5¼ Pies

Reviewed by Yankee

Plot Summary

It’s been five years since Camp Crystal Lake closed down again and a new camp has opened across the lake. After ignoring numerous warnings to stay away from “Camp Blood,” the counselors in training have attracted the attention of someone that lives in the woods with a thirst for revenge.

Review

If you never saw the first movie, or only saw the first movie you may want to hold off on the rest of this review until you do something about that. You’ve been warned…

If you’ve read my review of the previous film then you already know that I saw some of these movies out of order. Although I had seen the two sequels to this movie first, I did have the distinct pleasure of seeing this one immediately after the first one. I loved how the first order of business was to tie up the loose ends left from the first movie. I also liked that that the writers were not afraid to jump ahead a few years and leave Camp Crystal Lake closed. After all, if every opening leads to a tragedy then why keep reopening it? Though based on what I’ve seen here, I am also left wondering if this story was supposed to take place in 1986 or if the writers didn’t really think about it. This could present continuity issues for the sequels that continue from here but appear to take place in the present.

An interesting aspect of film is that when you’re breaking new ground and are just trying to make a great movie, you tend to just make it as a stand-alone movie. Particularly when the subject matter is questionable, you don’t know if it will be a hit or a miss so you wouldn’t just assume that a sequel would even be considered.

This presented an interesting dilemma to the filmmakers to come up with a sequel to Friday the 13th, which was definitely a complete story. The other obvious problem for those who watched the first movie was that the antagonist was clearly and irrefutably killed last time. So how do you carry on when the revenge-seeking villain is gone? How about seeking revenge for that villain’s death?

Maybe I’m over simplifying the formula here but often the most brilliant ideas are very simple in nature. And not for nothing, but the concepts set up in this movie not only set up the rest of this series but also changed horror movie history forever. Of course you have to suspend a little belief to accept some of the ideas here, but it’s worth glazing over a few details for the movie we ended up with.

Quotes:

Ginny Field: There is someone in this room.

Scott: AAAH! Help!

Scott: Goddamn that Paul, him and his wilderness bullshit!

Paul: These kids smoke better dope than I do.

Crazy Ralph: I told the others, they didn't believe me. You're all doomed. You're all doomed.

Spook Factor: ½ Pie

This new direction with the series adds a new layer of mystique and sense of terror. Even towards the end when we get to see more of Voorhees it still manages to maintain a level of creepy not quite maintained in the first film.

Antagonist: ½ Pie

Continuing the trend of doing things better than the first movie, Jason proves to be a far better villain than dear old mom is. He’s mysterious, he’s sneaky and he’s dangerous. He is a bit clumsy though, but his persistence pays off…

Story: ½ Pie

There is good continuity from the first movie. There’s some story behind what’s going on behind the scenes and there is even…dare I say...some decent psychological exploration into the psyche of our hero...err…I mean…villain. Still, we have a case of ultra cool bookends with a thick gore candy center. Kind of like a blood-flavored tootsie pop!

Acting: ½ Pie

The acting was OK for the most part but the dialogue seemed just a little too 1970s for my taste. It was OK with the last movie which was probably filmed in the late 70s to be released in 1980, but this movie was all done in the 80s and was to take place five years later so I would expect the characters to sound a little more 1981.

Directing: ½ Pie

Much of the style here is obviously borrowed from what Sean Cunningham did with the last movie and because of that it does feel a little less natural, however the quality is otherwise consistent.

Soundtrack: ½ Pie

The music fits the scenes well, but aren’t very memorable. There wasn’t anything to make it stand out from the other movies. It just came off as more of the same old stuff. That isn’t a bad thing mind you, the music was good. It just wasn’t great.

Special Effects: ½ Pie

The special effects here are pretty good as they are in all of the movies, but they lack a certain elegance that was shown in the first movie. As much as I hate to stroke Tom Savini’s ego, his absence is slightly felt in this movie.

Gore: ½ Pie

The gore candy is up slightly from the first film but still a bit held back. I keep reading about how the MPAA was extra tough on movies that year, making on screen death an uncool thing; I guess some other movies were pushing it a bit. I think it was still pretty cool, but would be interested in seeing the uncut version.

Replay, Rewatch, Rewind: ½ Pie

In addition to the increase in gore candy, this series also starts to become known for other kinds of eye candy as well. This one isn’t hard to rewatch every now and then but other chapters will definitely see more rotation.

Pros

An exciting new direction for what will be a series with longevity.

Cons

Some of those stereotypes that people associate with horror movies start to show up.

Final Word

The neat thing about the first few films is that they follow a cool progression and each movie feeds off of the previous one. When watched back to back, you get the sense of a bigger story. So maybe there is something more to this than just bloody deaths and naked teenagers?

He’s still out there…