Rating: Country: USA Release Date: February 3, 2009 Distributor: Paramount Director: · Steve Miner Cast: · Amy Steel · Adrienne King · John Furey · Kirsten Baker · Walt Gorney Related Sites: · IMDb: Friday the 13th Part Two Grade: B

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Essentially delivering some extremely similar plot progression, structure and environment as the original “Friday the 13th,” “Part 2” spruces things up a bit with continuity, plot relevant characterizations and occasional bouts of tension, which comes from the notion of planning before turning the camera on. This is not to suggest that what is presented resembles competency necessarily; merely that it treads closer to that territory. More noticeable, however, at least for the core demo, are the greater number of kills and nude romps from various camp counsellors, which certainly adds that “je ne sais quoi” to the film.

With Mrs. Voorhees out of the picture, appearing only as a decapitated head for the sequel, the new villain introduced is the drowned child himself, Jason Voorhees, who, prior to the hockey mask, donned a plain brown sack, as shown in this entry. Along with the requisite killings of horny camp counsellors, Jason’s childhood psychology gets examined, in a drunken bar scene no less, with the wisdom offered to the extent of “it must’ve been real hard on him seeing his mother get decapitated like that.”

Indeed.

While amusing, it points to a greater attention to narrative structure and cinematic convention, which may be the bee’s knees for some, and too gosh-darned conformist for others. Either way, this is an early eighties horror movie where people are killed in mid coitus, which really is what it is.

Following the events of part one, a group of randy teens led by rambunctious child psychology major Ginny (Amy Steel) and Paul (John Furey) set up a new camp not far from the notorious Camp Blood. Due to their proximity and proclivity for illicit drugs and fornication, Jason does what he does best, and kills them off one by one, after finishing off Alice (Adrienne King) from part one.

The Deluxe Edition DVD has a new 5.1 surround mix and a high definition transfer of the film, which looks much like the version included in the recently released “From Crystal Lake to Manhattan” box set, aside from being a bit brighter. This is not a bad thing, however, as the picture is decent, considering that the original film was grainy and murky to begin with. The special features include the previously available “Jason Forever” featurette, which is a panel of the various actors who have played Jason, talking to fans. It is about as exciting as anyone could expect from a panel of stuntmen talking about playing a faceless killer.

The new features include an interview with Peter Bracke, who offers many tidbits of information about the series, in addition to a clarification about the strange ending to part 2. A brief featurette about horror conventions is included as well, which of course, is all peace, love and “horror fans are the best.” Lastly, a more elaborate, but still crappy, “Lost Tales from Camp Blood” is included, which involves a murder in the woods rather than in a house. The biggest difference from the original “Lost Tales” is the length.