Director: Danny Steinmann
Year: 1985
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Still haunted by the memory of Jason, a teen sent to a reform camp on Crystal Lake has his worst fears come true when a masked madman begins killing off his fellow participants and must overcome them to stop the killings.
Review:
This here was quite the decent slasher film even if it's quite a troubling franchise effort. There's a lot wrong here in regards to making this a true franchise effort, which starts with the identity switch at the core of the film. The general concept of the situation itself is enough to cause uneasiness here with the blatant bait-and-switch employed here, but it's also how it works in the confines of the story as there's little done here to hide who it is since it clearly highlights this the first time around at the murder-site, and when it comes time for the explanations behind it they make even less sense, causing this to be flawed all the way around.
Besides this, there's another rather big and really crippling factor here in the series of utterly pathetic and lame kills featured, as everything here is simply stabbings or impaling with the knife, and even then the vast majority of deaths are stumbled upon after the fact anyway, which again really tends to throw quite a big problem on the kills being so flawed here. Lastly, the finale chase here comes off as being a rather tired retread of the chases before it, running all throughout the woods protecting a younger male only to wind up back in the house where it all started, bodies being hurled through windows and ending the whole thing in a barn that's all reminiscent of the other entries in the franchise.
The acting here is the last big overall problem with this one. Melanie Kinnaman is decent as Pam, the final girl in this one who is all right in her comforting scenes and the early parts here gives her a calm matter that has quite a distinct change-over in the second half where the obvious turn into a lame, screaming final girl afterward. She does end up being a let down as all she does is seemingly scream and whine about getting to safety with Jason closing in on her, giving her a rather disappointing feeling compared to her first appearances. John Shepherd is also quite off as Tommy Jarvis with a bland, wooden performance that really makes it hard to believe he's the same character as the one before. The outgoing performance from the other film is gone, replaced by a silent, one-note feeling which really has some really disappointing work done to make him a red-herring which just makes him come off even worse. The rest of the cast is just as bad and distracting which lowers this one considerably.
Even with these flaws, there's some really fun parts here which are based solely on the basis of this one being a slasher as this one produces a rather sizable and impressive body count, producing the greatest amount of kills in the series even though they're pretty lame. That also works here in creating some fun stalking moments. The ambush on the greasers on the roadside, the surprise on the necking couple in the woods and the attack by the diner all offer some solid slasher motivation scenes giving this a rather great series of somewhat suspenseful stalking scenes. As well, the action of the final chase works for a great time as there's a frantic pace and energy here for a lot of chasing around and even allowing the girl to fight back at times which is nice and helps this one nicely. Along with the copious nudity, these makes this good enough even through the flaws here are pretty detrimental.
Overview: **/5
With only a few minor positives and plenty of flaws to hold it back, this one emerges as a truly frustrating and problematic effort that really only has a few minor worthwhile points. It's really only worthwhile for the most complete hardcore fan of the franchise or slasher aficionados in general, while those who find those flaws to be too detrimental should heed caution.
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