Friday the 13th: Part II (1981)

Five years ago, Pamela Voorhees went on a murderous rampage against the counselors at a local summer camp.  She was finally cut down by the last of her intended victims.  But now, a whole new group of counselors are going to learn that her death hasn't actually made these woods any less dangerous ...

So if that sounds pretty much like a direct rehash of the first Friday, well, in most ways it is.  The mystery element of the first film (such as it was) is jettisoned, but otherwise you get exactly the same thing as before: a bunch of pretty young people being offed in creative ways before the last survivor(s) have a climactic showdown with the killer.

The guy from 1000 Misspent Hours has a theory that Paramount should have made this film first, before the film to which it is a sequel.  And if I squint a bit, I can kind of see his point.  It's a technically better film in a number of ways: the potential victims have more strongly defined characters, the cinematography is stronger, and of course it is the first appearance of the killer who would define the franchise (and to some extent, slasher films in general) in Jason Voorhees.  Plus it has a Chekov's chainsaw, and that's the sort of thing I can applaud.

On the other hand - and I am sure you expected there to be an other hand - they didn't make this film first.  In fact given how hard it leans on the original in setting things up (while at the same time having some major continuity issues with that film), and how thoroughly it appropriates the plot structure and sound design of the original, it's hard to see how they could have.  Plus it's not like the Jason of this film is anything like the unstoppable masked (sometimes undead) monster in the image above.  He's much smaller, much more human in his movements, and much less physically powerful.

Ultimately, Friday the 13th, Part 2 is a competently made slasher film that launched a horror icon, and it's worth a watch if you like this kind of stuff, but it's not a film that will change your mind about the genre it helped found.  Nor does it show any desire to be the kind of film that could.