Never Hike Alone 2
The forest is beautiful in the sunshine, offering a sense of serenity and escape to a place where the world remains untouched, but it is not devoid of predators and beneath the shimmering surface of the lake there is menace; the boy sits on the jetty, innocent and unaware of the man approaching, indifferent to the axe embedded in a log only a few steps away or the warnings that he should not be here alone.
“Is it because of Jason?” the child asks. “He drowned in the lake, and he’s still down there, waiting to pull me down with him.” But it is Tommy Jarvis who is pulled down, caught in a nightmare which never ends even as he wakes in terror, haunted by the empty eyes behind the hockey mask, the only one who knows that the killer of Crystal Lake is out there and thus the only one who can stop him.
The third fan film inspired by Friday the 13th released by Womp Stomp Films following 2017’s Never Hike Alone and 2020’s Never Hike in the Snow, writer and director Vincente DiSanti continues to build upon the premise of Sean S Cunningham’s classic 1980 original and his own characters in Never Hike Alone 2, tying together the dangling threads of his previous films even as it rounds up the survivors for another night of terror.
With Thom Matthews and Vincent Guastaferro reprising the roles of Tommy Jarvis and Rick Cologne they first played in 1986’s Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, they appear alongside Andrew Leighty and Anna Campbell as Kyle McLeod and Diana Hill, the rugged celebrity hiker whose last recorded adventure formed DiSanti’s first excursion to Crystal Lake and the doctor whose son went missing in the second, struggling to accept his death or move on when there has been no official confirmation of his death.
Set in the Wessex County Wildlife preserve, Jarvis is determined to do what should have been done years before, opening every door at Camp Crystal Lake, determined to flush Jason Voorhees out, but the only thing he finds is his own distorted reflection, the frustration of his failures compounded by the indignation of Sheriff Cologne who accuses him of stirring up ghosts and refuses to undertake an investigation, preferring to blame Jarvis rather than believe him despite the recent disappearances.
The preconception of a fan film one of awkward performances, make-do production values and slavish recreations rather than new content, despite being crowdfunded like its predecessors Never Hike Alone 2 is professional in every aspect, greatly enhanced by DiSanti’s natural feel for his subject, an understanding of horror cinema and of Friday the 13th in particular which goes beyond his obvious love, creating complex shots amidst the inevitable bloodshed and mayhem, a conduit for Jason’s rebirth in the same way that Jarvis has unwittingly become.
Voorhees (Bryan Forrest and DiSanti himself) a lurking presence, trimming off the herd from the edges and disposing of those who present a challenge more swiftly, he saves his chosen ones for later when he can enjoy them, slipping between the trees and staying in the shadows, the forest his natural habitat whose habits he has adopted and into which he tolerates no trespassers.
The conclusion of the sequence the first to run more than an hour and so positioned as a feature although in fact it is only around twenty minutes longer than the first Hike, much of the difference the extensive roster of thanks in the end credits, there is a cost in the momentum which made the earlier films so effective but the payoff is a more complex plot, Never Hike Alone 2 looking back to the past and the long-deceased Pamela Voorhees and her undying connection with her son as it creates a faithful homage to the core values of an iconic film yet still feels satisfyingly modern.
Never Hike Alone 2 is currently available on YouTube
