R.G. Henning's Sackhead

Cody checks out R.G. Henning's celebration of Friday the 13th Part 2.

SACKHEAD: THE DEFINITIVE RETROSPECTIVE ON FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 by R.G. Henning

Critics who reviewed them at the time of their release may have told people that the movies that make up the Friday the 13th have no merit at all, but they’re very important to me. Friday the 13th is my favorite franchise, and I credit Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI – which I first caught of glimpse of when I was just three years old – as being the movie that got me into horror. Which, in turn, helped enhanced not only my interest in film specifically, but also in storytelling in general. If it weren’t for the Friday the 13th movies, my life would be very different in every way, from the professional level to my personal relationships. Because of these movies, I have made important personal connections with people I never would have met if Friday the 13th had never existed. So I celebrate every single entry in this franchise, to  varying degrees, and I enjoy seeing others celebrate them as well. Therefore, as soon as I heard that author R.G. Henning had put together a book that exists solely to celebrate the awesomeness of Friday the 13th Part 2, that book was placed on my “must read” list. 

For 277 pages, Henning poured his love for Friday the 13th Part 2 out on the page when writing Sackhead, starting off by explaining just why he finds this one to be “the sequel without equal,” with reasons including his feeling that it has the most likeable characters in the franchise, the best heroine (the very popular Ginny), and the most realistic portrayal of the woods-dwelling slasher, Jason Voorhees. In this movie, Jason wasn’t yet the hockey masked juggernaut that endures in pop culture, but was instead presented as a backwoods fellow with a sack over his head. Thus the book’s title. We get a recap of the first film’s success and discussion of the sequel’s production, and then the presentation of Sackhead becomes quite unique.

While celebrating the film, Henning also displays some strong creative writing skills, dropping in novelization sections in which the events of the film are recounted through the specific perspective of each of the characters. Jason, Ginny, returning (but short-lived) Part 1 heroine Alice, returning doomsayer Crazy Ralph, the new batch of victims, Henning tells the story of the movie through the eyes of each one of them, digging into the thoughts of each person. After these dives into the minds of the characters, the author also profiles the actors who brought the character to life, discussing their experiences working on the film, the experiences others had working with them, and dropping in interview quotes. 

There are also sections called "Asked & Answered," where Henning covers common questions about things like certain kills, what happened to missing characters, Jason's appearance, and much more.

One of the reasons why Henning loves Friday the 13th Part 2 so much is, of course, nostalgia. I feel that same nostalgia for Part 2 and the rest of the franchise – and the older I get, and the tougher life gets, the more I just want to wrap myself up in that nostalgia and disappear into it for a while. Reading Sackhead allowed me to do that for a chapter or two at a time, because Henning did a great job of not only explaining the elements that make Part 2 such a great sequel, but also of capturing the atmosphere of the film on the page. I didn’t expect those novelization-like passages, but I thoroughly enjoyed them – even though the previous book I read was the official Friday the 13th Part 2 novelization by Simon Hawke, so you might think I would be tired of reading the story of that movie. I wasn’t. That’s how much I love these movies, and how good Henning’s writing is. 

I’ve had a passion for the Friday the 13th films since the 1980s, and Henning’s passion for Part 2 has been burning all that time as well. If you’re a fan who loves these movies (or this particular movie) as much as we do, I think you’ll enjoy Sackhead. The Friday the 13th movies deserve to be celebrated, and I had a good time attending the celebration of Part 2 that Henning threw with this book.