40 anniversary of Friday the 13 Part 2: The sequel that wasn’t supposed to come out
On a day like this 40 years ago we saw Jason Voorhees as a killer for the first time. After the success of the classic slasher film Friday the 13th filmmakers couldn’t resist to continue the legend of Camp Blood or Camp Crystal Lake.
Directed by Steve Miller Friday the 13th Part 2 hit the theaters on April 30, 1981. The opening scene takes place 2 months after the first one where Jason kills our final girl Alice on her home. 5 years after that we see another group trying to reopen Camp Crystal Lake but Jason won’t let them do it. It’s the debut of Jason as the killer of the franchise. But he doesn’t use his iconic hokey mask, he starts using it on Friday the 13 Part 3 and all the movies after that. But this sequel wasn’t supposed to be made.
The second entry in the long-running horror series focuses on a group of teenage would-be counselors converging on Camp Crystal Lake for training under the tutelage of head counselor Paul (John Furey). Inevitably, Paul relates the story of Jason Voorhees (Warrington Gillette), a boy who ostensibly drowned at the camp and whose mother murdered a group of counselors in revenge. No one takes the tale seriously until a very much alive Jason begins gruesomely eliminating people.
Official plot of the film
The sequel that wasn’t supposed to come out
After the success of the first film filmmakers decided to present Jason as the killer and start one the most successful horror franchises of all time. But that wasn’t the original plan. SPOILER ALERT! The end scene of the original film left the viewers thinking if Jason was really alive or if it was just a dream of the final girl Alice, and that was the magic of it. Filmmakers were inspired by the ending of Carrie of 1977 that gave a similar experience. But since the movie became a success because of just the ending just 6 months after the release of the film they began the production of the sequel on October 3, 1980.
The original idea was doing an anthological movie around the Friday the 13th superstition. Btw I did a video about the superstition on my Youtube channel click here to watch it. But they trashed the idea and decided to go with the idea of Jason becoming the killer instead. Witch is a fact that not everyone knows. Many assume that Jason is the original killer while in fact is his mother Pamela Voorhees who is the killer on the first film. We even see that on the cult classic Scream on the opening scene where Ghostface ask Casey Becker “who is the killer in Friday the 13th?” and she answering Jason but obviously she’s wrong and we know what happens after.
The movie had some cut scenes in order to receive and R rating instead of X and the ending changed. The original ending featured the head of Pamela Voorhees opening her eyes but this alternative ending and cut scenes has never been released. Even after receiving negative reviews it became a box office success and opened the possibility of the franchise that we know today.