DVD Review: Friday the 13th Part 2 (Deluxe Edition)

Written by Tío Esqueleto

Friday the 13th Part 2 opens two months after the horrific events of the original. We see Annie, the heroine and sole survivor from Part 1, is still living in the town of Crystal Lake trying to put her life back together. A phone call from mom and a quick shower later, Jason is jamming an ice pick into her temple as she stares at the rotting, severed head (her own handy work form the climax of the previous film) of Jason’s mother, Mrs. Voorhees. Revenge has been served, establishing our new killer, setting the tone for the next 80 minutes.

Now, why Annie didn’t leave Crystal Lake (or New Jersey, altogether) is the first thing to come to mind, but if you’re looking for convention and logic in this series, or any fine slasher film for that matter, then you should probably just leave the room and make it easier on the rest of us who are well aware of what we are in for, and eager to play along.

So, now it’s five years later and a new group of kids has gathered at a near by camp to train as counselors for the upcoming season. Paul, the guy in charge, assures everybody that the past is the past: Jason drowned, his mother was killed, and “Camp Crystal Lake is off limits.” The only thing he’s right about is Jason’s mother being dead.

What ensues is a killing spree as Paul and half of the team goes out to the local bar, while the other half stay back to fuck and get high. Teen stuff. The staples of the genre. Paul and Ginny, his girlfriend and this chapter’s heroine, return to find the carnage and the masked man responsible. Before we know it, we are in Jason’s all-too-creepy ramshackle shack, deep in the surrounding woods, for the final showdown and eventually Jason’s first ever unmasking.

Released in 1981, Part 2 saw Sean Cunningham handing director duties over to producer and longtime friend Steve Miner, who would also go on to direct the series’ next installment. With the tagline “The body count continues,” Friday the 13th Part 2 was to be bigger and bloodier than the last, and apparently it was, until the MPAA got a hold of it. They had been gearing up for it since the last one, which they had obviously slept through the first time around. What results are ten delightful kills where the payoffs remain on the cutting-room floor. Unlike the cut scenes from the first film, these scenes are not included here, are said to be lost forever, and will likely never be seen again.

Article Author: Cinema Sentries

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