Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_Part_2
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082418/
What I Knew:
The writer of the original Friday the 13th was very disappointed that Jason Voorhees became the villain. That's literally all I know.
What I Expected:
Something more along the lines of what I expected from Friday the 13th: Jason killing people.
What I Got:
Well, I guess I was closer to the mark this time. Jason indeed kills people, starting with the wonderful Alice, but its certainly not the iconic Jason. In fact this Jason seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis. I think the death toll at the hands of Mr. Voorhees is about eight, out of like 20 faceless characters. The first 20 minutes of the film just summarize the last act of the first film which doesnt do Part II any favors if you ask me. The only character worth caring about, especially considering how much time was just spent explaining why we should care about her, is killed off meaninglessly immediately after and the movie doesnt bother with trying to create that kind of connection with any of the new councilors. Even someone like Annie, Jason's mother's third victim in Part 1, is lacking in this film. Just a pile of meet for a terribly conceived bad guy to hack throuh.
How I Felt:
I have some big issues with Jason in this movie. Now it might just be the fact that I am so familiar with the iconic Jason (hockey mask, machete, slow walk, ki-ki-ki-ma-ma-ma, immortal monster, etc) that its tainting my perspective of this early incarnation, but there is literally nothing even remotely frightening about Jason in this film. I'm not kidding when I say that a cat in this movie is at least 10 times as terrifying as any of Jason's appearances. He comes off as a mad farmer. He wears overalls, he has a bag of flour over his head, he wields a pitchfork for most of the film. This Jason lacks everything that makes a slasher villain great: the idea that nothing can stop him. There's a scene where he slips off a chair and falls face first into a lil puddle of urine. There's another where he trips over his own pitchfork and then has to jog to catch back up to his victim. When the bag of flour is finally pulled off his face, the rubber mask Neddy uses to scare the other councilors in the beginning of the film is significantly scarier. He looks like a reject from a bad The Hills Have Eyes knock-off. He's also not physically imposing. Just a chunky farmer, angry that you are running through his cornfield.
And the characters. There is no way to possibly care about any of the characters, and there's really no point either considering they are all either dead or disappear from the film by the second act. The ending provides zero closure, no "Then he's still out there," not even a text crawl saying "the 15 campers we forgot about survived for a little while." Nothing. Just stops cold. And then we come back to Jason. This Jason has a bit of an identity crisis. I don't think the writers decided at any one point on a unified vision of him. He's alternatively an immortal monster, a crazy mutant farmer, and a sad little kid who misses his mom. I think if they could have stuck to one idea the film could have pulled its narrative structure off better, but we are constantly swinging between "he is going to kill us all because he is evil" and "he is going to kill us all because he doesnt know better maybe we should just give him a hug." This doesnt make for good storytelling in my opinion, nor does it make me want to watch this movie ever again.
View This:
As a part of understanding the Friday the 13th canon, but never ever ever again.
Sequel?
I'm not exactly looking forward to parts 3 through 10 after this, but hopefully the crew can get their stuff together.