Paramount Pictures knew a cash cow when they saw one and decided to hurry and hitch this one up to the milking machine before she ran dry.

And hurry they did: they got writer Ron Kurz to simply do a carbon copy of what he (ghost) wrote for the first film and, apparently, Kurz wrote as if he was setting up characters for a video game: set up target, send in killer, fake shock, surprise, kill. Repeat cycle as necessary. And this was the guy who wrote the legendary Animal House-ripoff King Frat. We're in good hands, people....

Director Steve Miner started a career as Mad Slasher filmer that would go on for decades, not overshadowed in the least by the fact that he also directed films like Soul Man, Forever Young and Big Bully. And all of them were directed jumpier than a hyperactive poodle, scenes were set up with sledgehammer subtlety and edited with a jackhammer. You can take the director away from the blood, BUT....

Let's put it this way: Alfred Hitchcock played his audience like a piano; Steve Miner plays his like a kazoo.

What about the acting? Even though Steel plays the damsel in distress passably and at least tries to make it look like there's at least one brain functioning amid all the bloodletting, no one else in this cast helps her in the least. These are all good-looking kids with bright smiles and active libidos, asking to be macheted, chopped, stabbed, strangled and otherwise killed.

Even Walt Gorney, everyone's favorite crazy guy, doesn't even get as much screen time here. Does his "you're all doomed" spiel then that's it. Killed. Pretty easily too for a crazy guy. And did you know Gorney was in movies like Trading Places and Endless Love and Easy Money and the '76 remake of King Kong? Neither did I.

And Betsy Palmer...just when she thought she was out, they drag her back in. As a ghostly presence, natch, but there she is. Hopefully, THAT paid off her new car she wanted. And they couldn't even make her mummified head look much like her. Maybe that was her stand-in...?

(Special notice must be given to Stuart Charno. He played a counselor named Ted and was easily both the most irritating and the most interesting character in this entire movie. Love him or hate him, he at least kept things alive while he was on screen. Oh, he doesn't get killed, though - that is a good thing for those who enjoyed him, bad for those who wanted him to be the first victim. Either way, Stu has enjoyed a long career in Hollywood, in spite of - or maybe because of - Part 2.)

This would all be overshadowed if everyone would have learned their lesson from the first Friday and just embrace their origins (artistic Italian giallo) and went hog wild with insane camera angles, bright color schemes, inventive deaths, hysterical overacting and creative situations. You haven't seen so many strike-outs since the 1952 Washington Senators.

But acting, directing, writing and style all take a seat way back in the rear of the bus whereas the front seats are taken up by blood. Buckets of it. Torrents. And dead bodies galore. The producers knew that the audience that saw Friday the 13th the first time wanted more of the same the next time around. And this isn't exactly the Oscar Committee here. Sprinkle some blood and guts on their popcorn and Milk Duds and they're happy...and more importantly come back for seconds. And thirds. Maybe even fourths.

They got what they wanted: for a budget of a little over $1 million Paramount got back over $21 million. And that was in its initial release. You can bet that video rentals and sales blew that number out of the water. Behold the power of sleaze.

As I wondered in my review for Friday the 13th, where is the irony here? Even in Italy they knew, when there were characters in these movies where an unknown assailant was killing everyone in sight, that a bit of gallows humor and ironic observation made all the difference in the world. Are we that much different here in the States? Do we just want death, period? We watch something like Four Flies on Grey Velvet and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and are floored with the idea that such style and substance can coincide with people being killed. Then when we try to do the same thing on American soil, it just falls apart.

Why? Because we're Americans. We don't want to wait to get to Point B. The lowest common denominator should be as close and as attainable as possible. We don't want art. We don't want characters. And we sure don't want creativity. Give us blood and lots of it.

Whatever else you'll say about them, Steve Miner and Ron Kurz knew what America wanted and they gave it to us. Fast.

And when it comes to Mad Slasher movies, Friday the 13th Part 2 is just another restaurant in the fast food franchise that's served billions of customers.

Just don't expect to see any James Beard awards herein.

Or any others, for that matter.