Friday the 13th: Part 2 | 40 years of the most famous slasher streak in cinema

It’s no secret at this point that the idea for the first Friday the 13th (1980) arose solely from the desire of producer and director Sean S. Cunningham to create a horror in the mold of Halloween (1978), hit independent for John Carpenter. More a marketer than a talented filmmaker, Cunningham sold the idea well, which was bought by a major studio (Paramount) and with a budget of US $ 550,000 returned to the company’s coffers. some US $ 40 million. Have you thought?

Friday the 13th, in addition to financial success, became a very influential film, spawning the camp slasher subgenre. In the year after its release, a veritable flood of productions of this type flooded theaters. And what to do with such success in your hands? Continue, of course. Thus, as part of the wave, the film that gave birth to the “movement” also enters the following year with a new copy. Friday the 13th – Part 2 completes 40 years since its launch in 2021 and below we will talk a bit about this famous production.

Also read: The 40th anniversary of “Friday the 13th” | The biggest slasher in cinema

Heads will fall. Mrs. Voorhees’ remains are kept on a bizarre altar.

The first dead end in making a sequel to the original film was: who would be the antagonist? Since the villain, Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), had been beheaded at the end by the young girl Alice (Adrienne King). The first option was to make Friday the 13th into a series of anthology films, in which with each new production a story centered on the title date (associated with bad luck), but without any other connection, was told. However, the most anthological scene in the original would define its fate. Of course, we talked about the “dream / nightmare” scene, which was included in the movie as a joke (to generate one last heal jump), in which the next morning Alice is dragged into the lake by the boy Jason. .

Entrepreneurs Phil Scuderi (owner of the Esquire Theaters movie channel), Steve Minasian and Bob Barsamian (one of the producers of the original film) insisted that the sequel make Jason the villain this time, an idea in which the producer Steve Miner quickly got started. Miner would take over after Sean S. Cunningham left the project. While much of the original crew from the first film returned for the sequel, there were some key elements eager to come out. Along with Cunningham, special effects and makeup technician Tom Savini, actress Betsy Palmer (although he returned to record a tip) and screenwriter Victor Miller (replaced by Ron Kurz) thought the idea of ‘having Jason, now grown up in a man’s forms, like the too-stupid-era killer. Otherwise, it would take away all of his mom’s motivation, which was what motivated the plot of the original. It was as if the whole argument of Friday the 13th (1980) had been in vain. According to Savini: “If Jason was alive, why didn’t he just contact his mother?” Savini was even invited to work on the second film, but chose to create the effects in The Burning, another camping slasher, released the same year, not so famous, but rediscovered as a cult.

Man of attitude. Big boy Jason takes over the franchise. here with the “bag on the head” look.

Another additional strength to the film’s staff was the entry of Frank Mancuso Jr., son of the President of Paramount, into production, which brought the film’s budget to $ 1.25 million. Mancuso would take over as the franchise’s producer in future sequels and even in the franchise’s television series – here called Loja do Terror (1987 – 1990). According to reports, Warner, responsible for distributing the original Friday the 13th in select countries, was ready to take over the franchise if Paramount chose not to continue producing the sequel. With the initial title of “ Jason ”, which only affirmed the direction the horror series wanted to take, production of Friday the 13th – Part 2 was already in full swing in September 1980, a few months after the premiere of the first film.

The plot would take place 5 years after the original and would find a new group of summer camp counselors in training, in a location close to the field of the first film (Crystal Lake). Unlike the predecessor, where they renovated the premises themselves, here everything is ready to operate and accommodate children and adolescents. If only these employees could take the first step in their work. Jason, like his mother in the original, kills the youngsters one by one in the most cruel and unusual way (couple impaled together during sex, barbed wire around their necks, hammer on their heads, beheading with a machete and even a poor guy in a chair (wheels – demonstrating how politically incorrect these movies have always been – gets yours with a machete in his face).

Bloody landscapes. Crystal Lake Field has been closed.

Initial plans were for actress Adrienne King, who played original last daughter Alice, to return for a second round, now against Jason. However, after the success of the first Friday the 13th, art tragically transcended into real life, and the actress began to be harassed and threatened by an obsessive fan who infiltrated her life. Traumatized, King decides to move away from artistic life. When approached by the production team for the second feature film to return, the actress requested to have a very small role in the film, with the option of returning one day in possible sequences later. Rumors still claim that his representatives demanded a higher fee from him, which the production could not offer. Thus, it was agreed that King would shoot his scenes for the second part in two days, without having a script ready for his participation. In several interviews, some even current ones, King claims that her initial scene in the sequel was improvised, without any script, and she had no idea that the producers’ plans for her character were death – thus limiting any possibility of a return. of King and his Alice. in the future for another Friday 13. So, a new protagonist entered the scene: Ginny, a more proactive role for blonde Amy Steel – who ended up being honored by fans as the franchise’s best latest girl.

Enjoy watching:

He blinked, lost. Protagonist of the first, Alice (Adrienne King) is soon “dismissed”.

In this section in question, the opening of the film, where Alice meets a terrible destination, we have the first and only time that Jason is “played by a woman”. In the initial sequence, we only see the legs and feet of someone approaching Alice’s house, in town (and not in the countryside, something unusual for the villain), where even the antagonist crosses paths with a little girl playing in a puddle. In this segment, in order to confuse the viewer, the legs we see are those of the movie’s costume designer, Ellen Lutter. The passage also marks as one of the longest pre-title stretches in movie history, with 15 minutes (in some versions) before we could see the film’s name onscreen. Here we also see, only in the franchise, Jason using a phone to call Alice. Which still echoes his ties to Halloween (1978).

New girl in danger. Ginny (Amy Steel) has captured the hearts of fans.

It was known that Jason would be an integral part of the new film, becoming almost the title of the film as well, but with the departure of Tom Savini, who created the character in the original, someone needed to replace him to bring the antagonist in. of life. The late Stan Winston (who was slated to receive Oscars for his creations in Aliens the Rescue, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park) was the next option on the list. However, Winston had to withdraw from the project due to scheduling conflicts. So came Carl Fullerton, who would also gain prestige later in his career, dealing with makeup and effects for The Godfather III, The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, for example. Fullerton would create Jason’s facial distortion without the mask, based on Savini’s work on the original. The concept applied was Proteus syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes excessive and asymmetric growth of bones, skin and other tissues. The same disease is the subject of David Lynch’s Oscar nominee The Elephant Man (1980), a true story where Joseph Merrik, an extremely deformed man, uses a cloth bag to hide his features from the public. The same goes for Jason here. According to Carl Fullerton himself, he planned and created Jason’s look for this film in one day.

Mom knows things. Betsy Palmer (Mrs. Voorhees) spoke badly, but came back for advice.

Fullerton, however, was responsible for Jason’s unmasked gaze. Something that we see, or rather glimpse, in a small section at the end of the film. In the largest percentage of his screen time, the villain uses the cloth bag. Something that closely resembles the serial killer seen in the horror Invisible Assassin (The City That Dreaded the Sunset, 1976). However, this is not plagiarism. At least, that’s what those involved claim, who put the aforementioned costume designer Ellen Lutter responsible for the idea. She would have understood that it would be something easy for a “bushman” to find and wear on her head.

A face that only a mother could love. Jason appears without a mask, in Carl Fullerton’s creation.

Inspiration and inspired released their next copies 40 years ago. In 1981, it was time for audiences to know the next steps for the horror slasher shots with Halloween II – The Nightmare Continues and Friday the 13th – Part 2. And although the John Carpenter film sequence was widely regarded as a decline than what was done in the original, most fans agree that Friday the 13th Part 2 is superior to their first foray: with a better Jason-style villain (creepy and menacing here), with direction clear and efficient Steve Miner, and incredible scenery and Art Direction. This sequel is considered by many to be the best film in the franchise. Do you agree?

Jason doll, fabric bag version, without mask and even mom’s head.

Despite fan success and constantly being rediscovered as a cult item by terror and slasher fans, with critics for a change, the feature was boycotted. Not only that, the US censorship regulator, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), hissed and demanded that cuts be made in the most violent and explicit scenes. This before having complained a lot about the “heap of deaths” that is the film. Such full clips, as well as a frontal nudity scene of actress Marta Kober, who plays the character of Sandra, who was taken out of the final cut when her age of 16 was made public, were recently restored in an edition. special of the work in Blue Ray, part of a complete collection of the franchise, managed by the company Scream Factory, specializing in cult releases.

Controversial scene. The death of the couple impaled during sex had to be diluted and actress Marta Kober’s nudity cut off.

Friday the 13th – Part 2 premieres in North American theaters on April 30, 1981, arriving in Brazil a year later, on April 26, 1982. Despite the less tight budget, due to the accumulation of horror productions in theaters. theaters during the twelve months of 1981 (known as the Year of Terror and the Slasher), the film grossed “only” half of its predecessor, with $ 21.7 million at the box office. A result always impressive and which set in motion a third part. But that’s a topic for an upcoming campfire story.