The Beginner's Guide to Friday the 13th in '80s and '90s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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The Beginner's Guide to Friday the 13th

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terrymichaelpierson	The Beginner's Guide to Friday the 13th	Lead	[-]
Jun 23 12 5:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I'm sure this forum has seen countless Friday the 13th threads but as a life long horror monster fan who had somehow avoided them until this point I feel entitled to make the most of this discussion . I have always been a fan of classic monster movies mainly - Universal Monsters and Godzilla have been my thing since childhood. As I got older I drifted in to some of the more modern horror classics - I love Evil Dead, Alien, things by John Carpenter etc. Somehow, not intentionally but maybe just naturally, I never got to in to "slashers". I love the original Halloween and the Zombie remake, had seen Freddy vs Jason, and the first Nightmare on Elm...but I have always remained very much on the surface. So to cut to the chase, in the last few days I have had a Friday the 13th marathon. It couldn't have worked out better - I have had an inclination to go through them and the Nightmare on Elm series for a minute now and by luck or fate - WHAM - almost all the Friday the 13ths are on Netflix streaming now. As of this writing I've watched 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and am watching 7 as I type this. (5 is inexplicably missing from Netflix). General impression first: I've enjoyed the series. While never being blown away, or even really impressed, with any one of the movies I have had fun with my marathon and have effortlessly watched them for hours on end in the way a lot of people do with TV shows now. I can really empathize and understand how fun (and racy and fresh) these must have been seeing them in theaters back in the eighties. By movie breakdown: I think 1 stands the best in the vintage horror charm department. I don't even really know why - these were released one year after another so it's not like time is much of a factor. But the first one just has more of a vintage charm. I didn't particularly like 2. It was okay, and got better towards the end, but it just felt generic to me - not aided at all of course by the generic (lame) Jason. I really liked 3. I think it might be the scariest. I at least found it to be the most well done. The characters were a little more fleshed out and it was very self aware - and this was more than a decade before Wes Craven's Scream. Plus there are some great creepy shots of Jason (especially in chase scenes). To me it best towed the line between campy and horror. I really didn't like 4. At all. Maybe I was just growing weary in my marathon that day but I just found it plain and boring. It definitely didn't have that classic horror element that 3 had. And I'm sorry, I know it's a big part of the mythology, but I really hated the ending. By contrast 6 might be my favorite. I know this is when the series jumps the shark but that's kind of what I came to Friday the 13th for - absurd iconic horror. While not as good of a movie as 3 by any means, I thought 6 was just the most fun. I'm about halfway through 7 now and it's turning out better than I expected. I was really pessimistic in the beginning, and still don't care for the psychic stuff at all, but it's mostly straight up Jason rampage. It seems to take itself a lot more seriously than 6. I'll probably post impressions of the last few as I get through them. Thoughts? What are your favorites? What is the general consensus?
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Rick		#1	[-]
Jun 23 12 6:11 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I suspect that, like lots of other things, the opinions on the FRIDAY THE 13th films run pretty much along generational lines. Not entirely, of course, but pretty much. Personally, I was in my 30s when the Jason saga started to unfold and I was not amused. I can recognize that there are a couple of genuine scares in some of the films, but I don't really think any of 'em are any good. I've seen the first one at least 3 times, but I don't think I've seen any of the later ones more than once (except for short bits and scenes), and I don't feel the need or wish to see any of them again. I know some others -- mostly younger than me -- do like the series, and I understand that, particularly if the affection stems from youthful memories or simple nostalgia. But I don't like any of 'em. I did once work in a commercial with Amy Steel, who was the leading lady in Part II. I knew instantly who she was and thought several times during the day of mentioning it to her. But I couldn't figure what I was gonna say beyond, "I saw you in..." I couldn't, in good conscience, compliment her on the movie. I wasn't really that interested in hearing about the movie. So I just let it go and never said a word.
Spoiler II		#2	[-]
Jun 24 12 3:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Count me in the youthful nostalgia boat (well,youthful in the sense its over 30 years old!). I came of age in the nexus where Famous Monsters gave way to Fangoria and the slasher/zombie/cannibal floodgates in the US and Europe burst open. I am old enough to remember local horror hosts and being thrilled at seeing KILLER SHREWS on TV yet young enough to be thrilled with all tha tabbo smashing of 70's horror,which ran neck and neck with its musical cousin,punk rock. Growing up in this period gave me an appreciation for every form of horror/cult film from PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON to HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. The FRIDAY films (for me,1-4 in particular) came along at the perfect time in my movie watching life and represented a sort of outlaw grand guignol that teachers and news critics hated yet my parents found fairly acceptable,especially compared to the rough fare of the 70's drive ins they probably saw on double bills (things like LAST HUSE Aand I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE). Gory enough to be shocking to most yet rooted enough in campfire stories and urban legends to be considered harmless spookhouse fun. Of the 80's entries,i saw all but 5 in a theater setting and i have fond memories of 1 and 2 because i saw them at a heavily wooded drive in that had you peeking into the wilderness at every murder scene. I know they aren't "good" but i really find them hard to hate
Victor Frankenstein		#3	[-]
Jun 25 12 9:34 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am extremely pleased with 1-7. Always remaining within its roots, this part of the series keeps us in the woods. Almost everyone can relate to a great time in their lives when they escaped the every-day-life and went camping...only to sit in a tent or cabin in the woods and wonder "Whats out there?. Sitting around a campfire telling stories about 'the monster that supposedly lives in the woods' is just about as ancient a horror pasttime as it gets. Just like the way that JAWS touches everyone on the primordial 'fear of swimming in the ocean', these films do that with the woods. 8(Takes NY) frustrates me because basically none of it is in the woods and so little is actually in NY. 9(Goes to Hell) frustrates me because Jason, as we all know him, isn't really even in this. 10(JasonX) is so cheap it might as well have been DTV. Can't knock the liquid nitrogen kill, and the sleeping bag redux though. Those are great! I end the canon there, with Freddy vs Jason and the Friday remake in a different world.
JamesD		#4	[-]
Jun 25 12 1:23 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Just my two cents (YMMV): I grew up watching them (sometimes illicitly, late at night, without my parents' knowledge). To me, they were the cinematic equivalent of being told "The Tale of The Hook" or "The Furry Collar" around the campfire. Great for scaring impressionable young minds like mine, that is. I loved them for that. So I have nostalgia for watching the Friday the 13th films, but nostalgia is what it is. I've re-watched some of them as an adult, and found that they do not hold up well at all for me. There's very little cinematic value (though I do appreciate the very low-budget regional flavor of the first two), and what's there often cribs badly from better movies (Carrie, Halloween, Twitch of the Death Nerve, The Town That Dreaded Sundown). I have been considering re-watching Part 6 (the self-aware, self-mocking film in the series), though. I think the best Nightmare On Elm Street films hold up much better for imagination and cinematic creativity. James
Andy Sheets		#5	[-]
Jun 26 12 11:37 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	terrymichaelpierson wrote: By contrast 6 might be my favorite. I know this is when the series jumps the shark but that's kind of what I came to Friday the 13th for - absurd iconic horror. While not as good of a movie as 3 by any means, I thought 6 was just the most fun. I'm not sure who's saying 6 is when the series jumped the shark because I think it's arguably the best one. Certainly it's the most accessible installment if you're approaching the series from the perspective of enjoying classic supernatural horror. I'm trying to remember how I liked the franchise... 1 is pretty good. Trashier than something like Halloween but it has its charms. Didn't like 2 very much. 3 is interesting, although the 3D effects are mostly just goofy. 4 is decent, even if the ending always makes me laugh. 5 is lousy. Already said I liked 6 best. 7 is alright. 8 is the worst film in the series. I don't remember enough about the post-New Line installments to comment, but Freddy vs. Jason was amusing despite not playing well with the continuity of series.
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jamesenstein31		#6	[-]
Jun 27 12 9:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My none-too-kind review of the first film: http://monstermania-batca...ey-are-doomedand-on.html
Spoiler II		#7	[-]
Jun 28 12 7:43 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I always thought FRIDAY THE 13th had more DNA from Italian giallos of the 70's (TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE in particular) than HALLOWEEN. I think the picking off of teenage victims may well resemble HALLOWEEN (more as a financial target audience than as a theme one) but then HALLOWEEN's whole "pet holiday/teen girls in jeopardy/killer pov/he's still out there" approach was already familiar to horror audiences who caught BLACK CHRISTMAS. FRIDAY THE 13th still simply feels like a Cropsy/The Hook story visualized with then state of the art FX that cinema screens finally could cut loose with a vengeance. I have always enjoyed how the series was attacked by both sides at the same time as being both morally bankrupt and overly moralistic at the same time. No mean feat.
diabolik72		#8	[-]
Jul 1 12 1:05 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I've heard others mention that same giallo connection, not surprisingly, many of them say the first film is the only one that is worthwhile. I like a lot of the films for the reason that they're reliably entertaining, you generally know what you're going to get. I actually have never seen part 7, just never got around to watching it. They aren't my absolute favorites [not a huge slasher fan anyway] but when I do watch them I usually have a good time. Parts 2 and 3 are my favorites, they're the ones that really seemed to establish the series.
strangenstein		#9	[-]
Jul 1 12 10:59 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I was a freshmen or sophomore in High School when the first one came out and I still remember everyone talking about it after the opening weekend. I didn't see it until the 2nd weekend, and even though I knew a lot about it I was still spooked big time! I remember being disappointed by the second, smooching at the drive-in during the third, groovin' on the fourth, let down by the fifth and enjoying the heck out of the sixth. I've seen them all but after the sixth they just became even more of a blur. The first one isn't a great movie but it was scary and has become somewhat iconic over the years. kill-kill-kill-make-make-make-more-more-more-sequels-sequels-sequels........
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The Beginner's Guide to Friday the 13th

The Beginner's Guide to Friday the 13th