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

Friday the 13th Part 2 is a 1981 slasher film directed by Steve Miner. It is the second film in the ever-growing Friday the 13th franchise, and the first film to feature Jason Voorhees as the central villain. The film was released theatrically in the United States on May 1st, 1981. The central story of Friday the 13th Part 2 takes place five years following the events of Friday the 13th. It revolves around a fresh group of camp counselors who are working at a counselor training center on the other side of Camp Crystal Lake. Jason Voorhees, out for revenge for the death of his mother, stalks the campground, murdering each counselor one by one until only one remains.

Plot
Two months after the events of the first movie, we find Camp Crystal Lake's sole survivor Alice Hardy in her home nearby. She suffers from horrible nightmares of the night she was forced to take the life of Pamela Voorhees. After a shower and a telephone conversation with her mother, Alice goes to the refrigerator. Inside the fridge is the rotting head of Pamela Voorhees. Before Alice can react, a man wielding a screwdriver attacks her from behind. Burying the tool into Alice's temple, Jason Voorhees finally avenges the death of his mother.

Flash forward five years. Paul Holt renovates a campground that lies adjacent to Camp Crystal Lake. This is the first time these grounds have seen any activity since the tragic massacre on Friday the 13th five years prior. A new group of counselors are hired and Paul is determined to get the campground ready for Summer. Amongst the new cast of characters are: Jeff and Sandra (two trouble-making lovers), Terry (a scantily-clad young woman), Ted (the prankster), Mark (a crippled athlete), Vicky (Mark's love interest), Scott (Terri's love interest) and finally Ginny Field (a child psychology major and girlfriend to Paul).

Paul reveals the legend of Camp Blood and makes mention of the mythical Jason Voorhees. He also warns everyone that the nearby Crystal Lake grounds are "off-limits"; a rule that Jeff and Sandra are only too happy to ignore.

Rounding out the cast is the return of Crazy Ralph, the doomsayer from the first film. However Ralph gets very little time to preach his rhetoric as he is killed fairly early in the movie.

A small contingent of camp counselors decide to have one more night on the town before the busy season work begins, and so, Paul, Ginny and Ted go to a nearby pub while the other counselors remain at the campground.

Jason makes little distinction between the camp run by Paul Holt and nearby Camp Crystal Lake. Its all the same locale to him - Camp Blood. Using a variety of tools at his disposal (most noticeably a machete), Jason begins slaughtering his way through the counselors.

Before long, Paul and Ginny return to the camp. Ted decided to stay at the bar and thus survives. When they get there, they discover blood-soaked sheets and faulty electrical surges. Jason leaps out and attacks the both of them. He quickly knocks Paul to the side and takes off after Ginny. Ginny eventually finds her way back to Jason's own private cottage, a makeshift cabin built from the stolen refuse of Crystal Lake.

As Ginny enters the killer's private sanctum she discovers something that chills her blood. Jason has erected a shrine to his mother, placing her rotting head and the sweater she wore the night she died upon a table filled with candles. Proficient in the field of child psychology, Ginny dons the sweater of Pamela Voorhees and ties her hair back in the hopes of being able to pass herself off as Jason's mother. Jason enters his cabin and sees Ginny. Jason is taken aback as Ginny shouts his name. But Jason soon snaps back to reality as he realizes that Ginny is trying to fool him and attacks her anew. Paul arrives again and provides a distraction allowing Ginny the opportunity to sink a rusty machete deep into Jason's shoulder. The killer passes out from shock and falls to the floor.

Paul and Ginny return to one of the other cabins to nurse their wounds. They barely get a chance to rest though as Jason crashes through the window and attacks them one final time. Ginny passes out, but awakens a short time later on an ambulance stretcher. As the medics wheel her away, she cries out for Paul.

Notes & Trivia

 * The tagline to this film is, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back to camp...". This is also a rewording of the famous phrase "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water", made famous in the 1978 movie Jaws 2.


 * Friday the 13th Part 2 was filmed from October 3rd to November of 1980.


 * Producer Dennis J. Murphy is not to be confused with Dennis Stuart Murphy.


 * Friday the 13th Part 2 marks the first actual appearance of Jason Voorhees. Jason made a brief appearance in Friday the 13th in a flashback scene and a dream sequence.


 * The two surviving characters from the first film, Alice Hardy and Crazy Ralph are the first ones killed in the sequel.


 * The death of Jeff and Sandra is reminiscent of the deaths of Patty and George from Twitch of the Death Nerve. This film, not coincidentally, was a major inspiration for the first Friday the 13th.


 * The outcome of the film is dubious. Ginny survives but apparently there is no sign of Paul. It is safe to assume that he was killed by Jason. Jason apparently escapes as well. The most obvious sign of this is the final scene where we see Pamela Voorhees' shrine once again. The sweater that Ginny had worn, which she had since discarded, has been neatly tucked back into place on top of the table before the dead woman's head.


 * Though credited in the film for creating the characters, Victor Miller had nothing to do with this production.


 * Adrienne King receives third billing in this feature even though her character, Alice Hardy, is killed during the cold open.


 * Ginny Field was named after production designer Virginia Field.

Bloopers

 * The cat that springs through the window in the beginning of the film was clearly thrown and did not leap through the window as the scene would suggest.

Body Count
Incomplete