In honor of today’s date, here are my thoughts on each of the Friday the 13th films. I know these aren’t really considered horror classics, but darn it, my black heart loves them anyway!Friday the 13th
Obviously inspired in part by John Carpenter’s Halloween, the original Friday the 13th also had elements of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psychothrown in for good measure. It’s actually a pretty creepy film and has one of the best “jump” scares in all of Horror filmdom. Had it not been diluted by the sequels, I believe the original F-13 would be considered more of a classic. I dare say it’s a tad underrated
Friday the 13th Part II
Making only a cameo in the original, Jason Voorhees gets his chance to be the Big Bad in Part 2. The rest, as they say, is history. Sporting a sack over his head and a pair of dirty overalls, the first F-13 sequel is reminiscent of Backwood horror flicks like The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Friday the 13th Part III (Friday the 13th Part 3-D)
Jason gets his most famous piece of wardrobe in this one. Aside from the hockey mask, the third installment of the series is best known for being released in 3-D. That’s the reason there are so many extended scenes of people pointing and Yo-Yoing in to the camera. There’s also more comedy in this one, something we’d see more of in future sequels.
Friday the 13 Part IV: The Final Chapter
Here it is folks, my personal favorite! It’s a perfect storm of F-13 awesomeness. High body count, high boob count, and awesome effects by Savini. Lest we forget, it’s also the only cinematic pairing of Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman! Seriously, I love, love, love this movie.
Friday the 13th Part V: The New Beginning
Believe it or not, I originally saw this at the Drive-In. Being able to say I’ve seen a Friday the 13th movie at the drive-in pretty much makes my life complete. Jason sits this one out since he was “killed” in the Final Chapter. There’s a bit of a mystery as to who is wearing that hockey mask, and the resolution kind of makes sense in a “Law And Order: Camp Crystal Lake Unit” sort of way. It’s not a bad entry in the series, but it’s hard to follow the awesomeness of Part IV.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
A lot of fans consider this one to be the best. The censors were really coming down hard on horror at this point, so the kills had to be more creative to make up for the lack of gore. It’s Definitely an enjoyable entry but it does kind of screw up continuity. Jason was said to be cremated in Part 5, but is quite intact in Part 6. The novelization of Jason Lives tries to explain some of these inconsistencies.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Part VII is pretty pedestrian (even by F-13 standards) but there are still things I like about it. Kane Hodder makes his debut as the man behind the mask and becomes the definitive Jason. Adding in a character w/ telekinetic powers is kind of cool and actually gives Jason a formidable foe. Jason’s look is really bad ass here as well (see my review of the action figure https://pacinofan.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/best-jason-action-figures/).
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
My least favorite F-13. Changing the setting from Camp Crystal Lake to the big city seemed like a good idea at the time, but that’s really the only original thing about it. Once the novelty wears off, there’s not much else. It also has the lamest, most non-sensical ending in the whole series. The one bright spot is Kane Hodder’s performance as Jason.
Jason goes to Hell: The final Friday
The First F-13 not released by Paramount (New Line cinema bought the rights to the franchise), this one was Billed as the “honest to goodness I swear to god last F-13”. I guess it almost was. I know a lot of fans really dislike this one, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s also the most supernatural of the series and tries to give Jason somewhat of a mythology. There’s a self referential tone to this that Wes Craven would take to a new level a few years later in Scream. I seem to remember a cameo in this one that had horror fans pretty excited at the time.
Jason X
What do you do when you’re completely out of ideas? Send Jason in to space! Not as stupid as it should have been, Jason X is fairly entertaining. The kills aren’t very bloody, but they are pretty clever (keep your faces out of Liquid Nitrogen kids). The Uber-Jason is kind of cool too. You also have to give props to any F-13 that features David Freakin’ Cronenberg
Freddy Vs Jason
This thing took forever to get made. In my opinion it was pretty much worth the wait. It’s all dumb fun, but if you were expecting Rosemary’s Baby, you obviously didn’t see any of the prior films. The long awaited battle of Freddy and Jason is pretty good, but there was no way it would have ever lived up to the fan’s expectations. One huge minus is that it’s not Kane Hodder under the hockey mask. This was a stupid, idiotic movie on the studio’s part and real slap to the face of fans that wanted to see the definitive Jason actor do battle with Robert Englund’s Freddy.
Pacinofan Presents: Count Geekula's Castle 