By Stephen Pytak 

     Engaging, but, from what I understand, not what it 
could have been.
     The film was heavily cut by censors and that was 
a fatal mistake, considering that this is a sequel to one 
of the splatter movie trendsetters.
     But what's more disturbing is what ended up on the 
cutting room floor.
     Miner, from what I gather, had a surprise ending in 
store which would have blown minds.
     The last shot of the film, as it is now, is a close up 
of the severed, and rotting, head of Mrs. Voorhees, 
which is propped up on a makeshift altar in killer Jason's 
lair. After a beat, the film fades to black.
     But Miner had something else in store for that close 
up initially. When the camera closed in, the head was to 
come to life. Mrs. Voorhees eyes were to flicker open. 
What her son "Jason" had waited five long years for 
had finally come, her resurrection.
     To see a picture of the actress, Connie Hogan, in 
full makeup during the shoot, and the full story about 
the shoot, check out Fangoria No. 13.
     I hope Paramount, New Line Cinema or whoever 
owns the rights to these films now digs up this footage 
from Jason's shack or wherever it is and puts it on 
DVD. Until then, we'll just have to settle for what we 
got.
     "Friday the 13th Part II" is our first introduction to 
"Jason." The boy who supposedly drowned at the lake 
is not dead. Why he's alive is anyone's guess. Writers 
and directors have been trying to nail that one down 
for nine sequels now.
     He makes a number of impressions.
     First, we meet Jason the hunter. When the film fades 
in, we see his stolen-work-boot-clad feet silently 
creeping along a rain-soaked alley, heading toward a 
huge house, the home of "Alice (King)," the camp 
counselor who decapitated his mother. He's out to 
set a trap for her and the scare takes Alice, and the 
audience, off guard.
     When Alice goes to the refrigerator to fetch milk for 
her cat she finds the head of Mrs. Voorhees. In shock, 
she doesn't see Jason slip through the window behind 
her with ice pick in hand.
     Later, when a group of camp counselors in training 
enter Jason's stomping grounds, we meet Jason the 
mass murderer.
     Just like his mom, he's a professional butcher. But 
he does the job a lot quicker. There's hardly any time 
for shadows and suspense during the body count. 
Heck, Jason can whack two at a time.
     Chasing that sole survivor at the end of a film can 
be a challenge and watching Jason this first time out, 
we find he's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
     When he pursues "Ginny (Amy Steel)" through the 
woods, he falls for some pretty basic self-defense shit. 
In one scene, she hides behind a bush then jumps him 
with a kick in the balls. Then she pulls a chainsaw on 
him, and he cowers.
     One of the reasons why the character had these 
problems, in my opinion, was his choice of head gear. 
He wears a one-eyed sack over his deformed mug in 
Part II. He dumps it, thank God, for what became his 
trademark hockey mask in "Part III." 
     At the end  we meet Jason the believer.
     When Ginny stumbles into the pad Jason built for 
himself deep in the woods, she finds the altar where 
he keeps "Mother." There too she finds the deceased 
woman's sweater. She puts two and two together, 
puts on the sweater and when Jason enters the room, 
she pretends she's his mother come back to life.
     He raises a coal pick, hesitates, then lowers it and 
falls to his knees, his hazel eye wide open with joy. 
Hat's off to the actor behind the sack, Warrington 
Gillette. For what it's worth, it's the only time in the 
series we get to see Jason really emote. 
     This chapter in the "Friday the 13th" saga is 
important because it not only introduces this character. 
It's really the only one to give him any range. Jason isn't 
given much character development in later installments. 
True, the different actors who played him have brought 
some personality out in the gait and grace, or lack 
thereof. But the stories in the sequels treat him as if he's 
"Bruce," the shark  from "Jaws (1975)."
     There's more to the story of Jason, I think. He 
believed his mother could rise from the dead. I think 
someday the story will too.