Look, I’m just gonna go ahead and tell y’all that every single damn one of these movies is going to get a ridiculously high rating from me because I seriously LOVE me some Friday the 13th. Plus, I mean, I have crap taste in movies so there’s that too.

This one is extra special because Jason gets his hockey mask, y’all! The identity is formed! There’s also just a lot to love in this one. It’s not my absolute favorite...or 2nd favorite...but it’s a damn close 3rd favorite! The plot is the same as all the other movies with minimal variation. A group of kids go to the infamous lake and Jason does his thing with them. At this point, it’s still not hard to understand why they would go to the lake because it hasn’t yet become the anti-tourist attraction it will be. There’s some really weird backstory about the main character, Chris, getting attacked by Jason...and maybe almost raped...and it’s totally out of character for the Jason that we all know even this early on but whatever, I love this movie in spite of that nonsense. Thankfully, it’s the first and last we ever hear of Jason’s possibly skeezy creeper side.

There are some brilliant kills in this one made all the more impactful by a cast of likable, if annoying, characters. Everything is quite gory in this one and some of the kills are just vicious! THAT HANDSTAND KILL IS EPIC!! Surprisingly, in spite of the poster, there isn’t actually a shower kill like you might expect. I remember that poster freaking me out as a kid...and yes, I had seen Psycho but Norman didn’t scare the crap out of me like Jason did!

Shelly was so pitiful. Somebody just please love him...VERA. Andy gets points for being friends with Shelly because I just like a world where that happens. Chris is one of my least favorite final girls. Not because of her character so much as the fact that the actress, one Ms. Dana Kimmell, pulled one of those bitchy “holier-than-thou” moves after making this and denounced all horror films as evil because god. Ugh. Still, I shan’t let her mar this movie in any way. I just don’t much care for her as a person. BUT.....FOX! Y’all, I love Fox so much! She should have had her own damn spinoff. Forget Freddy vs. Jason cuz it should have been FOX vs. JASON...amiright? Oh, and Chili and I would seriously be besties IRL and we would laugh all the time, mmkay? I LOVE THIS FILM SO MUCH!!

The atmosphere is great just like all of the early films in this series. I can’t get enough of that “lake by the woods” thing and by this point, you kinda start to realize that Crystal Lake is possibly the greatest place ever with all these little nooks and crannies where these films take place! Maybe I was the only person who watched these as a kid and DESPERATELY wanted to vacation at Crystal Lake but, I did. True story. I STILL DO.

I have never seen this in 3D because I just never feel like watching it with the old-school red/blue glasses but maybe I just need to break down and do it. Even though I haven’t seen it, I can tell for the most part that those effects are super gimmicky so I’m not terribly bent on that experience. Nonetheless, this is a super fun sequel in a super fun series and I very highly recommend it as a brilliant piece of 80’s slasher trash!