Friday The 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees

Friday the 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees (also known as Friday the 13th Part II) is a 1981 American horror film directed by Steve Miner. It is a direct sequel to Friday the 13th, picking up thirteen months after that film's conclusion, where a new murderer stalks camp counselors at a nearby training camp. The film marks the first time Jason Voorhees is the antagonist (his mother was the killer in the previous film).

Stylistically, Return of Jason Voorhees, reproduces certain key elements that made the original Friday the 13th a sleeper hit in 1980, such as first-person camera perspectives, gory stalk-and-slash scenes, and campground settings. Originally, Return of Jason Voorhees was not intended to be a direct sequel to the 1980 original but rather part of an anthology series of films based around the Friday the 13th superstition, but after the popularity of the original film's surprise ending to feature Jason Voorhees attacking the heroine, the filmmakers decided to bring back Jason and the mythology surrounding Camp Crystal Lake, a trend which would be repeated for the rest of the series.

Like the original film, Friday the 13th Part 2 faced opposition from the Motion Picture Association of America, who noted its "accumulative violence" as problematic, resulting in numerous cuts being made to allow an R rating. The film was released theatrically in North America on April 30, 1981. Although it did not gross as much as the original and still received negative reviews, the sequel grossed over $21.7 million in the United States on a budget of $1.25 million.

Plot[]

Still recovering from her experiences in the original film two months prior, retcon survivor Sally Cheever is spending some time alone, still experiencing nightmares of her near death experience. When she goes to feed her cat however, she finds the head of Pamela Voorhees in her refrigerator and is suddenly killed by an unseen assailant with an ice pick to her temple.

A year has passed and Jason is the prime suspect in Sally's disappearance. Though he claims to have no knowledge of the incident, his normal visage is merely a ruse. Jason has become increasingly unstable, hallucinating his mother who is pushing him to kill in her name. His attempts to stave off the inevitable bloodbath fails and his first victims are a couple at a nearby motel.

Meanwhile, as the summer season begins, Paul Holt hosts a camp counselor training camp at Packanack Lodge, located along the same lake. Two of his counselor hopefuls, Jeff and Sandra are duped by another friend of theirs Ted into thinking they are getting towed before they reach the lodge. Paul recognizes pretty boy Scott, and Mark, who lost the use of his legs in a motorcycle accident. Others introduced include Terry, who Scott has his eyes on, and Vickie, who becomes smitten with Mark. Paul's girlfriend and assistant Ginny arrives late and is briefly berated by Paul.

Later that night, Paul tells the legend of Pamela Voorhees to frighten the other counselors and warn them from entering the property for Camp Crystal Lake. Afterwards, as Paul and Ginny reconcile, Crazy Ralph, who had wandered onto the property is garroted with barbed wire by an unseen assailant.

The next day, Jeff and Sandra go off to find Camp Crystal Lake, and find a dead animal that looks like Terry's missing dog Muffin. At the barb wire fence, closing off the condemned property, they are caught by Sheriff Parks and a deputy and returned to Packanack. Parks remains behind to speak with Paul about his choice of location, while the Deputy heads back into town. The deputy spots someone on the road and chases them through the woods, coming across a broken down shack. As he investigates, the Deputy comes across a sight that horrifies him (though it is hidden to the audience), before he is killed by a claw hammer.

Offered one last night on the town, Paul opts that Jeff and Sandra remain behind as punishment for their earlier excursion. Terry stays behind to look for Muffin, while Scott decides to stay in and put the moves on Terry. Mark doesn't want to go and be the "drunk in a wheelchair" and Vickie stays with him as well.

After everyone else leaves, Terry goes swimming and Scott plays a prank on her by grabbing her clothes. He gets caught in a rope trap and Terry goes to find a knife to cut him down. While she is gone, Scott's throat gets slit with a machete and Terry is attacked when she returns to free him.

At the bar, Ginny; who is a student in psychology, analyzes Jason, that having witnessed his mother being beheaded that night could have turned him into a psychopath with no distinction between life and death, right or wrong. Paul scoffs at the idea, proclaiming that Jason is just a victim as much anyone.

Back at the camp, Mark leaves the cabin to look for Vickie and suddenly gets a machete slammed into his face. The killer then moves upstairs and with a spear (left behind by Ted earlier), impales Jeff and Sandra as they are having sex. Vickie returns for Mark and comes across her friends' bodies. She is attacked and stabbed by the killer, who is wearing a burlap sack to conceal his face.

Ginny suspects something wrong as she and Paul return to find the lights out and the place in disarray. The killer creeps through the dark and attacks Paul before turning on Ginny who runs in fear. She finds Ralph's body before narrowly escaping into another cabin. Almost being caught there, Ginny flees into the woods, eventually coming across the shack. After barricading herself in from the killer she spots a rudimentary altar with Pamela Voorhees' decomposing head on it, surrounded by a pile of the killer's victims, revealing that Jason Voorhees is the killer.

Realizing this, Ginny quickly puts on Pamela's sweater and uses her psychology skills to convince Jason that she is his mother. The ruse fails though, when he spots his mother's head on the altar, and attacks Ginny. Paul intervenes and attacks Jason. During the fight, Paul gets overwhelmed, but just before Jason kills Paul using a pickaxe, Ginny picks up the machete and slams it down into his shoulder, saving Paul and seemingly killing Jason.

The police arrive, led by Sheriff Parks, having discovered clear cut evidence of Jason's rampage, but coming too late to save the victims. Ginny and Paul appear, bloodied but alive. The next morning police and EMT have taken control of the shack and Jason is taken away by ambulance, as the press looks on. Parks attempts to reach the catatonic Jason, but he fails to answer. The only thing he acknowledges is an delusion of his mother who stands behind Parks and tells him; "Jason, you're such a good son."

Cast[]

Amy Steel as Ginny Field
John Furey as Paul Holt
Melissa Gilbert as Sally Cheever
Thomas Trenton as Jason Voorhees
Kirsten Baker as Terry
Stu Charno as Ted
Walt Gorney as Crazy Ralph
Marta Kober as Sandra Dier
Tom McBride as Mark
Bill Randolph as Jeff
Lauren-Marie Taylor as Vicki
Russell Todd as Scott
Betsy Palmer as Pamela Voorhees
Bruce Greenwood as Sheriff William Parks
Jack Marks as Deputy Winslow
Steve Daskawisz as Jason Voorhees stunt double (masked)

Production[]

Development[]

Following the success of Friday the 13th in 1980, Paramount Pictures began plans to make a sequel. First acquiring the worldwide distribution rights, Frank Mancuso, Sr. stated, "We wanted it to be an event, where teenagers would flock to the theaters on that Friday night to see the latest episode." The initial ideas for a sequel involved the Friday the 13th title being used for a series of films, released once a year, that would not have direct continuity with each other, but be a separate "scary movie" of their own right.

Phil Scuderi—one of three owners of Esquire Theaters, along with Steve Minasian and Bob Barsamian, who produced the original film—insisted that the sequel have Jason Voorhees, Pamela's son, even though Trenton's original idea to make Jason one of the killers was only meant to be a joke. Convinced to expand the story Trenton agreed to write and star in the follow-up. Steve Miner, associate producer on the first film, believed in the idea and would go on to direct the first two sequels, after Cunningham opted not to return to the director's chair. Miner would use many of the same crew members from the first film while working on the sequels.

Casting[]

..."So I go from lead role to no role. Needless to say, I was disappointed. But I said, 'What the hell?'"

— Steve Dash's reaction to the fight for proper credit in Friday the 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees.

Melissa Gilbert, still dating Trenton at the time, agreed to come back though it was implied that her character had been killed off in the first film. It was decided to retcon her survival for the sole purpose of killing her on-screen.

Jason Voorhees went from would-be victim to antagonist for Friday the 13th: The Return of Jason Voorhees, and Trenton returned to assume the role. Trenton was happy to be the villain, something he had prepared for with the first film, but producers believed that Trenton could not perform the necessary stunts, so the stunt coordinator Cliff Cudney brought in Steve Daskawisz.

..."I felt really bad after the second film and how I alienated Steve. I was petty and cruel and so unprofessional. I wanted to make up for that and asked Steve to join us for the last film and I made him the lead villain as a way to say 'sorry.'

— Trenton's admission about his working relationship with Steve Dash.

Daskawisz filmed all of the scenes except where Trenton is unmasked; both resented the arrangement. Despite appearing in less than 25% of the finished film, Trenton received top billing credit for playing Jason, while Daskawisz was given credit as the stunt double. Filiming was difficult for both and Trenton made an effort to isolate Daskawisz from the crew. Years later Trenton had since regretted his actions while filming the second film and even made amends by hiring Daskawisz for the film Jason vs Jason X vs Jason.

Filming[]

Principal photography took place in August 1980. Special effects artist Tom Savini was asked to work on the film but declined because he was already working on another project, Midnight (1982), in addition he didn't receive well to the concept of Jason as the killer in the film. Savini was then replaced by Stan Winston. Winston, however, had a scheduling conflict and had to drop out of the project. The make-up effects were ultimately handled by Carl Fullerton.

Steve Daskawisz was rushed to the emergency room during filming after Amy Steel cut his hand with a machete during filming. Steel explained, "The timing was wrong, and he didn't turn his pickaxe properly, and the machete hit his finger." Daskawisz received thirteen stitches on his middle finger. During the subsequent shoot, Daskawisz was forced to wear a piece of rubber over his finger, and both he and Steel insisted on reshooting this scene. When shooting the beginning sequence of Sally being killed by Jason in her own apartment, the ice pick prop itself didn't retract and Gilbert's on-screen reaction was real considering it was injuring her head.

In one scene where Daskawisz was wearing the burlap flour sack, part of the flour sack was flapping at his eye, so the crew used tape inside the eye area to prevent it from flapping. Daskawisz received rug burns around his eye from the tape from wearing the rough flour sack material for hours.

Post-production[]

Like its predecessor, Friday the 13th Part 2 had difficulty receiving an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Upon reviewing the film, the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) warned Paul Hagger, an executive at Paramount, that the "accumulation of violence throughout the film" may still lead to an X rating even if substantial cuts were made. A total of forty-eight seconds had to be cut from the film in order to avoid an X rating.

This film received a deluxe DVD release in February 2009, but the edited footage was not included. Most noted by censors was the murder scene of Jeff and Sandra, who are impaled by a spear while having sex in a bed (a scene many have compared to a scene in Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood), which the censors found particularly graphic. When actress Marta Kober, who played Sandra, originally did a scene with full frontal nudity, Paramount discovered she was underage and the scene was completely deleted.

Originally, the film was supposed to end with Mrs. Voorhees' head opening her eyes and smiling towards the camera. However, Miner removed the scene out of the final film as he never seriously considered it for the film’s actual ending. To this day, the footage of this alternate ending has yet to be released.

Music[]

In 1982, Gramavision Records released a LP album of selected pieces of Harry Manfredini's scores from the first three Friday the 13th films. On January 13, 2012, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 6-CD boxset containing Manfredini's scores from the first six films. It sold out in less than 24 hours.

Release[]

The film was released theatrically on April 30, 1981, to immediate box office success, bringing in $6,429,784 its opening weekend. It played on 1,350 screens and would ultimately gross $21,722,776. It was the 35th highest grossing film of 1981, facing strong competition early in the year from such high-profile horror releases as Omen III: The Final Conflict, The Howling, Scanners, Wolfen, Deadly Blessing, The Fun House, My Bloody Valentine, The Fan and The Hand.

Reception[]

Much like its predecessor, critical reaction to the film was initially negative. It has a 33% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes among 30 reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that Friday the 13th Part 2 was "a cross between the Mad Slasher and Dead teenager genres; about two dozen movies a year feature a mad killer going berserk, and they're all about as bad as this one. Some have a little more plot, some have a little less. It doesn't matter."

Since its original release, the film has become a cult classic and is generally regarded as one of the more liked films in the franchise by fans. When reviewing the film's Blu-ray release, David Harley (a writer for Bloody Disgusting, a website that covers horror films with reviews, interviews and news) said, "It doesn’t exactly stray far from the formula of the original film — neither do most of the other sequels — but Friday The 13th Part II still stands as an iconic and important entry in the series due to the introduction of Jason as the antagonist of the series and the usage of Italian horror films as an inspiration for its death scenes — most notably, the spear copulation death from Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood.

The scene where Jason crashes through the window has been dubbed one of the classic moments in horror cinema history. This, as well as the scene where Jason raises his knife before killing Vicki, were featured in the tribute to horror movies montage during the 82nd Academy Awards.

Novelization[]

A novelization based on the screenplay of Thomas Trenton was published in 1988: Hawke, Simon, Friday the 13th Part II: A Novel, New American Library, New York, 1988, ISBN 0-451-15337-5