Ten Reasons Friday The 13th Part 2 Is Better Than The First Movie
I’ve said it before: I’m not the biggest fan of slashers. This is why I only saw the first Friday The 13th movie about 15 years ago and never bothered to watch the rest. I always had the urge to marathon the entire franchise on an actual Friday the 13th, though. I wondered what it was that everyone else could find so intriguing that it would make them keep coming back.
Welp, I’ve finally seen the second movie in the installment and I think I finally get it. Apart from the weird time loop paradox in which it is somehow five years into the future but only one year after the first film, the movie as a whole just gels in a way that the first one didn’t for me.
Here are ten reasons why the first sequel is better than the first film.
10. Recaps, Recaps, Recaps
Not sure if you remember what happened in the first movie? No worries because Friday The 13th Part 2 includes all of the best scenes from the first film in the first 15 minutes. Sure you miss out on a few choice kill scenes (like the arrow through Kevin Bacon’s throat), but the final showdown between Mrs. Voorhees and Alice is there in all of its creepy glory, as is the flashback to Jason drowning, Alice getting attacked in a boat by Jason, and the cops indicating that the boy was never found.
9. Camp Dirt
Camp Packanack is actually pretty nice. I get that Camp Crystal Lake had been essentially abandoned after the events of 1958, but it looked more like a POW camp than a summer camp. Did you see those filthy, nasty floors? Just ew. I’m into gritty, low-budget horror as much as the next person, but I don’t even think the Property Brothers could save Camp Crystal Lake.
8. Tow Truck Punking
When Sandra and Jeff’s truck gets towed within like, 15 seconds of them parking so they can use a pay phone, I was pretty outraged on their behalf, thinking that maybe the town was full of vampiric grumps like the ones in Let’s Scare Jessica To Death who were going to make their lives a living hell. Even though it turns out to be fellow Camp Counselor and Doug Jones lookalike Ted playing a trick on them, it’s a pretty great fake out.
7. Deputy Winslow Is On The Case
Far be it from me to mock out of shape police officers who try to chase down suspected criminals, but hoo boy, does Deputy Winslow provide a lot of comic relief. Not sure what punishment he expected Paul to dish out to Jeff and Sandra for sneaking around the off-limits Camp Crystal Lake, but maybe if Winslow did some exploring of his own he’d have found Jason’s not-at-all suspicious shack a lot sooner and saved his own skin, not to mention everyone else’s. And you know you laughed watching him wheeze his way through the woods, wondering if he’d die of a heart attack before Jason got to him.
6. Disabled People Aren’t Used For Sympathy Points
One of the main characters in the film is Mark (Tom McBride), who is wheelchair bound. Not a big deal is made about it; he’s treated just like anyone else. Even the scene where he reveals what caused his disability is pretty straightforward. Sadly, we don’t get to know anything about the African-American or Asian counselors in the film; not only do they not have any speaking lines, they are actually listed as “extra counselor” on IMDB.
5. Jeff and Sandra
If you miss the sexy couplings of Jack (Kevin Bacon) and Marcie (Jeannine Taylor) from the first film, you’re in luck. As Sandra, Marta Kober looks almost exactly like Marcie, right down to the frizzy hair, while Bill Randolph’s penchant for muscle shirts is reminiscent of Jack. Also, with that cap, Jeff looks eerily like a Jellyfish-era Jason Falkner.
4. I Just Wanna Look At It
By 1981, “serial killer POV” camera work was pretty well established, but it’s interesting to watch Friday The 13th Part 2 as a stellar example of the literal male gaze at work. Between Ginny and Paul smooching; Terry’s (Kirsten Baker) micro-crop top, bum-exposing shorts, and penchant for skinny dipping; and Jeff and Sandra’s orgasm faces, there is a lot to see here, which makes it all the more creepy when Paul makes that comment about “keeping clean during your menstrual cycle.” Geez, I could probably write a dissertation on that one line alone.
3. Woman Power
On the other hand, the women in this film do have quite a bit of agency. Ginny makes the decisions on whether or not she’s going to hook up with Steve, Vickie puts the moves on Mark, Terry makes it very clear to Scott that she is not interested, and it’s always Sandra who decides when and where she’s going to have sex with Jeff.
2. Ginny, the Final Girl
Alice was a pretty great Final Girl in the first film, I’ll admit. She was no nonsense and spunky – deflecting Steve Christy’s creepy advances but being game for a fun game of Strip Monopoly with her peers. Ginny (whose aesthetic just screams “champion lacrosse player”) is a worthy successor: she actually tries to understand things from Jason’s perspective, which is pretty impressive not to mention handy for psyching him out when he’s trying to kill her.
1. Muffin, the MVP
If I thought Ted’s Tow Truck Fakeout was good, I wasn’t prepared for Muffin! As if to somehow apologize for the kids in the first film killing a snake onscreen (really, guys?), Friday The 13th Part 2 manages to bring Muffin back from the dead, or at least the death we presumed she met at Jason Voorhees’ hands. The look on Ginny and Paul’s faces when they open the door to see Muffin is only bested by the world’s corniest music that plays during that scene. And then, Jason busts through the window, like a cross between John Merrick and Chucky! It’s even better than when Jason attacks Alice in the boat in the first movie! Muffin, you have stolen my heart. And the movie.