Le tueur du vendredi

So many refer to this as the debut of Jason Voorhees. It wasn't...simply the debut of him killing people. He left that to his mom in part one! Steve Miner didn't mess around too much with Sean Cunninham's successful formula simply adding some quite inventive kills and bloodletting.

No-one could be accused of using method-acting here, truth is its all pretty embarrassing. The high-school script though probably isn't that much out of place - they are schoolkids after all.

Jason himself, though still slightly diminished of stature is one creepy little dude, still without his hockey mask but wearing a burlap sack with holes cut out for his eyes. What appears to be his demise is of course anything but...as parts 3 to 10 will attest. The final 15 minutes are quite tension-filled and better than anything in the original.

A must-see for devotees of the series.

'Friday the 13th' may have been panned by critics when first released but since then it is one of the most famous and influential horror films, the franchise containing one of horror's most iconic villains. The film is popular enough to become a franchise and spawn several sequels of varying quality and generally inferior to the one that started it all of.

Of the sequels, 'Friday the 13th Part 2' is one of the better ones easily and one of the few instalments to be as good, even on par. It's not perfect, it's not what one would call great. It does however achieve its primary goals well, it is scary and it is fun. Plus it introduces Jason Voorhees as the antagonist, so it is an important sequel in the series in this respect.

Like the first 'Friday the 13th', 'Friday the 13th Part 2' is far from the best when it comes to acting. The exceptions are appealing Amy Steel and a truly freaky Warrington Gillette. Everybody else ranges from average to dead-end.

Nor is it the best when it comes to dialogue. Much of it is very crude and cheesy. Or character development, and what the film does worse than the original is that we don't sympathise with the characters here as much apart from Ginny. The ending is a head-scratcher and pretty nonsensical, not the truly unsettling one of the first film.

Visually, on the other hand, it improves over the original 'Friday the 13th' quite drastically. It's still creepy but has more of a professional, slicker look and like more time was dedicated to it. Like 'Friday the 13th', 'Friday the 13th Part 2' is very gory and gruesome, though not pointlessly so, but it is also very frightening and suspenseful.

This is apparent in the deaths, which are still very creative and shocking, and the hauntingly eerie music score. 'Friday the 13th' is assuredly directed and moves along at a lively pace. As said, Steel carries the film with a good deal of appealing charm and Gillette proves why Jason is often considered an iconic character in horror.

Overall, pretty good sequel and one of the better ones of a variable franchise. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I am just going to assume you have seen the first Friday 13th movie. I mean if you haven't ... why would you watch the sequel! It clearly states so in the title, that this is not the first one. Which makes it even crazier that this rehashes the last minutes of the first film. While Cunningham didn't get how or why they would bring back Jason Vorhees (he was dead, wasn't he?), Steve Miner took over ... and quite the job he had to undertake. Make the same movie but a bit different.

So right from the start we get rid of what remained from the first movie (excluding Jason that is). And then we get more teenagers for him to be mad at. Why you ask? Does it really matter? Let's say because they can live a life he never could and he hates them for it. That should be good enough. We also get a final girl that is quite clever. Even if not as asexual as some might remember her. She's quite flirty isn't she? Rhetorical question that was.

This sequel does not just see a different Jason actor ... it sees many of them. Apparently a lot of crew members literally stepped into his shoes. Though Steve Dash is the one who seems to take most credit for it. Some may question that, with other stunt man trying to make their case, but it seems he did the heavy lifting (or glass related stunt breakthrough) ... no pun intended.

Since the first Friday movie was so popular but also had many people who were shocked at the gore it had (again quite tame from todays standards), this had quite the issues. Especially because it tried to outdo the first one. So quite a few things landed on the cutting room floor. While this has more blood then, it seems to have less nudity. Though that does not matter that much I think - it's more about the killings isn't it? I think most would agree.

While this also contains Jason as character and killer, sort of the first time, it is not the Jason most might know, especially thinking of the later movies here ...

The first Friday the 13th sequel follows the formula with more camp counselors showing up at Camp Crystal Lake and being slaughtered one by one. This is the first of the series where Jason is the killer, although he doesn't yet have his iconic hockey mask. He wears a sack over his head instead. He also gets kicked in the nads. Pretty funny, honestly.

The cast is full of young actors playing obnoxious teens and twenty-somethings. Adrienne King briefly reprises her role from the first film before Amy Steel takes over as the 'final girl.' Acting-wise, Steel's an improvement I think. This one also has more cute girls than the first movie and more nudity, which would become a prerequisite for the series. The tracking shot of Kirsten Baker's rear end as she walks through the woods is priceless. As with the first movie, I really liked the locations they filmed at. Gives an authentic atmosphere to the film without appearing cheap, like most of today's low-budget horror films do. If you like old-school slashers, you'll like this one. It's solid entertainment that you don't have to take seriously, despite the macabre subject matter.

I think this movie is good because it's the real start of the real killer in Friday the 13th. I also like this and parts 3 and 4 because these are the movies where Jason actually acts like he's human rather than a zombie like in the later movies. And what's cool is Jason actually has a different disguise rather than the ol' hockey mask. What's stupid was that he actually fell for the trick believing that Ginny was his mother and yet his mother's death was the reason why he was killing all those people. Of course, then again, he was retarded, so maybe that's the reason why, I guess I'll never know. A real good start on the Jason movies.