Friday the 13th 2 (1981)
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Amy Steele, John Furey, Adrienne King
Director: Steve Miner
Synopsis: Slasher sequel with fair bodycount!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Apart from the all too brief appearance by the fantastic Betsy Palmer who shows up in a couple of flashback sequences - there is very little to recommend this film that is at all out of the usual.

Steve Miner, who went on to direct such horror triumphs years later like H20 and Lake Placid was obviously still a bit of a novice at the stage that he made this movie. It plays like a series of set pieces with death scenes patched together without any overall cohesion or build up of real suspense.

The stars of this movie are the music composer Harry Manfredini whose reworked Psycho rip off score screeched relentlessly, trying desperately to infuse some element of threat. It is quite an entertaining nearly plagiarized score - not too subtle variation of Psycho with a touch of Jaws thrown in.

The other star is the make up and gore effects man whose best work has unfortunately been left floundering on the cutting room floor - deemed far too gruesome for audiences. The plot, well its the same old story of randy teens (the usual irritating stereotypes) land up at a Camp very near Camp Crystal Lake (aka Camp Blood!) and start disappearing one by one in rapid succession. Quite a mercy as all of them are obnoxious as hell and deserve exactly what they get. Only point of interest is whether Jason will wear his trademark hockey mask or not!

This is an uninspired cheapie, signifying what went typically wrong with horror in the 80's... too much emphasis on gore and jack in the box type shock effects rather then any attempt at creating mood or tension. This one didn't even spawn any future stars as the first Friday had in the form of Kevin Bacon, unless you categorize "Crazy Ralph" as a star!