The local video store has the boxed set of Friday the 13th. I picked up 1 & 2 this weekend and just got done. My question is: is the rest of it worth watching?
One was a little boring, but we can see how it really sets up the horror genre. The little Jason-kid at the end really saved it from being a silly Chainsaw Massacare clone.
#2 was significantly more interesting, at least up until they killed him for the first time and then we got to see his face! What a mistake.
I am interested to see how/why he picks up the hockey mask and the one with the telekenetic chick looks funny (I’m looking forward to seeing the sort of psychic money shot they can get with a relatively low budget: like dropping partially finished additions on someone or whatever the trailer had) and I’ve had a special fascination with seeing Jason Takes Manhattan ever since I saw the commercial as a kid (hmm. Wonder why it took me so long to get around to it).
From the trailers though, it looked like most of them were really, really lame retreads - the second one added something that was interesting if not revolutionary, but I can’t see what a half dozen more “show some titties and then a machete to the head of the slutty campers” could make worthwhile.
Actually, I think I talked myself into seeing them (at least up until the one where we find out he’s really controlled by a Satanic worm or whatever) - but are there any that I should definitely pass on?
Well… they are all really the same. obnoxious teens bother the hell out of you until you wish they were dead and then Jason shows up to fufill your wish.
No real suspense or horror.
But let’s break 'em down.
Part 3: Filmed in 3d shown without 3d makes for something that remindes me of Dr Tounges 3d house of obnoxious teens. Notable: 1st time with the hockey mask
Part 4: Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover in the same movie?! Who should die first, and who should die worst. And as the final chapter you know Jason will die in the final reel. Of course if you noticed there are eight movies in the set, you know his death won’t last long.
Part 5: this one is like a scoobydoo mystery with a high body count and buckets of blood. Of course the gang of teens is less realistic than the cartoons they replace. But you get to play along and try to guess who is pretending to be Jason? Could it be kindly old Mr Jenkins?
Part 6: Easily the best. Realizing that Jason needs to be in charge we get the Zombie Jason. More tounge in cheek than horror it is quite funny. Watch out for the ex sweat hog who gets his.
Part 7: Carrie meets Jason. Originally supposed to be Freedy meets Jason then got a quick re write… it shows.
Part 8: Don’t let the title fool you. Most of this floating turd takes place on a boat.
Still interesting to see how many different ways you could kill an obnixious teen, sherriff, deputy, hiker, etc. If you aren’t hoping for much go for it and enjoy.
Not to be confused with Friday the 13th: The Series, which is about a cursed antique shop and the attempt by the main characters to get back all the cursed antiques.
Here’s the Friday the 13th body count which gives the character killed, by whom, and how. It’s kinda amusing in a sick, sick, sick, way.
For example, here’s what Friday the 13th Part 3 looks like:
Jason Voorhees
1 (11) : Harold - meat cleaver to chest
2 (12) : Edna - knitting needle to back of the head
3 (13) : Fox - pinned to rafter with pitchfork through neck
4 (14) : Loco - pitchfork to the stomach
5 (15) : Shelly - throat slashed (offscreen)
6 (16) : Vera - spear fired into eye
7 (17) : Andy - macheted in half while walking on hands
8 (18) : Debbie (pregnant) - knifed from beneath hammock
9 (19) : Chuck - electrocuted on fuse box
10 (20) : Chili - impaled with fireplace poker
11 (21) : Rick - head squeezed until eye pops out
12 (22) : Ali - bludgeoned with a wrench; later recovers and is macheted.
1 and 4 are my favourites, by far. Ahh horror- why is it that a genre with so much potential and freedom sticks religiously to the old formula (besides all of that Freudian compulsion to repeat stuff)?
4 is definitely worth a look just for the dose of Corey aka Feldster. He’s actually not the obnoxious character he eventually became later on in his career, a wiseass druggie whose Hollywood career was killed (rightly) before he and Haim could collaborate again, but was then revived (wrongly) by the makers of The Surreal Life so everyone oculd watch him cry and complain about how bad his childhood was. Waah.