13 Things You Didn't Know About Friday The 13th Part 2
7. Mrs Voorhees And The Weird Coincidence Part 4
In our original article on Friday The 13th there were several entries on coincidences surrounding Mrs Voorhees and the actor who played her, Betsy Palmer. Well, even though she’s not really in it, Part 2 presents us with another one.
In Friday The 13th, the script had originally called for the killer to lose a finger in one of the earlier kills. The idea was that when Mrs Voorhees appeared at the end and the audience, lulled at first into a false sense of security, noticed the missing finger, they'd have a wonderfully creepy moment of dramatic irony to ratchet up the tension before the madwoman revealed herself to Alice.
Sadly the effects necessary to pull off the finger weren't available to Sean Cunningham and Tom Savini on the shoestring budget he was working with, and the idea was dropped.
Ironically however, during Part 2’s fight scene between Ginny and Jason in Jason's shack in the woods, Amy Steel inadvertently clipped Steve Dash (the stunt actor playing the masked Jason) for real. Apparently the timing was off on the downswing of her machete, and instead of being deflected by his pick-axe, she hit his middle finger.
It required a visit to the emergency room, thirteen stitches and yet more prosthetics to disguise the injury, but both Dash and Steel insisted on coming back later that day to get it right.