Friday the 13th Part 2

Published 2024-11-10

Film info

Title Friday the 13th Part 2
Director Steve Miner
Year 1981
Run time 1hr 26m
Genres Horror, Thriller
Tagline The body count continues...

The horror fest picks up where the notorious original left off and is set five years after the infamous bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, where Jason Voorhees and his psychotic mother murdered seven camp counsellors. A nearby campsite has been turned into a training centre and our anti-hero is on the hunt for fresh blood. Gory with a hint of humour, this pretty much does what it says on the tin.

Live blog

Time	Comment
2:23	Excellent ‘dream instead of a previously on’ work.
5:32	Okay, but isn’t that dream within a dream? We’re not sure that last bit happened.
11:39	Always worry when a cat appears in a horror movie.
18:28	Camp Blood! Ooooh.
21:24	Backfiring car is a great way to make an entrance. Embarrassing.
26:49	Anyone deliberately scaring people around a campfire is bad people.
37:14	Horror stories about the place, no trespassing signs and barbed wire and she still wants to go there.
42:24	Literal cabin in the woods.
49:33	He’ll promise anything when he’s hanging upside down from a rope.
54:36	“Jason’s a legend.” Not in the way we use that today.
1:10:58	Damn those unreliable 80s cars. In this day and age you wouldn’t have that problem!
1:15:26	Oh nice, fight back with a chainsaw! That’s turned the tables.
1:18:04	Creepy but so smart to pretend to be the mother.

Thoughts

This was a lot better than the first one, I'm glad I didn't let myself be put off by the first. Although the story was very similar, the characters were better drawn and the pacing was much better. This had so many of the cliches that Scream riffs on - the random murder at the beginning, and the people having sex with each other everywhere, etc - that it must be part of the defining horror mythology. I'm still not completely convinced by the motivations or baddies here, but it was worth a watch, and on to the next!

Rating: 4 / 5