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+
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+