- "I told the others. They didn't believe me. You're all doomed. You're all doomed."
- ―Crazy Ralph
| Friday the 13th Part 2 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Credits | |
| Title: | Friday the 13th Part 2 |
| Director: | Steve Miner |
| Writers: | Ron Kurz; Victor Miller |
| Producers: | Dennis Stuart Murphy [1], Frank Mancuso, Jr., Steve Miner, Tom Gruenberg, Lisa Barsamian |
| Composer: | Harry Manfredini |
| Cinematography: | Peter Stein |
| Editors: | Susan E. Cunningham |
| Production | |
| Distributed by: | Georgetown Productions, Inc. |
| Released: | May 1st, 1981 |
| Rating: | R |
| Running time: | 87 min. |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $1,250,000 [2] |
| Gross: | $21,722,776 [2][3] |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | Friday the 13th (1980) |
| Next: | Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) |
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 movie was directed by Steve Miner with a screenplay written by Ron Kurz based on character concepts originally developed by Victor Miller. It was produced by Georgetown Productions, Inc. and 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), Vickie (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.
Cast[]
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.
- Production on Friday the 13th Part 2 began on October 3rd, 1980. Principal filming concluded in November, 1980.
- Friday the 13th Part 2 ranked in at number at the box office over its opening weekend, $6,429, 748 at 1,350 theaters, averaging $4,762 per showing. [2][3]
- Producer Dennis Stuart Murphy is not to be confused with electrician Dennis J. 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.
- The little boy, Jesse, is the first character seen in Friday the 13th Part 2 and the first character addressed by name, even though you never see his face.
- 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.
- Alice Hardy's nightmare at the beginning of the film includes footage from the first Friday the 13th. The flashback includes footage of Alice Hardy, Pamela Voorhees, Jason Voorhees (flashback within a flashback as well as dream within a dream), Annie's corpse and Steve Christy's corpse.
- Ginny Field is the second character to fall under the "Final Girl" story trope in the Friday the 13th film series. The first was Alice Hardy.
- Ginny Field is the first true survivor of the Friday the 13th film series.
- This is the first major film work for actress Amy Steel. She was 21-years-old when she first began working on the movie.
- Ginny is one of three human characters who are confirmed to be alive by the end of the film. The other two are Jason Voorhees and Ted.
- Adrienne King was stalked by an obsessed fan shortly after the release of Friday the 13th. The experience led her to temporarily retire from acting, though she did agree to return for Friday the 13th Part 2 provided that she would only play a minimal role in the film. [4][5]
- Playing the role of Jeff is actor Bill Randolph's second film role and his first work in the horror genre.
- Even though Jeff and Sandra are supposed to be relatively the same age, there is a difference of ten years between the actors.
- Jeff is the third male character who appears in the film. Coincidentally, he is also the third male character whose name begins with the letter J; the others being Jesse (the young boy walking in the rain in the beginning of the film), and Jason Voorhees.
- Mark is the first handicapped character featured in the Friday the 13th film series.
- Mark never actually tells anyone what he is in training for.
- Actor Tom McBride was 28-years-old when he began working on Friday the 13th Part 2, making him the second oldest actor within the main cast after John Furey who was 30 at the time of shooting.
- Actor Tom McBride passed away on September 24th, 1995 in New York City, New York from complications of having the AIDS virus. He was forty-two at the time of his death. This makes Tom the third actor in the series to pass away and the first actor to pass away who played a character who was killed in a film.
- Playing the role of Paul Holt is actor John Furey's second role in a feature film.
- The possible fate of Paul Holt was explained in an interview with Peter Bracke, author of Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th, in the Friday the 13th Part 2 DVD features included on the Friday the 13th: From Crystal Lake to Manhattan Ultimate Collection DVD. There he reveals that there was an unused ending in the movie. After Ginny Field questions where Paul is, the scene switches to Pamela Voorhees' head, which opens its eyes and smiles, implying that Jason had killed Paul. When they filmed the scene however, the production crew thought it looked too silly, so it was taken out of the movie. [6]
- Actress Marta Kober had only just turned seventeen when she began working on Friday the 13th Part 2.
- Playing the part of Ted is actor Stu Charno's first work in film.
- Scott is one of two characters in Friday the 13th Part 2 to be killed with a machete. The other is Mark, who dies later in the film. He is the third character in the entire franchise to be killed with a machete. The other two are Claudette from the 1958 flashback in the first film [7], and Pamela Voorhees, who is beheaded by Alice Hardy.
- Terry and the dog found by Jeff and Sandra earlier in the film are the only confirmed deaths in the movie that are not explicitly shown. An argument could be made to include Paul Holt on the list, but as the accuracy of his living status is called into question, his possible survival cannot be ruled out.
- Playing the role of Terry is actress Kirsten Baker's seventh film role. She appeared in nine films in total in her career. This is her only work in the horror genre.
Bloopers[]
- There is a logical incongruity in the manner of Crazy Ralph's death. In Friday the 13th Part 2, Ralph is seen leaning against a tree when the wire comes down from above and wraps him about the neck. This would have been an impossible feat to perform unless the three was cut off above Ralph's head. The angle of Jason Voorhees' arms also indicate that the attacker would have been several feet taller than Jason is typically portrayed.
- 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.
- When Jason Voorhees kills both Scott and Mark, he is using the dull side of the machete.
Body Count[]
| Order | Victim | Method |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alice Hardy | Ice pick through the temple |
| 2 | Crazy Ralph | Choked to death with sharp chain |
| 3 | Unnamed dog | Undetermined |
| 4 | Deputy Winslow | Claw hammer to the back of the head. |
| 5 | Scott | Machete slash across the throat. |
| 6 | Terry | Unseen; likely a machete cut. |
| 7 | Mark | Machete to the face. |
| 8 | Jeff | Impaled with a spear. |
| 9 | Sandra | Impaled with a spear. |
| 10 | Vickie | Stabbed in the stomach with butcher knife. |
| 11 | Paul Holt | Unconfirmed; Undetermined. |
Survivors[]
- Bartender - The bartender at the Casino Bar worked outside of Jason's chosen territory and did not encounter him.
- Camp counselors - All of the unidentified camp counselors who went out to the Casino Bar were away from the campground during Jason's massacre and as such, none of them died.
- Ginny Field - Despite being attacked by Jason numerous times and having the audacity to impersonate Jason's mother and whack him in the shoulder with his own machete, Ginny miraculously survived.
- Jesse - Despite walking down the same street as Jason Voorhees, Jesse did not catch his attention and was not in immediate danger.
- Jesse's mother - Jesse's mother did not encounter Jason. She lived outside of Jason's territory and was not a threat to him.
- Max - Max worked outside of Jason's chosen territory and did not encounter him.
- Muffin - Despite a chance encounter with Jason, this little dog was not seen as a threat. Muffin got away safe and sound.
- Paul Holt - The final fate of Paul Holt is uncertain. It is very likely that he died after being attacked by Jason, but as this is never confirmed, there is a slim chance that he may have survived.
- Ted - Ted went to the Casino Bar with other counselors and did not return to Packanack Lodge with Ginny and Paul. As such, Ted was one of the fortunate few to avoid being slaughtered.
Recommendations[]
See also[]
Friday the 13th media
The World of Jason Voorhees
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Co-producer Dennis Stuart Murphy is credited as Dennis Murphy in this film.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 IMDB; Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981); Box office & business
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Box Office Mojo; Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
- ↑ Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood
- ↑ His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th
- ↑ Friday the 13th Wiki; Paul Holt
- ↑ Making Friday the 13th: The Legend of Camp Blood; David Grove; 2005; pg. 60