Sunday, June 30, 2024

Movie review - "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The first made so much money it would've been rude to not make a sequel, and besides there was a ready-made way to do it, by focusing on a grown up Jason, who took over from his mother as the antagonist. The poor old "only girl" from the first one gets knocked off in the opening scene.

There's some full frontal female nudity (a skinny dip) which feels very "1981" (slashers would cover up as the decade went on). Some suspenseful moments and decent kills. There is a teen in a wheelchair who is depicted as being sexually active, which I guess is progressive, even though the main reason for this, one senses, is so he can be spectacularly killed going backwards down stairs. The ending has novelty with the final girl pretending to be Jason's mother to ward him off.

The studio backlot campsite is unfortunate but I guess you've got to save money where you can. The cast are anonymous as usual, which is part of the series' charm. I do always forget there's an elder character actor or two who cop it in the first act.

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