Ooooh, he's the maaaan behind the maaasskkk...
Forty years ago, in the wake of Halloween and the seventies grindhouse era, Sean Cunningham decided to take his own stab at a stabbing-filled flick. What we got was the start of a series that carried on through the eighties and beyond--maligned by critics, but forming its fanbase and a cult following that lives today. Sure, you had a lot of questionable acting and very loose attitude to plot...but it's the simple setup of an iconic killer to root for, a parade of victims to dispatch creatively, and the thrills and chills between, that gave Friday the 13th its durability.
Still, as always, we start with the original, now turning forty this year. As mentioned, this came out in the wake of the original Halloween--but it also drew a fair amount from Psycho, from the music cues to ultimately an inversion of its climactic twist. But with that in mind, there were some distinguishing features that made it a hit with audiences. First of all, there's the forested camp setting, often imitated thereafter, where the killer could be behind any tree or in any shack. Secondly, there was the presentation--Tom Savini, a horror special effects legend, bought with him his real creative approach to what could've been just more knives into sacs of blood. Decapitations, arrows throw necks...you can tell he bought his A-game, because of all the cuts the MPAA made him do!
And yes, even with a film like this, we had future stars like Kevin Bacon getting their start, with him being in one particularly memorable highlight mentioned above. Otherwise...how does the first Friday hold up? Well, honestly, to modern viewers, it'll probably seem largely slow and dated...but the best part comes in the last fifteen minutes. Spoilers--as anyone who's seen Scream will know, it's not the lumbering masked Jason Voorhees who's the killer here, but his unassuming mother Pamela. Betsy Palmer is generally considered the best part, and it's real fun seeing her going from a friendly rescuer to a raving lunatic suddenly switching into her own son's voice.
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| A visage many a retail worker will know. |
Sure, some of the slap-fights she has with the final girl are silly...but honestly, even to this day, the killer being a woman, much less a middle-aged mom in a sweater, is a rare thing. That's what still gives the first Friday the 13th some uniqueness, and the final confrontation is followed up by a deliberately Carrie-esque jump scare that actually does work, coming in after just the right amount of fleeting calmness.
There's a few other aspects that make the first one different when you look at them from a certain way--for one, the film does try to keep up an ambiguity as to who's the killer, with a few red herrings tossed throughout. And you know how people chortle about horror casts never getting out when it's clear there's a killer on the loose? Well, here nobody even knows there's one stabbing until the last part, which does make for a little bit of nervous tension if you get past the slow pace.
Still, after the first Friday made bank, sequels came. Lots of them! The second introduced Jason as the killer, though he wears a sack over his head, and gets kicked around more than you might expect. It's by part three (which had gratuitous but fun 3D and all) that he gets the iconic hockey mask, and then we're in business. Jason himself is what made the franchise what it was--he's a simple idea, just a masked killer who butchers teens, but with enough of a compelling backstory, that of a drowned kid now trying to avenge his beloved mother--to add just a bit more to it. His straightforward but striking look, his blunt yet creative approaches, all make for watching these films like you would Godzilla. Trashy, sure, but sometimes, you just want the catharsis of seeing a monster, giant or man-sized, just go on the rampage--especially when everything's as silly and over the top as it tends to be here!
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| Looking down upon his next victim? Or just noticed his shoelace got undone? You decide! |
But with that, let's do a quick rundown of the series as I see it:
-Friday the 13th Chapter II: The first one with Jason, and an actually pretty enjoyable followup to the first. There's some fun action, a better pace, and a few memorable, if silly, moments that bring back Betsy Palmer near the end.
-Chapter III: In 3D! And where Jason gets the mask. It's alright, but other than the 3D effects looking real funny when you watch it normally, not quite on par with Chapter II. Still, the surprisingly disco synth theme has proved a staple even on kid's Halloween party tapes, believe it or not.
-The Final Chapter: Final indeed, we chortle. Still, this is another improvement--we get an actual lead with Corey Feldman playing recurring Tommy Jarvis, and this is also where we really start getting some high-contrast, high-color eighties atmosphere to sink into. And one pretty hilarious 'dance' sequence.
-A New Beginning: We keep following Tommy, who seems to be witnessing a return of Jason--but--spoilers--it turns out to be just a copycat. It's pretty over the top, but nobody's compelling even by the low standards of characterization in this series, and it doesn't even have Jason. You can skip it.
-Jason Lives: Where the series starts getting self-aware, and becomes all the more fun for it. Jason comes back as a zombie revenant in a scene right out of the 1930s Frankenstein, and follows it up with more destruction, more over the top ness, and more grisly effects than ever. There's some genuinely funny humor in this one--if you have to pick a single Friday 13th to put on a Halloween party, I say go for this one.
-Chapter 7: At this point, the schtick is getting old, and it doesn't even have the same refreshing feel as Jason Lives. There's some nonsense about a psychic girl protagonist, but not much else to it.
-Jason Takes Manhattan! Or rather, Jason Messes About On A Boat before spending about twenty minutes in Manhattan! The characters are lamer than ever, and while there's some amusing scenes of Jason messing around in Times Square, they're too fleeting.
-Jason Goes To Hell: Good grief. This is the one where Jason is finally killed by an FBI assault, seemingly, but comes back as a worm creature possessing people to kill his bloodline. Does that make sense? No? Well, that's only because it doesn't. It's certainly different, but you need to be...in a certain kind of mood to really enjoy it.
-Jason X: Jason in spaaaace! At this point, the series is just going into self-parodying outright comedy, but I'm not complaining. It's ridiculous, but it's self-aware, and has enough cartoonish deaths, cyborgs, and also one pretty amusing holodeck scene, that I actually don't mind this one.
And, to cap things off, we had 2003's Freddy vs Jason, which while paper-thin than ever with its characters, delivers exactly what you want--two iconic horror killers just tearing the shit out of each other. It's ridiculous and cheesy, but in just the way I like it. Oh, and there was a 2009 remake, which I haven't seen, but by all accounts is just fairly average slasher stuff dressed up for the 21st century, take it or leave it.
Phew. So with all that, the ones I'd pick out as my personal faves are Part II, Part IV, and Jason Lives, with the latter being my party piece. None of these movies can be called high art, but they aren't trying to be, and if you're watching them, you know what you're getting into. You're probably watching them because you want some good ol' backwoods-themed bloody fun. And it's that simple formula that to this day keeps giving us comic-spinoffs, videogames, and even some surprisingly well-made fanfilms like Never Hike Alone . Over the decades, even kids who never actually watched these movies would still instantly recognize the image of a hockey-masked killer, showing that sometimes, uncomplicated sticks the best.
So with that, have a happy Halloween, stay safe, put on some Alice Cooper, watch some fun movies, and whatever you do, don't go smoking weed while nude for no reason in the woods...
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