Classic Horrors Club

When you watch one of the original slashers now, it’s hard to remember if it’s full of tropes that have accumulated over nearly 50 years, or it they were already tropes when the films were originally made. For example, in Friday the 13^th Part 2, when Ginny’s (Amy Steel) car is “sick” and Paul (John Furey) works on it, you know that later, when she needs it the most, it’s not going to start.

I tend to give the classics benefit of the doubt. I sit back, think, “This is where it all started,” and enjoy what I experience. Yes, I consider Part 2 a classic: pre-hockey mask Jason Voorhees the first time he was an adult killer. The story could have gone anywhere after the end of Friday the 13^th, and though it’s already beyond the realm of the possible, it’s more grounded than later sequels.

 You may forget that at the heart of the original film is a real mystery with a great twist. Part 2 is a fine companion piece, circling back to the story and the characters before becoming distanced from them in future movies. It could almost be a stand-alone, even if so much of the first part didn’t include flashbacks of the survivor, Alice (Adrienne King.) I appreciate that screenwriter Ron Kurz makes an effort to explain where she is now and what she’s been doing.

This is also a time when each of Jason’s kills didn’t have to top the one before. Part 2 has its signature machete to the head of wheelchair-bound Scott (Russell Todd) and impaling of Jeff (Bill Randolph) and Sandra (Marta Kober) while in bed, but the other kills are not that gory… or memorable. Come to think of it, even those two don’t seem too gory these days.

Part 2 is not exactly a repeat of the original. It doesn’t take place at Camp Crystal Lake (or “Camp Blood”), but instead at the adjacent Counseling Training Center, five years after — spoiler alert — Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) went on her killing spree. The legend of Jason already exists, but there are no actual events to substantiate it. He’s more of a campfire tale than a historical figure.

This is part of what makes Friday the 13^th Part 2 so important for me. As Paul, Ginny, and Ted (Stuart Charno) sit in the local redneck bar, she imagines what a child like Jason would have become stranded alone in the woods without his mother for all these years. Not only does this scene lay the groundwork for everything that’s to come for years and years, it provides a legitimate explanation for the character’s behavior.

The style, with slow-motion swings of weapons and freeze-frames that fade to white, is familiar, but not repetitive because it’s so darned effective. Plus, you cannot discount the impact of Harry Manfredini’s score. Sure, I remember the  “ki ki ki, ma ma ma,” but I always forget the more intricate violin strings and full orchestra accompaniment. It’s more Bernard Hermann than John Carpenter., but both are superb in different ways.

I’m eager to watch Friday the 13^th Part 3 (1982), then possibly the 2009 version that includes elements from each episode of the trilogy. Unless I’m feeling like a marathon, though, that’s where the series will end, as a nice, tight, three-film package. I don’t recall when Jason becomes a bulky killing machine, but when he’s merely a mean, lean beginner, he’s the most horrifying to me.