Dec 07 2008
FRIDAY THE 13th, revisited
The FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise is not good cinema. I have to admit speaking from an artistic standing that these are very poor films. Their story is weak, the film composition is weak, they’re not really visually interesting, acting in normally weak, they are almost considered not important enough for critics to comment on regularly. Now, for the question of this post: What makes them so endearing that they have such a huge fan base? Well, I’m going to try to explore that by reviewing each Friday the 13th film all the way up until JASON X. I am not a closet fan of the series; I am an avid fan of the series. Do I consider them to be important films? The honest answer is no. However, on a rainy night when I’m bored and want some popcorn, a soda and good action adventure piece to cheer me up, I’m sticking in a Friday the 13th film in the VCR. Yes I do have the DVD collection but one can have nostalgia of going to the video store and renting each chapter for a marathon.
I present my childhood part one:
FRIDAY THE 13TH and FRIDAY THE 13TH PART TWO.
FRIDAY THE 13TH, part one
The one, the only the classic, the original film! A sort of homage to Mario Brava’s film TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE and a throw back to Gather Christie’s novel AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. The premise is about a group of people who are isolated in remote wooded campgrounds and one by one they disappear with ghastly results. This film does rely on a lot of gore to tell the story (by the infamous Tom Savini), however this is more of a murder mystery than an all and out horror/slasher flick. Yes, the camp councilors get dispatched in bloody ways while the infamous cello music is playing in the background but the last fifteen minutes of the last reel is really a “who-done-it?” With cameos from established television actress Betsy Palmer and an up and coming star Kevin Bacon, the original has some genuine chills and surprises, but when one takes another look at this film there are some genuine boring parts. For example at one point we watch our heroine Adrienne King make coffee for almost five minutes before something scary happens. However if some of the pacing is off, it makes up for the action. Plus, this film has one of the most unforgettable and shocking endings ever made. This ending is the reason for all the sequels that follow, so in the end you have to put this film on a pedestal as one of the quintessential and innovative horror films of all time and the start of a huge multi-million dollar franchise!
FRIDAY THE 13TH, part two
Part two is just as exciting as the first if not faster paced as being directed by Steve Miner. Starring finally our favorite masked killer Mister Jason Voorhees. How he appears in this film is still a mystery, I don’t think anywhere in the sequels it is told how he manifested from the original to a living, breathing, hulking killing machine in the venues that follow. Jason on a whole is almost a zombie ghost that seeks revenge for the murder of his mother. His one goal is to find the councilor that murdered her and do onto her what she did to his Mom. Well in the first twelve minutes of this film he gets to do just that, as Adrienne King is in this film, however is dispatched in the first minutes as well. Which goes to ask the question: If the councilor is dead? Then why does Jason go after other councilors? The answer to that (and this is my most educated guess) is that Camp Crystal Lake was his home and anybody invading his home in a sense murdered his mother (I know it’s a long shot but it’s the only one I have).
Anyway one with the film, we see Jason not in the infamous hockey mask but a spooky, dirty pillowcase. The pillow case thing was done before in a horror film based on a true crime event: THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDWON. Amy Steele is our heroine and Jason not easily spooks her, Steele is a chick that will kick ass and not think twice about it. The film again leaves off in a cliffhanger to leave off to one of my favorite FRIDAY films also directed by Steve Miner: FRIDAY THE 13TH 3, in 3D.
