What makes a sequel?
Marvelous question, don’t you think?
Our culture is saturated with them. They aren’t a new thing, especially in the
horror genre – The Bride of Frankenstein
(1935) anyone? Have they always been born out the need to make money? Was a
sequel ever warranted in its own right? Even The Empire Strikes Back (1980) wasn’t planned way back when George
Lucas was creating what he thought would be his one and only chance at a trip
to a galaxy far, far away.
Yet there are many sequels that are
just as iconic – even more so at times – than their namesakes. Care if I name a
few examples? The Godfather, Part II
(1974), Star Trek II: The Wrath of
Khan (1982), Aliens (1986), and
even The Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(1990). So we can definitely say that sequels have been a part of our
cinematic world for just about as long as film itself has been around.
Still, no one would argue that the
sequel is an art form, even in light of the blockbuster giants I have just
listed. By and large we can all agree that part 2s, and 3s, and 4s, and so on
do not typically achieve the thrills, spills, and chills of that first big
surprise. Even so, I’m sure everyone has their favorite sequels too.
There is, to me, one particular film
that stands out in its ‘sequelness’ because it is more responsible for the
creation and endurance of its franchise than the act it follows: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981).
This particular Part 2 does not stick out because it is especially great, or even
better than the first. It simply embodies all that a sequel is supposed to be.
It builds upon the first film whilst
remaining true to the original formula. It increases the body count (especially
crucial for a slasher sequel!). And probably most important of all, it
consistently strives to ‘top’ its predecessor in every way: More blood, more
jumps, faster pacing, higher budget… All around its aim is on more and bigger
payoffs.
Of course, that doesn’t make it a better
film that the first Friday the 13th
(1980) by any stretch of the imagination. The first film is better
constructed, acted, directed. It is more suspenseful and definitely more
creative. And in that light, Friday the
13th Part 2 really is a bonafide sequel in every sense. It doesn’t
try to be better than its progenitor, it just tries to out-do it.
On Friday, May 9, 1980, Paramount
Pictures unleashed Friday the 13th
on an unsuspecting public. Made on a shoe-string budget of $600,000, it was a
smash hit in a way no one could have expected; grossing nearly $6,000,000 it’s
opening weekend and almost $40,000,000 during its entire theatrical run! To put
that in perspective, the only film to beat Friday
the 13th in summer ticket sales for 1980 was The Empire Strikes Back!
What did that mean? A sequel of
course! Production of Friday the 13th
Part 2 was underway by October that year, mere months after the first movie
ended its tenure in the box office.
When asked to return to direct the
sequel, Sean Cunningham declined because he didn’t want to make the same movie
over and over. The directing job fell then to the previous film’s producer
Steve Miner. Along with screenwriter Ron Kurz (taking over from writer Victor
Miller), Miner would decide to make the villain of Part 2 the boy Jason Voorhees, whose supposed drowning in Crystal
Lake was the impetus for his mother to murder eight good-looking teens in the
first installment.
Unfortunately, bringing Jason
Voorhees back was the primary reason effects guru Tom Savini declined to
reprise his talents for the picture. He opted instead to work on another
slasher, The Burning (1981). However,
Savini was a student of Dick Smith (famous for the make-up effects on The Exorcist (1973) among others) and
referred Steve Miner and Co. to fellow pupil Carl Fullerton, who agreed to do
the work.
The set-up was essentially a carbon
copy of the first script: A bunch of clueless teens go to work at a summer camp
at Crystal Lake (across the lake from the original camp this time, which is
off-limits and condemned). Unbeknownst to them, Jason Voorhees survived his
drowning 20-odd years earlier, and he is ready to continue his mother’s
gruesome legacy!
In the same way that its predecessor
laid the future groundwork for stereotypes in the horror genre, Friday the 13th Part 2 is
responsible for many of the tropes now found in horror sequels. Chief among
these is the device of killing off the last movie’s heroine before the opening
credits. This proves fairly effective because it resets the clock, so to speak.
Once again, no one is safe because the previous survivor’s luck just ran out!
In addition, the cast of Part 2 is bigger, offering our killer
more victims and therefore more kills to creatively stage and execute on
screen. The picture also added a love interest for the heroine Ginny (played by
the goddess Amy Steel) that acts as a counterweight to the audience’s
expectations that only the final girl will make it out alive.
More characters, more blood, one
turn deserves another. Ergo the other attribute we get more of is T & A.
Not much more, mind you, but Friday the
13th only featured one very brief shot of the ta-tas and Miner
and Co. decided there was ample room for improvement. And though there is still
only one moment of nudity (and a pretty funny one at that), the sequel is
drenched with sexual tension. Just check out the moment when Jason
shish-ka-bobs two kids with a spear while they’re in the sack! Can it really
get more Freudian than that? Hey, it was marketed to teenagers!
But in spite of all these
characteristics, the thing that makes this sequel work is Jason. When one
thinks of Jason Voorhees, typically the first thing that comes to mind is a 6’
4” titan in a hockey mask with a machete. That is not the Jason of Friday the 13th Part 2. Here,
Momma’s little boy is hunched over, feral, and wears a burlap sack over his
head. The fabled hockey mask would not appear until Part 3 (in 3-D no less), and is about the only thing that
installment really has to offer.
Strikingly, the wildness and
griminess of Part 2’s Jason is often
scarier and more effective than the lumbering hulk that pervades the rest of
the series. The decrepit shack he’s built. The shrine to his mother’s
decapitated head, ringed with burning candles and flanked by her sweater and machete…
The film definitely takes great steps to blend the slasher formula with
traditional gothic horror, something subsequent episodes would eschew entirely.
The burden of success certainly rests on the shoulders of Jason Voorhees.
Sean Cunningham originally wanted to
continue the series as a name brand. The idea was that every year a new Friday the 13th movie would
be released that deals with some other sort of frightmare. One can see how well
that worked out when Universal
Studios attempted something similar with Halloween
III: Season of the Witch (1982). Paramount wisely opted to instead create a
slasher franchise that has proliferated endlessly for the past thirty years.
They must have gotten something
right, because when Friday the 13th
Part 2 hit theatres on May 1, 1981 (less than a year after the first!) it
grossed $6.5 million its opening weekend! If that doesn’t mean a threequel,
then what does?
If something has remained even more consistent
in these films – beyond the formula of randy teenagers, bad luck, and an
undying supervillain – then it must be the wink-wink attitude of fun. We always
want to revisit these movies because we just know that we will get a kick out
of that rollercoaster!
So turn out the lights, grab your
popcorn, and hold on tight!
We’re going back to Camp Crystal Lake!
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