Friday The 13th - Part Two (1981)

As with the original movie, Friday The 13th: Part Two appears to be taking us in one direction in its opening scenes, then dramatically pulls the rug from under our feet and sends us off in another direction.

The main action picks up five years after the massacre at Camp Crystal Lake, with the camp still closed off and Jason relegated to a campfire tale told to scare the fresh recruits at a new counsellor training centre that has opened elsewhere on the lake-shore.

In many ways, Part Two is the same film as before, even down to the third act cat-and-mouse battle of wits between Jason (Warrington Gillette) - who really is the slasher this time - and the final girl, Ginny (Amy Steel).

To be honest, the plot is negligible here: a gaggle of weed-smoking, pre-marital sexing teens arrive for camp counsellor training and Jason starts to pick them off (having tied up a few loose ends earlier on).

There's a touch of grubby Texas Chainsaw Massacre chic in Jason's derelict cabin the woods, which is a nice addition to the mythology, but otherwise Part Two is a smartly written but by-the-numbers, old school slasher flick with more suggestion than in-your-face gore.

Steve Miner's direction of Ron Kurz's script also makes 87-minute movie flash by in no time. When it hit the half-way point, I thought the TV had only been on for about 20 minutes.

There's slightly more flesh on display than in the previous flick, but Miner follows the directorial style established previously and doesn't linger on any of the kills in particular (in case you are taken out of the moment by realising it's all fake blood and rubber prosthetics).

It's a shame the ending is a bit of a jumble, as it appears to have been attempting to recapture the original's shit-your-pants shock of Jason erupting from the lake, but gets a bit confused in what the moment is trying to say in the film.

Of course, what you do realise, in hindsight, is that these first films are simply the warm-up act for the gonzo, supernatural, slaughter that is to come later in the franchise - and that people associate with Jason and Friday The 13th.

In Part Two, Jason is still very much human, albeit a deranged, disfigured, and delusional one.

And he hasn't even adopted his iconic hockey mask yet...