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Virginia "Ginny" Field is a character and the main protagonist in the Friday the 13th franchise. She makes her first appearance in the 1981 sequel Friday the 13th Part 2. She subsequently has a cameo appearance in Friday the 13th Part III (1982).

Originally, she was supposed to return as the main character, with Jason stalking her in a mental asylum similar to how Michael Myers stalked Laurie Strode in the hospital in Halloween II (1981). However, Steel feared being typecast and ultimately turned down the offer of reprising her role.

Outside of film, Ginny appears in the novelizations making her literary debut in Friday the 13th Part III: A Novel (1982). Although she doesn't physically appear, Ginny is referenced in the video game Friday the 13th: The Game (2017). In academic materials, she has been regarded as an example of the "final girl" trope.

Biography

An aspiring child psychologist, Ginny, in June of 1984, was hired by Paul Holt, her boyfriend, to be his assistant at the Packanack Lodge, a facility located near Camp Crystal Lake which Paul intends to transform into a counselor training center. After she arrives late, due to her car malfunctioning, Ginny is taken by the worried Paul, who had been in the midst of a meeting with the in-training counselors, to his office, where she apologizes for and explains her lateness. When Paul returns to the meeting, satisfied with her explanation, Ginny was told by him to move her car to the training center parking lot, which she has trouble doing, necessitating Paul to take a look at it. Shortly after Paul starts to check out the car engine, Ginny manages to start the vehicle and drives off, unintentionally spraying Paul in the face with smoke.

Several hours after a camp out in which Paul tells the story of Jason Voorhees and Camp Crystal Lake, Ginny, while playing chess with Paul in the main cabin, decides to retire after winning. Arriving at her cabin, Ginny is followed by Paul and the two sleep together, unaware that a local eccentric named Crazy Ralph is being garroted right outside their window by Jason Voorhees. The next day, after a beach party, Ginny walks in on a meeting between Paul and Deputy Winslow, who are discussing Sandra Dier and Jeff Dunsberry trespassing on the Camp Crystal Lake property. After Paul sends both Sandra and Jeff on their way and Winslow asks him if he even intends to berate the two of them, Paul tells Ginny to pass on the message that both Sandra and Jeff are to get no seconds on dessert that night.

During the night, Ginny joins Paul and several other counselors on a final night on the town. Going to bar, Ginny, while with Paul and his friend named Ted Bowen, discuss Jason Voorhees, with Ginny believing the man is not a legend before discussing what he may be like. Ginny's thoughts regarding Jason go largely ignored by Paul and Ted, both of whom believe Jason is nothing but an urban legend and nothing more. As the hours wear on, Ginny and Paul eventually go back to the Packanack Lodge in Ginny's car and find the place empty. Going to the second floor of the main cabin, Ginny and Paul find blood spattered on a bed shortly before the power goes out. When Ginny and Paul go downstairs, Ginny, sensing somebody else is in the room, narrowly manages to warn Paul in time when Jason Voorhees charges at him with a spear. After Paul is knocked unconscious by the attacker, Ginny runs into the next room in the cabin. Finally feeling safe, she begins to put herself at ease, only for Jason to attempt to grab her through the window. Ginny sprints out of the cabin and tries to escape in her car, only to find it's not working. She is then forced to flee as Jason tries to stab her to death with a pitchfork through the car roof, Ginny manages to knock him over with the car door. When Jason recovers and gives chase, Ginny temporarily incapacitates him by kicking him in the groin.

Reaching a cabin, Ginny hides from Jason under a bed. Entering the room, Jason looks around and, not noticing Ginny who urinated on the floor while scared, starts to head out the door. When Jason seemingly leaves, Ginny crawls out from under the bed, only to be attacked by Jason, who had hidden and waited for Ginny to reveal herself. Narrowly dodging Jason attacks and running into another room when the killer falls off the chair he was standing on, Ginny reaches a tool cupboard and manages to injure Jason with a chainsaw before knocking him out by breaking a chair over his back. With Jason knocked out, Ginny runs off into the woods and stumbles upon a decrepit shack. Running inside the shack searching for aid, Ginny realizes the home belongs to Jason when the recovered killer appears. Entering a room in the shack and barricading the door, Ginny notices the severed head of Pamela Voorhees on a candle lit shrine, which is surrounded by corpses. Putting on Pamela's iconic blue sweater and grabbing a machete, Ginny, when Jason breaks down the door with a pickax, manages to trick him by pretending to be his biological mother, Pamela. Despite Jason showing hesitation to follow her demands, Ginny manages to make Jason kneel down and prepares to strike him with the machete when Jason, realizing Ginny is not his biological mother at all when he spots Pamela's severed head behind her, blocks Ginny's blow with his pickax, breaking it.

When Paul reappears and begins wrestling with Jason, Ginny, while Jason is distracted, hacks him in the shoulder with the machete. With Jason apparently killed by the machete blow, Ginny and Paul take the sack he wore to cover his face off him before leaving. Carried to the Packanack Lodge by Paul due to a leg injury sustained in her fight with Jason, Ginny is placed on a couch, where Paul prepares to treat her wound when the two hear a noise at the door. Arming herself with a pitchfork, Ginny signals Paul, also armed, to open the door, revealing the noise had simply been caused by dead counselor Terry McCarthy's dog Muffin. As Paul picks up Muffin, a relieved Ginny is grabbed by Jason, who comes crashing through the window behind her.

In the morning, a semi-conscious Ginny was found and loaded into an ambulance by several paramedics and was left groggily asking what happened and where Paul was.[1] After her encounter with Jason, Ginny was deemed to be mentally unfit and her claims of there being a shack in the woods where Jason lived went ignored, due to in part by the fact that searches for the shack yielded no results.[2]

Appearances

Films

Novels

Video games

Trivia

  • The character of Ginny Field was created by director Steve Miner and writer Ron Kurz based on concepts originally developed by Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller.
  • Ginny Field is credited only as Ginny in the end-title credits in this film.
  • Ginny Field is the second character to fall under the "Final Girl" story trope in the Friday the 13th film series. The first was Alice Hardy.
  • Ginny Field is the first true survivor of the Friday the 13th film series.
  • Archival footage of Ginny Field from Friday the 13th Part 2 is included in the beginning of the 1982 sequel, Friday the 13th Part 3 and in the 1984 sequel, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
  • Ginny is one of three human characters who survived by the end of the film. The other two are Jason Voorhees and Ted. What happened to the bonus counselors are unknown.
  • Actress Amy Steel was 21-years-old when she began filming Friday the 13th Part 2.
  • Amy Steel appeared as a commentator on the His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th documentary.
  • Ginny Field was named after production designer Virginia Field.
  • Playing Ginny Field is the first major movie work for actress Amy Steel.

Gallery

References

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