Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981)

I told the others, they didn't believe me. You're all doomed. You're all doomed. - Crazy Ralph

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!  Since I missed out on posting this review last October, I'll be bringing it to you now.  When the first Friday the 13th proved particularly successful, the studio decided to make a sequel.  Originally intended to focus on other Friday the 13th superstitions, when the jump scare at the end of the first proved highly popular, they decided to refocus their efforts on what they knew would work: Jason Voorhees.  And so, they resurrected the little guy, aged him up and sent him in against a whole new crop of camp counselors.

After a rundown of events from the end of the first film, it picks up two months after with the survivor living on her own and appearing to be stalked (a parallel to what happened to the actual actress, who quit acting for over 20 years after this film).  After this opening scene, we start to meet the main characters for this film, a group training to be camp counselors.  It's five years after the events of the first film, and the owner of the training camp, Paul (John Furey), is opening the first business on the lake.  The locals are upset that someone's operating near Crystal Lake again.  Crazy Ralph is up to his old tricks again.  And what's the large figure stalking the counselors in the trees?

This movie was fun.  The kills, while not as inventive as what was to come, were still pretty good.  We get machetes to the face, a double spearing, and a really amazing wheelchair stunt (that seemed a bit cut short, maybe for the rating).  The special effects were good, make-up was great, there was just one problem.  When Jason's unmasked, he has a nice, full head of red hair.  In every other film in the series, Jason has very little to no hair, but for some reason, they decided to give him a full head in this one.  Between this one and the third, Jason loses that full head of hair, even though it takes place within hours of this one.

My thoughts: It was an interesting follow-up to the first film, and a worthy successor, but not the best in the series.  This wasn't my first full Friday the 13th film (that was part 6), but I did like it.

I give the film a 4 out of 5.  Sorry for the delay in posting, but at least I got it posted up within time.  Soon, I'll have the original My Bloody Valentine up and posted, after two or three years of delay.  Happy Friday the 13th, Happy Valentine's Day and this is Red Hawk signing out!