Thoughts on Horror Coverage Sites/Friday the 13th Part 2 Review

First off, I wanted to say hello! I am quite a horror aficionado, but I like all genres of film, really, and I thought it would be nice if I shoved my opinion about films in your face like other people on the internet. Granted, since this site may probably only be for horror movie reviews, I'm going to try to refrain from doing what other horror movie review blogs/sites do and have some cheesy set up, where the ratings are pictures of bloody machetes (THIS FILM GETS 4 OUT OF 5 BLOODY MACHETES!) and they have dripping blood as scroll-locked backgrounds. With this blog I wanted to keep things simple. I found a goofy little font that I like and I'm going to use it and abuse it.

I don't want to sound like I don't like those websites for having their formats, because I freaking love them. However, just to be different (ooh, hipster) and also because I'm too lazy to fix this blog up so that it doesn't look boring (ooh, lethargic!) So, if you're coming in here to read my shit, I apologize if it's a little bland.

Anyway, on to the movie reviews! (By the way, my reviews will be spoiler filled (and by spoilers I mean I reveal the fates of characters in the film. I will never reveal details if it is important to the plot, and I will try to preserve any real secrets films have to offer the audience))

I pride myself on being very fair when it comes to movies. These days opinions on movies are very extreme. Either the film was a masterpiece of cinema or it was a turd ferguson. Especially on the internet and other media, reviews tend to be very polarizing. So rest assured, I will give a highly unbiased and fair review to the movies that find their way onto my blog.

The first is

Friday the 13th Part 2.

Yes, I'm 30+ years late on this one, but I was born in 1990, so sue me. This past Friday was Friday the 13th, and having nothing much to do I decided I was going to stop being a snob and finally watch the sequels to the wonderful Friday the 13th. I have always avoided them in the past (for reasons I will explain later). To begin with, Part 2 starts right off where the first ended with our heroine Alice, who is killed in her home by some mysterious murderer. Strange, is it Mrs. Voorhees back from the dead or is there going to be another mystery villain waiting to monologue to us at the end?

Of course, most people know where this is going. It's JASON VOORHEES, the son of Mrs. Voorhees! Sans the famous hockey mask that he will acquire in the next film, but I find bagheadedness to be equally visually intriguing. After Alice is dispatched with, we meet a whole new gang of teenagers who are setting up a summer camp near the property of Camp Crystal Lake. Oh, and its been five years since the events of the original film.

Now, I feel like people give a lot of these '80s slashers a bad rap when it comes to character development. I have never had any problems with character development in slasher films. The characters display enough of their personality for the audience to get to know what they are like, and it can't be denied that slasher film characters are fun and know how to have fun. They are three dimensional enough without having the movie focus on being a character study. Anyway, they start getting killed off by the mystery killer (who is Jason) and events pretty much transpire the same way they did in the first film.

The kills are fun and shocking, its highly atmospheric, and as far as quality goes, it's far ahead of its slasher peers (with exceptions, of course).

Now, as part of my criticisms for this movie (and the F13 franchise in general) I will spill why I have actively avoided watching these films all these years. Slasher films are notorious for their plots. This film is no different. I found myself asking why they chose to bring Jason back. Yeah, Mrs. Voorhees was dead and they wanted a sequel, but the internal logic of how he survived his drowning is extremely flawed. If he did survive his drowning, why didn't he just find his way back to camp to his mommy? Apparently she lived close by all these years because she kept sabotaging everyone's attempt to reopen Crystal Lake, and Jason has supposedly been living off the land very near the camp property, so, why wasn't he actively seeking her? Even though he was deformed (and possibly mentally handicapped) the film makers made it obvious that Jason is not a big dumb lumbering hulk. He meticulously stalks and sets traps for his prey, which requires a great deal of thinking and planning. If they had just made it some crazy psycho (a la Michael Myers before they gave him a motive in H2, or Billy from Black Christmas) the film would probably hold up better.

The first film was surprising in that it did have a really nice story going on. Summer camps are the perfect place for accidents to happen. I've been to many summer camps in the course of my life and someone always gets hurt. In the first film, an innocent boy drowns because no one is there to supervise him. Instead, the counselors in charge are off doing naughty things (or whatever) Add to the fact that Mrs. Voorhees could possible have been a little unhinged even at the beginning before his death, and the fact that she was definitely dwelling on her loss for however many odd years, that shit could drive anyone insane. The point is, the internal logic of the film was very consistent. It was a neat little murder mystery that handled the who/what/when/where of these types of films very well.

Despite this criticism, it doesn't ruin the fun of Part 2 (or any of its good sequels) one bit. Watching a slasher movie should be like going on a fun ride at an amusement park.

I'm giving Friday the 13th Part 2 a B.

For the future, my movie ratings will be rankings from A to F, like school.