Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

At the beginning of Friday the 13th Part 2, we're treated to a recap of the ending of Friday the 13th via Alice's (Adrienne King) dream, and in case we all didn't remember the infamous ending to the first movie.  Mrs. Voorhees is clearly dead, and seemingly possessing no supernatural powers, we assume she is gone for good.  Did you know that Adrienne King specifically requested to be killed off quickly in this movie due to fears over an obsessive fan?  She actually avoided on-screen acting for many years after her appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2.

As you could probably tell from something as simple as the trailer, Alice gets slashed pretty quickly, and we move on to five years later, where a group of twenty-somethings are opening a camp near the now off-limits Camp Crystal Lake.  As per Friday the 13th franchise usual, they've established quite the motley crew of characters, including the requisite saucy heroine Ginny (Amy Steel) and prepster camp head Paul (John Furey), as well as a decidedly un-Franklin like wheelchair bound gentleman, the token bookish girl, the gorgeous sexpot, and the douchey ex-frat boy.  All are welcome in Friday the 13th sequels. 

Friday the 13th Part 2 is, of course, the first movie where Jason himself kills, but is also the one where he wears a bag over his head instead of the iconic hockey mask.  This sequel also causes us to ask wtf Jason has been doing all this time.  Was he dead and brought back to life?  Did he just sneak away to the woods and grow up there like some sort of deformed hermit?  The backstory gets so convoluted over the course of all the sequels that I guess we'll never know.  Also, why was Jason deformed?  Do they ever say that?  Was it before the drowning, or as a result of living in the water for however long?  I think it was before, but I'd like to know why.  I'm really just talking myself in circles. 

Of course, the fun of the F13 movies is watching idiot teens/20 somethings be picked off one by one, and this time is no exception.  We get nine deaths total, in typical Jason-style.  The highlight of this sequel is the scene in the abandoned house where Ginny pretends to be Jason's mom and there's the severed head, and OMFG so much awesome.  Mostly all of the F13 movies are fun, save for Jason Goes to Hell so I was glad to see this one on Netflix instant.  Catch it before they take it off for some sort of studio agreement issue.