For those who haven’t seen Friday The 13th Part 2, this article contains spoilers.
Jason Voorhees is one of the most enduring figures in horror. Regardless if you love or hate the franchise, there’s no denying its impact on popular culture. Often overlooked is what went into making the 12-film series. Through extensive research and interviews, I’m inviting you to take a closer look at each of the Friday The 13th films. This is Crystal Lake Confessional.
With the runaway success of Friday The 13th, 1980 was the dawn of the slasher era. Combining elements of traditional horror with the stylistic flair of pop culture, slasher films were the punk rock of horror. But unlike the days of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House On The Left, slashers were selling out multiplexes across the world. It was only a matter of time before the bigger studios wanted in on the action. Even the directors who influenced the slasher movement like John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper were pressured into complying with the sub-genre.
After a $60 million dollar theatrical haul, a follow-up to Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday The 13th was inevitable.
No one involved in the making of Friday The 13th had any intention of making a sequel. It was an unabashed rip off of Halloween crafted for the sole purpose of paying some bills. A few weeks after the premiere, Paramount Pictures would officially begin development of what would eventually become Friday The 13th Part 2.
Early in development, Cunningham proposed the idea of making the sequel a stand-alone horror movie connected only by the date itself. If the film proved to be successful, they could produce a new installment each year as a theatrical event. Although onboard for the yearly template, Paramount hated the anthology idea and demanded the sequel to be a direct follow-up. To them, Jason jumping out of the lake at the end of the original was the perfect setup for the sequel. Once that became the official premise, Cunningham and writer Victor Miller backed out of the project, giving Paramount full reign.
Upon his exit, Cunningham suggested directorial duties to be handed over to his friend Steve Miner.
At 29 years old, Miner had already been an assistant to Cunningham since his Last House On The Left days. During the production of Friday The 13th, Miner handled storyboards and quite a few second unit shots. Friday The 13th Part 2 would be his directorial debut. To write the already fast-tracked film, Miner looked no further than Ron Kurz, who did an uncredited rewrite of the original film. Kurz was responsible for much of the youthful chemistry between the characters.
In an effort to keep the film running as smooth as it’s predecessor, Paramount kept Georgetown Productions in charge of Friday The 13th Part 2. But not without a catch: Paramount CEO Frank Mancuso Sr sent his 22-year-old son to act as the studio’s eyes and ears. Frank Mancuso Jr’s business experience helped Miner work around any union issues during the indie production.
With a budget of $1.2 million, Friday The 13th Part 2 was set to begin filming in October of 1980. A mere 4 months after the original finished its theatrical run.
Story-wise, Part 2 presented a glaring challenge: the crux of the original film is Pamela Voorhees’s homicidal vengeance over the drowning of her disabled son Jason. If Jason wasn’t really dead, her motive wouldn’t make much sense. But instead of directly addressing this issue, Miner sets a framework where the characters and the viewers can question what is real and what’s been exaggerated by modern folklore.
Set 5 years after the events of the first film, Friday The 13th Part 2 follows a new group of teenagers training to be camp counselors. As part of their training, the head counselor relates the story of Pamela Voorhees and her son Jason as a creepy campfire tale. At first, no one believes the story but the weekend takes a dark turn when counselors get brutally murdered one by one.
One of the most interesting elements of Friday The 13th Part 2 is how it re-establishes itself with rationality.
Where the original film played upon the vulnerability of youth, Part 2 represents how we compile things mentally. The film’s proverbial final girl Ginny, is studying to be a child psychologist. At one point in the film, she theorizes the possibility of Jason still being alive. “I doubt Jason would even know the meaning of death, or at least until that horrible night…” Ginny says as her friends chug down beer. “He must’ve seen his mother get killed and all because she loved him. Isn’t that what her vengeance was about? Her rage about what she thought happened?” she adds.
Despite already seeing a handful of people getting hacked up at this point in the film, she has an interesting point. A mother’s love may have been a nice plot twist at first, but the idea of her rampage being the product of psychosis makes her and Jason even more tragic. If anything, it accentuates the horror of both films and progresses the story in an unexpected way.
The Jason we see in Friday The 13th Part 2 isn’t reminiscent of what he would later become. Here he’s sloppy, emotional, and at times even a little clumsy.
Throughout the final chase of the film, Ginny uses rationale to her advantage. When she’s being chased by Jason, she hides in interesting places, mindful of which direction he goes. She uses weapons and fights back the best way she knows how. All of this comes to a head when she stumbles upon Jason’s shack in the woods. Not only does the makeshift homestead confirm Jason has been living in the woods, but the shrine of the dismembered head of Mrs.Voorheese confirms Ginny’s theory: Jason is obsessed with his dead mother.
After the final battle with Jason, the last few minutes of the film are played out in a haze. It’s almost as if Ginny is telling the story, leaving out bits and pieces due to trauma. Even as she’s carried away on a stretcher, we’re not sure just how much of the last few minutes was fact or her mind’s exaggeration.
With most of the film played defiantly straight, the fragmented closure elevates the horror elements. Just like the local legend, we ask how much of this event actually happened.
Released on April 30th, 1981, Friday The 13th Part 2 brought over $6 million dollars in its opening weekend. Despite being considerably less popular than the original, the film would gross $22 million and see countless cash-ins and imitators. Friday The 13th Part 2 was not as influential at the time but it inadvertently solidified its own set of rules and tropes for the series going forward. Furthermore, it set rules for slasher films in general.
For all intents and purposes, this take on Camp Crystal Lake is a stronger film than its predecessor. The scenes of peril are scarier, the action tenser, and witty dark humor is laced throughout. Friday The 13th Part 2 had the luxury of knowing exactly what it wanted to be. In my opinion, Miner was a better fit for the franchise and arguably a better director than it’s creator, Cunningham. With 2 commercially successful films under its belt, the bar was set. In order to keep the momentum, Miner would have to take the inevitable follow-up to a new dimension…
Crystal Lake Confessional title card by James Sakelaris
Catch up with previous installments of Crystal Lake Confessional here.
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 – –Part 6 – Part 7
Part TS – Part 8 – Part 9 – Part HM – Part 10 – Part FvJ – Part 2009