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Jameson Cult Film Club: Friday the 13th, Part II

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Darren

In many ways, Friday the 13th, Part II is an interesting choice for a Jameson Cult Film Club event. Traditionally, these special screenings have tended to focus on films that are broadly agreed to be popular classics – films as diverse as Jaws, Alien, Fight Club, The Blues Brothers and Die Hard. There is a very solid argument to be made that Friday the 13th, Part II is the odd film out here.

It is an early eighties slasher film, one with very few nuances. It is a grimy, gritty horror thrown together very quickly to cash in on the success of the of the original film – it is very much channelling better and more successful horrors like Psycho or Halloween. The movie’s defining feature is a ruthless pragmatism, a willingness to do anything to get a jolt from the audience.

As such, Friday the 13th, Part II is a controversial choice. It is a film that is even subject to considerable debate within the fandom of Friday the 13th. Is it one of the weaker films in the series? Is it one of the stronger? There is a sense that Friday the 13th, Part II is more open to debate and discussion than many of the films screened as part of the Jameson Cult Film Club cycle.

However, the fact that Friday the 13th, Part II is such an off-centre choice is refreshing. It affords the event a considerable freedom With Halloween approaching, the goal seems to have been to do a slasher movie in the Jameson Cult Film Club style, and Friday the 13th, Part II works very well in that context.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinema, films, friday the 13th, friday the 13th part 2, industries hall, jameson cult film club, Jason Voorhees, Movies, rds | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Friday the 13th, Part II

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Darren

There is something almost endearing about how direct the Friday the 13th film series is, how comfortable it is in its skin.

There are arguments to be made that the original Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street are genuine cinematic classics, that are frequently underrated because they were followed by decades of sequels, knock-offs, reboots and remakes. Although they rapidly devolved into franchise zombies, Halloween really jump-started a cinematic genre, and Nightmare on Elm Street was slyly post-modern.

Somebody didn’t read the signs…

In contrast, the Friday the 13th films have no such pretension. Instead, the Friday the 3th films exist as pure and uncompromising slasher schlock. Hack and slash and slice and dice. The Friday the 13th film series is powered not by central themes or ideas, but by a simply desire to churn out movies in which attractive and generic characters get brutally slaughtered. It is a ruthlessly efficient model; there were eight Friday the 13th films released between 1980 and 1989.

It’s hard not to admire the ingenuity at work here – the Friday the 13th films are relentless, refusing to let little things like logic or resolutions get in the way of the next sequel. Friday the 13th, Part II starts the franchise machine properly rolling, by rather efficiently getting around the fact that the first film’s serial killer had been fairly cleanly dispatched. It’s time to meet Jason Voorhees.