Reely Bernie Faves: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Not the original, mind you.

I always thought the mother culprit twist at the end was anticlimactic and cheap.

I preferred my “bad guy” to be Jason Voorhees, and Part 2 had Jason (impossibly but movie-plausibly) hiding out in the woods, wearing a burlap sack over his gross, deformed face. The hockey mask didn’t come until Part 3 (and the following nine in the franchise), but I found Part 2 to be the most disturbing. Before the inevitable exploitation of the camp setting + alcohol equation in every slasher of the 80s, Part 2 was still fresh. It literally doesn’t let up for the last 30 minutes, and that jump scare ending with the stupid little dog still holds the record for making me leap the highest off my couch.

Friday the 13th Part 2 represents all the horror movies I saw with my best friend in the basement while my parents were asleep, or when Mom was out of town, and Dad rented these plastic VHS tapes of fright for us. Our horror movie journey started in the fifth grade, and we continue our tradition every October for “Horror Night” at my place.

This is the spot on my list for Creepshow (1987), Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and all the other Jason and Freddy movies that bleed into each other (pun intended). 

Friday the 13th Part 2‘s cookie cutter slasher template is unsurprisingly much cheesier than I remember, but it still holds a nostalgic charm. The Connecticut town and lake are probably heavily polluted and overpopulated today (please tell me otherwise), so it is endearing to view the untainted innocence of Generation X. As per usual, the “acting” and 1980s wardrobe are atrocious but worthy of Jason’s mutilations.

If you’re a fan of horror movies, and Jason took your hand when you were young, I highly recommend the documentary series, Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (2013). Shout out to one of my favorite movie critics, FILM AUTHORITY, for digging up Jason Vorhees’s grave and reviewing this lengthy throwback for fanatics only.

To this day, my friend and I still joke about the “CH… ch… ch… ch… CHAH… chah… chah… chah…” film score, “Pillowcase Jason,” and how the brainless girlfriend of the character in the wheelchair searches for her paraplegic boyfriend upstairs in the cabin loft (!).

Without Jason hiding in the lake or in the backwoods, we wouldn’t enjoy the wonders of manufactured fear only horror movies do best. Most importantly, without horror movies, we wouldn’t have a reason to get together with a friend and hide behind the popcorn bowl on the couch. To good scares and my favorite horror serial killer, Jason, I give you Friday the 13th Part 2.

Reely Bernie Faves:

1. Amadeus (1984)

2. Magnolia (1999)

3. Poltergeist (1982)

4. Pulp Fiction (1994)

5. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

6. The Godfather Part II (1974)

7. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

8. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

9. Goodfellas (1990)

10. Nosferatu (1922)

11. Pollock (2000)

12. Kicking and Screaming (1995)

13. Jaws (1975)

14. Fargo (1996)

15. Citizen Kane (1941)

16. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

17. The Endless Summer (1966)

18. Back to the Future (1985)

19. Angel Heart (1987)

20. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

21. The Goonies (1985)

22. Trainspotting (1996)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

25. Bambi (1942)

26. The Paradise Lost Trilogy (1996-2011)

27. Psycho (1960)

28. Parenthood (1989)

29. Swingers (1996)

30. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

31. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

32. Smoke (1995)

33. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

34. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

35. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

36. City of God (2002)

37. 1917 (2019)

38. Black Swan (2010)

39. School of Rock (2003)

40. Mulholland Drive (2001)

41. Groundhog Day (1993)

42. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

43. The Greatest Showman (2017)

44. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

45. The Florida Project (2017)

46. Cinema Paradiso (1988)

47. So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)

48. Shadowlands (1993)

49. Steve Jobs (2015)

50. ¡Three Amigos! (1986)