Friday the 13th Part 2
Rating: 1.5/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Pamela Voorhees didn't finish what she started in the first installment of the long-running Friday the 13th series, which then places her son Jason as the main antagonist of its sequel, aptly (and lazily) titled Friday the 13th Part 2. While Jason is known as one of the staples of the slasher genre, this movie simply wastes the potential for him here, while delivering a bland and soulless movie that only gets by on the brutal murders Jason commits throughout the movie.
This movie takes place five years after the events of the first movie, with Jason coming back to finish off Alice (Adrienne King) as she escaped the first movie with her life. He now returns to Camp Crystal Lake, where he is ready to slash up some more counselors that come in for the summer. The movie is practically following the same premise as the first film, just with a killer in a different form.
I must not get the hype behind these films as I felt incredibly bored by the redundant story and set of characters. The characters here are as dumb as sticks, and they simply don't bring anything to offer the story or the reason why we should root for these characters and feel sad when they die. In fact, we are more rooting for Jason, and if that is what the movie planned for us to do, then kudos to them. I know characters in horror movies are supposed to be dumb, but this is simply unbearable to watch at times. The main point I usually highlight when discussing these movies amongst others is Mark (Tom McBride), who is bound to his wheelchair. Watching the movie and watching him die in such a pointless death that could have been prevented is simply hard to watch as you wonder why these characters are so stupid. Sure, it's fun to yell at the screen when watching characters in horror movies, but here, it simply blows your mind how bad it is.
It's not even a fun-bad either. It's simply torture to sit through this movie and really try to find enjoyable qualities in this film. I was sort of annoyed with the redundant set-up to the kills in the first one (and simply wondered about the fascination of Ms. Voorhees killing the characters in very intimate settings), but they just do the same thing again and again here. They spend too long pointlessly setting up these characters and their backstories/interactions with other characters to just kill them off in a 5-second kill scene. Even Jason, who is only wearing a burlap sack here as the iconic hockey mask doesn't come until the next installment, is very disappointing and not very scary. He just kind of seems like this giant bumbling idiot who we barely see throughout this movie.
The only aspect that truly saves this film from being bottom-of-the-barrel trash is the iconic tracking shots through the cinematography by Peter Stein and the brutal kills Jason deals out here. The tracking shots of Jason watching the counselors is simply done very well, and really puts us in this killer's point of view. I thoroughly enjoyed it when they did it in the first one, and I enjoy it quite a bit here as well. At the same time, the kills here are very well-executed and fun to watch, including Jason impaling two counselors together mid-sex and putting a machete through the face of Mark, forcing him to bounce down stairs at a rapid speed in his wheelchair. Sure, the filmmakers here may not be able to craft any good stories or character development for these films, but they simply can showcase some pretty brutal kills and iconic cinematography that is quite fun to watch when it happens.
I just truly don't think Friday the 13th is the franchise for me. I know multiple people who love this series and defend it tooth-and-nail, but they simply don't work for me all that much. I think the stories and the characters they set up are quite horrible and bland, and the movies so far survive solely on the kills and filmmaking techniques, such as the cinematography and the well-known score. It makes me truly wonder how this franchise was able to continue based on the first two films in this series alone, as I would've axed it after this installment.
Comments
Post a Comment