Today I will do something a little different, as I want to talk about the first film that truly scared me. I had seen horror movies before, but I wasn’t scared by them despite being very young, but Friday the 13th Part II just did something very different. The movie built up an ominous mood well, and despite Jason not being in his iconic appearance in this film, he was a truly menacing figure. He was far more disturbing than he would be in later appearances, which I attribute to him still having an aura of mystery here unlike later films where the mystique was gone.
The film definitely has its flaws of course. The opening scene felt cluttered and went on too long. It was an impressive start for Jason as an actual character, but the length of the scene ends up taking away some of the suspense by making it feel overdone. The film then takes a while to get underway, which again ruins the suspense of the film. Once the film gets started however, the suspense is handled well…mostly. Watching again now, I see the problem with the POV shots in the film, a cliché that is far too overdone. Clichés are abundant in the film, but most are actually don’t well besides the POV shots. The characters all fit into established tropes, the car not starting cliché is present and so on. It needs to be remembered however, that this was an early slasher film and these clichés were not yet the worn out tropes that they would later become.
The film’s slow pace gradually begins to work to its benefit, as the tension really ramps up once Jason begins his murders. Once again, its important to remember that this is an early slasher film and as such the film makers were still trying out some ideas to differentiate themselves. What we think of as tired out ideas were still relatively new then. Jason’s killing spree is handled remarkably well done even by today’s standards as the film relies heavily on the idea of “show don’t tell”. Jason earns his reputation for creativity in his kills and the way he toys with the teens ends up giving him a lot of character development, even though he doesn’t speak himself.
The climax of the film is what got me scared at the end. Jason came off as a truly disturbing figure, almost unstoppable and unrelenting to the point that I was very invested in the story. When the teens felt safe at last, I was relived as well. That was of course until Jason caught up to them. That moment frightened me for months afterwards. I was very young, as mentioned above, and yet months later I decided I needed to see more. I wasn’t frightened anymore and now felt inoculated in a way against horror films. After this, I began to truly enjoy the genre far more than I ever did, and now wanted to see even more horror films. The movie may not have aged well, but the impact it had on me will always be there,