Friday the 13th Part 2 4K Review (Paramount Pictures)

Friday the 13th Part 2 (aKa Friday the 13th Part II, Friday the 13th 2, and Friday the 13th II) is a 1981 slasher produced and directed by Steve Minor (Friday the 13th: Part 3, Halloween H20, House, Lake Placid, Day of the Dead, Soul Man, Forever Young, Big Bully, Texas Rangers, and Warlock). It was written by Ron Kurz (Eyes of a Stranger, King Frat, and Off the Wall). It was produced by Frank Mancuso Jr. (Friday the 13th franchise, Ronin, Species franchise, April Fools Day, Body Parts, Stigmata, Internal Affairs, Cool World, and Hoodlum). It follows 1980’s Friday the 13th. It’s continued by 8 other sequels, a crossover film with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a remake. The budget was $1,250,000 and it grossed $21,722,776 worldwide at the box office. Camp Crystal Lake sole survivor Alice (played by: Adrienne King from Friday the 13th) is still traumatized from all the murders. Five years later, a camp counselor program lead by Paul (played by: John Furey from Island Claws) starts at the Packanack Lodge which includes Ginny (played by: Amy Steel from April Fool’s Day), Terry (played by: Kirsten Baker from Gas Pump Girls), Ted (played by: Stuart Charno from Christine), Mark (played by: Tom McBride from Remo Williams), Sandra (played by: Marta Kober from Neon Maniacs), Jeff (played by: Bill Randolph from Dressed to Kill), Scott (played by: Russell Todd from Chopping Mall), and Vickie (played by: Lauren-Marie Taylor from Girls Nite Out). The unfortunate volunteers don’t realize that this location is right by Camp Crystal Lake. As the teenagers get more comfortable, they start getting knocked off one by one in a variety of gruesome ways as Jason Voorhees (played by: Steve Dash from Alone in the Dark and Warrington Gillette from Time Walker) returns to his old stomping grounds. Will anyone survive Camp Crystal Lake this time???? Friday the 13th Part 2 is one of the better slasher sequels. It’s the first film in the Friday the 13th franchise where Jason Voorhees actually has a bigger role and he’s a full grown adult. Director Steve Minor helped produce the original movie but this time he stepped behind the camera for this Camp Crystal Lake adventure. He’s a veteran when it comes to the horror sub-genre and he’s done some great work in it over the years. The script is a little silly when you think about what Jason Voorhees looked like only 5 years ago in it’s origin feature. That’s a hell of a growth spurt but I’ll forgive it considering how this turned out. This sequel takes the same formula as the first one. It has a solid body count for Part 2. Besides the opening execution, it does take a little bit for the next one to happen. You still get to experience various teenagers and a few others getting slayed by this murder machine. There’s no mystery who’s the actual killer for this follow up, they are not shy about showing Sackhead Jason Voorhees here. The creative team didn’t have a finalized look for the iconic horror villain when they made this in 1981 so they went with the sack as his mask. I’ll always prefer the classic hockey mask but I don’t hate it and it’s still unique to this day besides The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Both Adrienne King as Alice and Walt Gorney as Crazy Ralph returned to this horror series. I really enjoyed what they did with each of these characters early on in Friday the 13th Part 2. Amy Steel as Ginny Field was amazing as the unexpected lead in this. When she was introduced, you honestly didn’t expect that she would have this much of an impact in this. She’s very feisty and she’s a fighter at toughest possible moments. I loved her personality, she was extremely cute, and I think I’d say that she’s my personal favorite final girl from all these Friday the 13th movies. There’s always been lots of controversy on what actor or stuntmen actually portrayed Jason Voorhees the most in this 80’s slasher. Steve Dash gets the credit as the man behind the mask and Warrington Gillette was obviously the one that’s unmasked towards the end. Regardless, it’s one of the best versions of the horror icon. The rest of the supporting cast includes John Furey, Kirsten Baker, Stuart Charno, Tom McBride, Marta Kober, Bill Randolph, Russell Todd, Lauren-Marie Taylor, Cliff Cudney (The Nesting), Betsy Palmer (Friday the 13th), and Jack Marks (Ryan’s Hope). It’s a real shame that the MPAA forced them to remove around 50 seconds of gore from the original director’s cut. Friday the 13th Part 2 still had some creative deaths but they were edited to keep it’s R rating rather than an X. Unfortunately, they didn’t take care of those deleted moments from these kills so we will probably never experience a legit unrated version like that first feature had. Tom Savini decided to do The Burning instead of this sequel so special fx artist Carl Fullerton (The Silence of the Lambs, Wolfen, The Hunger, Ghost Story, Spasms, Goodfellas, Golden Years, and The Return of Swamp Thing) took over. Friday the 13th Part 2 has a steady pace and a nice consistent flow to it. It’s very fun and always entertaining with strong replay value to it. I’ve watched this sequel almost every year for most of my life, STRONGLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Paramount Pictures! This 2160p (1.78:1) transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is from a brand new 4K restoration. It’s amazing to see this get upgraded on home video, I’m ready for all of the others to get that same treatment soon. It’s a major improvement compared to it’s past versions, it’s definitely the best it’s ever looked so far. You get to experience all of those awesome kills with sharper picture quality now. It has a few different audio options which includes English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and French: Dolby Digital Mono on the UHD. It’s the same audio as the previous home video release. It’s always been a great one and I’m happy to report this doesn’t have any issues like the first movie when it comes to that department. All of the dialogue is crisp, the murder spree is elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH, English, and French subtitles. All of the bonus material is located on the blu ray disc. It has the little over 11 minute “Inside Crystal Lake Memories” with author Peter Bracke. He chats about his book for the most part. He talks some about the Friday the 13th Part 2 sequel. It has the almost 7 minute “Friday’s Legacy: Horror Conventions”. This focuses on the horror convention scene and Friday the 13th’s impact on it. This takes place at Scarefest and several Friday the 13th alumi are guests at the event. It has the little over 29 minute “Jason Forever” from the 2004 Fangoria convention. It features a few previous Jason Voorhees actors together which includes Ari Lehman, Warrington Gillette, C.J. Graham, and Kane Hodder. They all share their experiences as the iconic horror character. They answer some questions from the moderator and the crowd in this. It has the almost 9 minute “Lost Tales From Camp Blood Part II” from 2009 directed by Andrew J. Ceperley. It features Lori Caulfield, Dan Sykes, and Matthew Hiscox. When they originally released all the Friday the 13th films on DVD, they put together these slasher shorts as a bonus for all the home video releases. It has the original “Theatrical Trailer”. Unfortunately, there’s no brand new or exclusive extras on here but it carried over all of the archive special features from the past Paramount releases. It comes with a slipcover and a blu ray copy of the release. It was originally only available in the Paramount Scares Vol. 2 set that can be purchased everywhere. Now it has it’s own home video release. This standard version is available everywhere on February 3rd, CHECK IT OUT!!!!