10 Unexpected And Surprising Horror Movie Sequels

Friday the 13th (1980) was a schlocky B-movie looking to capitalise on the success of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), which had rejuvenated the slasher genre and sparked a craze that would continue through the next decade. Friday the 13th would go on to spawn a franchise of its own and create one of the legendary horror icons in Jason Voorhees. But the killer in the original film wasn't Jason, it was his mother Pamela Voorhees.

Pamela believed Jason was drowned in a tragic accident at the Crystal Lake holiday camp, which she blamed on the summer workers of the camp, taking her revenge. It could have sat as a decent enough standalone film, but Part 2 (1981) arrived, this time introducing Jason as the killer. He hadn’t in fact drowned, and had been living in isolation in the woods… waiting to take revenge of his own. In the opening scene, he avenges the death of his mother who was beheaded at the end of the first film, brutally murdering her killer Alice.

This sequel is careful not to show Jason's face during the proceeding kill sequences, and in many ways this film can be considered the key player in the franchise; introducing the legendary antagonist, while also remaining unique in the sense that he is not yet wearing his trademark hockey mask, which was first introduced in Part 3 (1982).

For this reason, Friday the 13th: Part 2 can be quite a forgotten gem, when the series is looked back on in retrospect.