User Reviews

I say that, of course, in reference to the expected quality of a movie like this. In general, horror series like the seemingly endless Friday the 13th series are composed of one hugely successful original film (generally, by today's standards, inexplicably so, despite the abysmal standards of today) followed by a lot of stomach-turningly awful sequels that try in vain to recapture the success of the original film. The first sequel in the Friday the 13th series, however, seems to escape that trend, although it never manages to be much better than the original, which wasn't that great in the first place. But at the very least, even the Austin Powers series went more precipitously downhill than Friday the 13th.

The movie takes place several years after the original ended, and since Mrs. Voorhees was the real killer in the original (which we all know because we've all seen Scream) and was beheaded at the end, we now have to have a real killer. The thing that helps this movie escape the treacherous realms of the sophomore effort is that it presents the story so well. Jason has lived in the woods since his mother was killed (a horrifying event which the young Jason witnessed), not interacting with a human being in any way in all those years. In order to seek revenge for his mother's murder, he has been savagely stalking and murdering anyone who comes close to his area of the lake.

Not exactly the most intricate storyline, but at least it's not some mindless killer running around killing any teenager daring enough to get involved in any kind of sexual behavior (an extremely popular motive in cheesy horror movies). In this case, promiscuity is punished because Jason supposedly drowned because the counselors who were supposed to be watching him were making out when he was screaming for help.

There is a cheesy fireside scene where one character explains this whole thing to all of the teens who are out there training to be counselors, which obviously ends with one person in disguise jumping out of the bushes screaming and scaring the hell out of everyone around the fire. The movie then jumps into auto-pilot for most of the film, becoming your typical slasher movie, but at least they took the time to explain why all these killings were happening, right?

This makes me wonder, however, why they would cover Jason's face with a cheap piece of bedsheet with a little hole torn in it for one of his eyes. They've seen Halloween! They know the effectiveness of an expressionless mask, so why not be a little more creative here? The only reason I can think of is that Jason lives in the woods and doesn't exactly have access to things like the costume store where Michael Meyers got his mask, but he did have access to axes and machetes and candles and whatnot. Surely in all those years he could have come up with something at the very least a little more comfortable to wear or easier to see through.

At the very end of the film, by the way, we are treated to a close up and slow motion look at Jason's real face (something that we never get to see of Michael Meyers, although we almost do in one of the films), as he leaps through a window to grab the last girl left alive. And what a face! No wonder nobody wants to play with him!

As far as the killings themselves, Friday the 13th Part 2 fits in with most other 80s slasher films, which are little more than exercises in coming up with new and interesting ways to kill people, because we already know the formula from countless slasher films made before. In this case, there are certainly some creative murders, and the film even confused me with feelings of sympathy for Jason near the end, particularly when he is holding his arms up trying to get away from the chainsaw.

The poor guy! Someone killed his mom for avenging his death, and he's lived in the woods alone his whole life! He's the victim here! Okay, I wouldn't go that far, but I definitely felt badly for the poor guy when he fell off the chair and then almost got chainsawed. But luckily he's soon back on his feet (even after almost being cut completely in half with a weak swing of a machete) goring people with big scary knives and reminding us of the dangers of messing with him. Or, as it were, being anywhere near Camp Crystal Lake.

This is also, by the way, the last time that any sympathy can be felt for anyone dumb enough to go up to the lake. The rest of the sequels are filled with people who deserve to die anyway for being so dumb. Well, at least his mask improves from this point on.

Like most low-budget horror films, "Friday the 13th Part 2" is not a well-made film. The cinematography is bland, the dialogue laughable, and the acting...oh, the acting. However, of all the "Friday the 13th" films, this installment contains the most interesting story elements and the scariest scenes. Consider this: A deformed homicidal man-beast stalks unsuspecting counselors wearing a potato sack over his head; one crazy eye stares through a hole. He is territorial, keeping others off his land as an act of revenge over the decapitation of his mother (which he witnessed). He survives off the wilderness and lives in a dilapidated shack in the woods where his mother's head sits amidst a circle of candles and an increasing pile of dead bodies.

If the filmmakers had handled the material well, it could have been a monumentally scary film of "Exorcist" and "Blair Witch" scale. Unfortunately, the underdevelopment of most of the characters and the noticeably lackluster aesthetic qualities drag this down into Bad Movie Land. On the other hand, there are parts to this film that are as scary as anything out there. Most of these moments are singular shots or images, and there's usually not enough fright to last an entire sequence.

If you like the series though, you will probably enjoy this sequel as well.

In my opinion this sequel is my favorite Friday the 13th film it is It is one of my personal favorite horror movie because of Amy Steel! I am a big fan of the actress and I love her to death in Friday the 13th Part 2. This movie is my number 4 favorite slasher Friday the 13th film in the series and I love Amy Steel so damn much as Ginny Field! She was the best heroine in the slasher films in my opinion. I love this film to death and I enjoy it and love it the same as the first one I love the atmosphere in the film. It has the best kills in the series. Characters are fairly well-developed and likable, at least for this franchise, and there are plenty of thrills. One of the most memorable final shocks rounds everything out.

It is Jason Voorhees first outing as the murderer and the image of him wearing the potato sack over his head is burned into my retinas as one of the most memorable in the franchise.

Amy Steel is a brilliant addition to the cast, a great heroine I love her to death in "Friday The 13th part 2" and I also love her in April Fool's Day she was excellent in those two films. She is always my favorite lead and I really enjoy Friday the 13th Part 2 more then the first one.

Friday the 13th Part 2 is a great sequel great horror slasher movie that made Jason Voorhees memorial cool horror icon.

This time the film was directed and produced by Steve Miner who I thought did an excellent job directing the film. This time for the special makeup effects was Carl Fullerton who did the right job like Tom Savini did with the first one.

I love how Amy Steel defend her self against Jason Voorhees who was this time played by actor Steve Daskawisz with a potato sack. Amy Steel used chain saw on Jason that scene was copied by Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning and was also used and copied in Maniac Cop 2 I just didn't like it. Watch the climatic fight between Jason and Ginny in which Ginny imitates Jason's mom Pamela (Betsy Palmer) and then she swings with a machete towards Jason and Jason raises the mattock to block Ginny's machete swing this was an epic Climatic fight in the movie.

Ginny Field with working tool fork in the hands is just memorial all over Amy Steel's picture we see her on IMDb and every where.

Mrs. Voorhees is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place is stalked by an unknown assailant.

Adrienne King and Walt Gorney did return that was a surprise for me and the were the first characters to die in the beginning of the film.

Adrienne King wanted to reprise her role as Alice, but she said that she wanted to be on screen for a short period of time because there was an obsessive fan who was stalking her, broke into her apartment, and she feared for her life. So I respect the actress and her decision since this film she never return on TV screen but she lend her voice to animation movies. Adrienne King filmed all of her scenes in two days then she run faster as she could.

Amy Steel has stated that she found shooting the "window scene" difficult. The shot required three takes and her frightened reaction is genuine. Because the shot was in slow-motion, a high-speed camera was used, and every time she heard the film start running, she would tense up and get scared. Amy was very upset with the director for the window scene and it was really annoyed cause director keep shouting they have to repeat the scenes.

Great horror slasher suspense entertaining 80's movie my all time favorite horror film I still going to watch it. I watched this film 7 years ago when I was a big fan of Supernatural and I heard Jared Padalecki auditioned for his lead role in Friday the 13th reboot and I was curious so I went watching this film alongside with the first original film and Jason X before I watched reboot that was my fourth film I saw.

I remember seeing this movie on DVD in the video store when I was in high school. I wasn't interesting seen it that time but today I am glad I have this film on Blu-ray, just got it this Thursday all 11th films and I watch it in Friday 22th this is the 3d time in the row I saw this film and i still will.

This is one in my top 5 favorite Friday the 13th films it is my number four favorite slasher Friday the 13th movie and it is the best one. The movie it self's get's my Bad-Ass Seal Of Approval 10/10 Amy Steel is the queen of screamers and she is way better then Jamie Lee Curtis in my opinion.

After the first movie, Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) is still haunted by Mrs. Voorhees killing everybody at the camp. Her nightmare comes true as she is killed off immediately. It's been quiet for about 5 years. A new camp is opened nearby to train camp counselors. It's not too long when the killings start all over again.

This is a better movie than the original. The production value is superior. This is a no non-sense serial killer movie. Everything just look better than the original. There isn't a big future star in the mix, but Amy Steel is pretty good as Ginny. However it is still just a functional slasher movie and nothing more.

The sequel to the woefully remedial "Friday the 13th" improves on the original film, which is sort of like saying slightly curdled milk is an improvement on really curdled milk, but I digress.

Part 2 is better if only because Jason is the actual killer, not that weird androgynous mother lady. He wears a really creepy pillow case or something over his head instead of his hockey mask, and it's actually a scarier effect than the more iconic image--he should have stuck with it. There's a long prologue in which the only survivor from the first film eventually gets an ice pick in the forehead, but only after she's been repeatedly scared by the phone, a cat, etc. This opening is actually pretty nerve-racking, and it sets the tone for the rest of the movie, in which the kills are more original than the first (I'm a particular fan of the handicapped kid who gets a machete in the face and then is sent bouncing down some garden steps in his wheelchair) and the nudity is more bountiful and gratuitous. I'm not even going to try to justify my enjoyment of slasher movies---they speak to the basest instincts in all of us and are really morally repellent, but, hey, I like what I like.

One of the better episodes in the interminable series.

Grade: C+

Directed by Steve Miner, the film marks the first time Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillett unmasked/stuntman Steve Daskawisz when masked) is the antagonists in the film series, as his mother, Pamela (Betsy Palmer) was the killer in the previous film. Jason Voorhees's motive is crystal clear in this film. It is a direct sequel to Friday the 13th, picking up five years after that film. He has to take revenge on Alice Hardy (Adrienne King) who killed his mother in the conclusion of the previous movie. After that, he must try to get rid of the rest of the camp counselors in nearby training camp. It's just another manic Friday for him. Originally, Friday the 13th Part 2 was not intended to be a direct sequel to the 1980 original, but rather part of an anthology series of films based around the Friday the 13th superstition. Like the Halloween film franchise, after the popularity of the original film, villain attacking the heroine, the filmmakers decided to bring back Jason and the mythology surrounding Camp Crystal Lake, a trend which would be repeated for the rest of the series. Stylistically, Friday the 13th Part 2 had a lot of the same elements that made the original Friday the 13th a sleeper hit in 1980, such as first-person camera perspectives, gory stalk-and-slash scenes with the same eerily music, and sex/nudity. One of the biggest problems of the film is trying to connect this to the previous film. The movie took forever to recap the last film. This film has one of the longest pre-credit sequences in cinematic history, nearly 15 minutes in some versions. The main different between this film and the last is the lack of suspense. You know, whom the killer is, this time. It's also, sucks that the movie series lacks a strong "it girl". I was really hoping for a strong female protagonist like Ellen Ripley from the Alien film series or Laurie Strode from the Halloween series in these films. It kinda sucks that the final girl, Alice Hardy from the last movie was kill off, pretty quick in the beginning. Adrienne King was pursued by an obsessed fan after the success of the original Friday the 13th and wished her role to be small as possible in the sequel, because of that. I really find it very odd that the movie has her being stalk and killed as if she was being attacked by that crazy fan. In my opinion, she should had refused to retake the role, until the problems of her personal life was taken care of. Ginny Field (Amy Steel) is alright replacement. The final girl often shares common characteristics: she is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims, very sympathizing people that becomes masculinized through "phallic appropriation" by taking up a weapon. Ginny is nothing like the common final girl. Ginny has a lot of vices, sleeps with her boss and mostly catatonic and useless in the end. It undermines the notion of positive final girl. The whole idea that she can pass off as Voorhees mother by wearing her old sweater is a bit goofy. I wasn't impressed with any of the actors acting here, but honestly most of the supporting characters were pretty likable. None of them, had any of the mean-spirit traits, the later films would later put on. It's weird that the teenagers that went off to drink and party, didn't die first in this film. It's weird that the movie would even have the nerves to kill a character with a disability like Mark (Tom McBride). Kirsten Baker as Terry was very sexy, and pretty much, worth watching, just to see her nude scenes. Jason was still pretty sinister, despite, not yet, dawning the hockey mask. The potato sack mask kinda remind me of 1980's Elephant Man in how creepy it was. The movie gorn is pretty intense. The Make Up work is just as good as the first film. The movie had to be cut by approx. 1 minute to secure the R rating, and not an X rating. Some scene, the editing is clearly visible. As of today, none of the cuts have been restored in any way, even with newer release DVDs. The movie really had a cop-out when it came to the dog, Muffin. It's so weird, that the movie preach, it's alright to killed people in a horror, but don't dare, kill the dog. I guess, the movie didn't want to anger PETA. The film's ending has been a source of confusion for fans. Writer Ron Kurz has stated that Jason's window jump was intended to be, like a jump scare like the first film in reality. However, like the beginning of this film, the beginning of Part III, in replaying the end clip, showed Jason jumping into them, as if a dream. In an unused ending, after Ginny questions where her boyfriend is, the scene switches to Mrs. Voorhees' head, which then opens its eyes and smiles, indicating that Jason had killed him. Overall: It's just a carbon copy of its predecessor that it's slowly turning into what the film series is known for. It's not bad, but it's not the worst. It's just mediocre. Worth checking if you want to have cheap thrills.

Five years after the horrible massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, all that remains is the legend of Jason Voorees and the death of his demented mother who had murdered 7 campers until one get her.

It starts of with Alice (Adrienne King) the survivor of the first one, having nightmares about the events of 5 years ago at camp crystal lake. She's living alone in a spooky house and talks to her mother on the phone about trying to put her life back together, unaware that Jason is lurking around outside, she jumps in the shower and gets phonecall, a hang up from Jason, she goes into the kitchen, opens the fridge door finds a human head and Jason pops up and rams a screwdriver through her head.

Then we meet Sandra (Marta Kober) and Jeff (Bill Randolf), on a payphone to they're friend, then Crazy Ralph from the first one appears warning them like last time "I Told the others they didn't believe me, you're all doomed, you're all doomed".

Eventually they join the other campers at a camp site near camp crystal lake, we get the new meat head councilor Paul Holt (John Furey), Terri (Kirsten Baker) one of the early victims, Ted (Stuart Charno) the funny one, Jeff and Sandra the carefree lovers, Mark (Tom McBride) wheelchair guy, Vicky (Lauren Marie Taylor) the nice girl, Scott (Russell Todd) the charmer and last but not least the main heroine Ginny (Amy Steel) who's the best last girl out of the entire series in my opinion.

Overall, much better than the first one, the deaths are wicked especially the one with the 2 people in bed together getting speared, and even the guy in the wheelchair gets it, in the face with the machete, Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) makes a final appearance as crazy ralph before he gets garotted with barb wire and the one with the guy gets caught in the trap and has his throat slit hanging upside down.

The only standout performance is from Ginny (Amy Steel) who was also impressive in April Fools Day, really goes for it with Jason in the final showdown between killer and heroine.