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Friday the 13^th Part 2 Movie Review

Friday the 13^th Part 2 is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner and starring Amy Steel. It’s a weaker, but still entertaining sequel.

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“These kids smoke better dope than I do“

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A traumatized Alice becomes the victim of a mysterious assailant while at home. Years later, a group of camp counselors head to Camp Crystal Lake, unaware of the danger that awaits them. The original is a very underrated slasher flick that ripped off ‘Psycho’, but at least they stole from the best, which led to a surprisingly competent, fun flick. It was a huge success at the box office, so it obviously spawned a slew of sequels.

The first of the bunch saw Jason finally become the main antagonist after the death of his mother. He still doesn’t wear his hockey mask here and that sack mask that he wears throughout this movie was both cheap and stupid. But Jason is positively monstrous here and almost unbeatable. He did make a couple of ridiculous decisions that cost him dearly, but at least he was an intimidating presence in every scene.

The characters are just as disposable as they were before. Adrienne King was back here to basically info dump the plot of the first movie to the audiences who may have forgotten about it. As for the new final girl, Amy Steel was very good as Ginny. She is a surprisingly clever, capable girl whose ideas were bold and very smart, thus managing to stay alive at the end.

She’s so memorable that it was a shame that the others were so damn forgettable. Their dynamic was also much less interesting than it was before and even the theme of sex is thoroughly slim and poorly executed. There is a lot of nudity here, but it was just done for the sake of titillating the male viewers.

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My main issue with Friday the 13^th Part 2 is its unwillingness to go into truly scary territory, mostly just focusing on the gore and extreme violence to carry it to the finish line. Some kills are, yes, striking. However, I was never scared in the slightest. The technical aspects are also quite inferior this time around, lacking the cool camera angles and great score that the original possessed.