"I told the others. They didn't believe me. You're all doomed."

It's Thursday the 12th. You know what that means. 

This week's Thursday Thriller is Friday the 13th Part 2. 

Steve Miner directed this 1981 film. It came out one year after the original, but takes place five years later. 

Alice (Adrienne King), the lone survivor of the most recent bloodbath up at Camp Crystal Lake is still  having bad dreams about the day she had to cut Mrs. Voorhees's head off.

She doesn't have them for long, because Jason sticks an icepick in her brain. Then opening titles roll  and my favorite character of the whole franchise, Old Crazy Ralph (Walt Gorney) tells some teens at a phone booth that they're doomed just like the last bunch, but you know how it goes. No one listens to Old Crazy Ralph.

Jason strangles him later.  Huge mistake for the franchise in my opinion, but Wikipedia says the franchise grossed $464 million worldwide, so what do I know?

Now, just because there are kids in the woods next to the town where Old Crazy Ralph lived doesn't mean someone was stupid enough to re-open "Camp Blood". That would be ridiculous. No one would believe it. No, what happened is someone was stupid enough to open a different camp on the other side of Crystal Lake. That stupid person is Paul (John Furey) and he knows what he's doing. He tells his staff to stay away from Camp Blood. That's how you handle horny teenagers, right? You just tell them not to do something and they listen. Jason murders just about all of them in horrific ways. My favorite was when the guy in the wheelchair takes a chop to the face and rolls backward down the cabin steps. Or maybe it's when he shish kebabs two young lovebirds and you see the spear come out the bottom of the bed and blood gushes all over.

By now you should be wondering how the hell Jason (Warrington Jillette) is doing all this stabbing, strangling and skewering. Didn't he drown in the lake in the 1950s? Wasn't he just a little kid? Is he a full-grown man now? How did that happen? Mrs. Voorhees seemed pretty certain he was dead. She threw a whole murder tantrum over it.

These are all excellent questions and many idiotic theories abound. Here's mine: according to IMDb, the first one was made on a budget as thin as its plot for about $550,000. It grossed almost $40 million. Then Paramount said, "We need another one of these immediately. We don't care how stupid it is."

And neither should you. Part 2 is a good, honest slasher. It's better than the first one and the later sequels. I'd say it's the best of the bunch, but Part 3 and 4 are also pretty good, though my exact recollection is hazy. They all kind of bleed together for me.

Don't expect the hockey mask just yet. Friday the 13th Part 2 streams on Starz, which I don't usually cover, but Amazon and Hulu can never seem to keep their shit together with this series. Someone remind me next week to cancel my free trial.

Mention Friday the 13th Part 2 this weekend and get $2 off admission at The Devil's Attic.

Oh, and Jason will be there Friday night!