Erisi's Friday the 13th Series Thoughts Thread

[erisi236]

Since more then 1 person asked for it.

So this is just going to be a thread about my observations about the Friday the 13th series, I'll be doing 1-11 in order and then probably drop a few thoughts on the upcoming 12th.

Now these aren't reviews in any sense of the word, just a few observations about whats going on, what's said, who dies, what Jason looks like, stuff like. Everyone knows what Friday is their favorite so you don't need me to say "Friday part 5 gets 5/5 cleavers" or whatever.

Also of note, these are also spoiler-ific, but really if you don't know who the killer is in 1 and 5 or what happens at the end of Jason goes to Hell, well what can I say, you probably don't like Friday the 13th.

So lets get things started with some random thought on the entire series in general.

~ First off I love the Friday series. Most of the flicks hold some appeal to me, even the one's that are a tad bit on the stupid side still keep me watching.

~ Friday the 13th holds it's own through a huge number of sequels much better then Halloween or Nightmare. The worst of the Friday films are much better then the worst any other series, even the wacky New Line ones.

~ For some reason I'm quite amazed that a series about a mute backwoods killer has managed to crank out 11 soon to be 12 feature films all released theatrically, none of that DTDVD crap of the Leprechauns or Children of the Corns of the World.

~ Friday the 13th is the James Bond of slasher movies. Each film while mildly connected to the last is still it's own film, only the killer (most of the time) remains the same, although just like Bond in each flick he looks different. The Bond connection is even strongly alluded to in the part VI opening theme with Jason walking into a circle and slashing at it.

~ Friday the 13th has great opening themes with a few exceptions, I'll be sure to put those up as well.

~ One of the great things about this series is that it can re-invent itself every movie, Friday can do anything it wants anytime it wants and it'll still be Friday the 13th.

So anyway, lets start this off with where it all started of course...

Friday the 13th

~ This movie despite being damn near 30 years old still looks great. There's also nothing terribly obvious to date it other then maybe those wacky little beer bottles.

~ One thing I can't help but notice is that this flick has a ton of long establishing shots where the camera is just parked a mile away from the action.



~ There's also a dump truck full of PoV shots, this is the DOOM of Slashers, I think even animals and inanimate objects have a PoV shot here and there.

~ I wonder what Alice had to do in California, she mentions it once but it's not brought up again.

~ I also wonder what Steve was up to when he left, getting equipment I guess, but still he says he'll back by Lunch, note to Steve, Lunch does not happen at midnight. ;D

~ Crazy Ralph is an odd character ain't he. It's also hilarious that he's hiding out in the pantry for whatever reason.

~ That random cop that's looking for Ralph is also odd, talking about space trips and hash and what not.



~ The arrow through the bed/neck is an epic kill still to this day.

~ Strange that after slaying everyone else quick and easy that the killer would have to lure that one girl out to the archery field using subterfuge with the little boys voice crying for help.

~ Speaking of her, I wonder how she's killed, her body is later thrown into the room and her face is kind of worked over but nothing too obvious.

~ I want to play Strip Monopoly.



~ One thing of note, this is a very quiet movie, the music is very lite at most times and whenever people are speaking it's pretty under toned.

~ Watching this I almost certain the script was about 10 pages long, and because of that when ever there was a part that says "Alice makes Coffee" they just went a shot the thing in it's entirety to pad the time, and they do it a few times with different people and things they're doing.

~ Speaking of padding time it's interesting that after the first victim is found it's still something like 20 minutes till the end of the flick with Alice running around, hiding or building barricades.



~ Alice's barricade is epic. ;D

~ I can't help but think they could or should have had at least a quick scene somewhere at the start that established Mrs Voorhees in some way, she just kind of shows up at the end and says hi which seems weird.

~ "Kill her Mommy" is damn-ass creepy.

~ Mrs Voorhees using subterfuge on Alice seems weird too, just had to tell her story I guess, tho' "Jason" told her to kill her, not have a crazy conversation with her.

~ Mrs Voorhees face right at the end is priceless



~ The "Jason ending" is still a good shock ending.

~ Solid start to a solid series.

~ Friday the 13th Theme, pretty classic and very well known, everyone knows that "ch-ch-ch" = Friday the 13th.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xR8oke8rzp8

[macdaddysquid]

I thought this was for the tv series that reicked all kinds of balls

[Lick Ness Monster]

Love this just as much as your posts in that F13 thread.

You made a really good observation about the cop. When Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller were writing the flick, that scene wasn't scripted; they wanted a sense of TOTAL ISOLATION in their situation, with no semblance of outside help being available. Officer Dorf (his actual name in the script) was added at the last minute because Phil Scuderi, one of the producers, requested that little comedic scene. To this day, Cunningham and Miller hate the scene.

And I too noticed the padding out in the film - particularly in the scene you mentioned. The endless "Alice makes coffee" scene is a huge LOL - I screened the flick with some friends a few weeks back and had to tell them "trust me - this scene is going SOMEWHERE even though it doesn't seem like it..."

And yeah, it is quite amazing that the series has been able to stay consistently entertaining for so long with no DTDVD sequels.

All in all, though, a landmark in horror history, and like you said, it has aged BEAUTIFULLY unlike some other movies from the same time. *cough* Nightmare on Elm Street 1 *cough*.

Awesome to see this and phenomenally entertaining to read. ;D And to all other posters in this thread, I was one of the two people who requested it.

[Maidpool w/ Cleaning Action]

Man TR, as much things as we agree on and as much as I respect your opinion, I can never agree with you that F13 aged better than NOES.

[Dean-o]

Nov 7, 2008 17:40:38 GMT -5 Maidpool w/ Cleaning Action said:

Man TR, as much things as we agree on and as much as I respect your opinion, I can never agree with you that F13 aged better than NOES.

I have to agree with you here.

[Lick Ness Monster]

I'll attempt to give some evidence, but really what evidence can you give for an opinion?

Anyway, ANOES 1 just DEFINITELY has that "'80s movie" feel to it - and by that feel, I mean stale characters, even staler acting, and up-to-the-minute clothing styles that instantly date the film within a year of its release - see the character of Rod Lane. Cool dude. Very 1984 cool dude...as seen through the eyes of the mid-40s former humanities professor who wrote the movie. Also see Johnny Depp's midriff football jersey of doom in the scenes leading up to his death. And while Wes Craven was trying to make a horror movie that made larger statements about life in general, IMO, he epically failed at that, particularly in the ending to the film. And yeah, Wes, your original ending makes no goddamn sense, either - it's just the same thing albeit Wayne's World style "Mega Happy Ending"-ized.

Friday the 13th was a slasher film - Sean Cunningham's only goal with it was to create a good, scary flick, and at that, he succeeded. He also made it a goal to create teenage characters that could be relatable, by and large, to the masses of American teenage society, and, IMO, he succeeded FAR better at that than Craven did. I HAVE to believe that, by and large, the teens' story in the original Friday the 13th is far better and instills far more sympathy for the victims than the teenage story that's presented to us in ANOES 1. I can't speak for anybody else, but by the end of the original Nightmare, the only character that I care about in the slightest is Nancy.

Alright - now that my small bout of unpleasantness is out of the way, come on, people, give up some posts for Erisi's random thoughts! Strip monopoly would be so awesome, wouldn't it?

[Mr T L Wolf]

Nov 7, 2008 23:01:37 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

Strip monopoly would be so awesome, wouldn't it?

Well, lemme know the rules, and I'll see about that with my girl. :-D

[Lick Ness Monster]

Nov 7, 2008 23:10:52 GMT -5 Mr T L Wolf said:

Nov 7, 2008 23:01:37 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

Strip monopoly would be so awesome, wouldn't it?

Well, lemme know the rules, and I'll see about that with my girl. :-D

Well, every time you land on a hotel, instead of paying - you lose an article of clothing.

[DSR]

Okay, here goes...some random thoughts of my own...I haven't seen the first Friday the 13th in a while, so forgive me if I refer to my notes (i.e. Wikipedia):

- As I've said in earlier threads, I feel like the earlier entries in the F13 series make a better effort towards making likeable characters. Part of that is that, I feel, the makers of the earlier movies really try to write actual people, rather than charicatures of 80s stereotypes (or even following the pattern of slasher movies to the point where you know who the Final Girl is from the moment you see her).

-Something that helps out in the above statement (regarding writing real people) is the casting. While the actresses in the first movie are certainly attractive, they look like people you would actually meet, rather than someone who just fell out of a JC Penney catalog and into the woods.

-I met Tom Savini, he autographed my copy of the first F13 movie. He told me a story regarding the picture on the back cover (the girl by the archery station, with an arrow hitting a target mere inches from her, and she looks startled): Savini shot that arrow, at director Sean Cunningham's request, and did not tell the girl that it was going to happen. So, her startled look in the film at that moment was quite genuine.

-While the idea of Strip Monopoly sounds pretty good, I just know the actual game would turn out horribly. If it's really like the actual Monopoly, but with stripping in place of paying, there'd be long stretches of time where no one would take their clothes off, people trying to work deals to keep their clothes on, and somehow I'd end up naked, surrounded by people wearing more clothes than when they started. I'll pass, thanks.

-Harry Manfredini says that when he wrote the score, he came up with the sound effect "ki ki ki, ma ma ma" which everyone now considers "Ch Ch Ch, Ha Ha Ha." I under stand "ki" is for kill and "ma" is for mommy, but for some reason, it always just sounds like Ch Ch Ch, Ha Ha Ha to me, whereas the original idea sounds kinda stupid. I dunno.

PS I was the other person that asked for this thread.

[Lick Ness Monster]

To add to your Savini story, DSR (and that's awesome that you met him) - that's also him that comes sailing through the window at the end, disguised as Brenda.

Nov 7, 2008 23:36:46 GMT -5 DSR said:

PS I was the other person that asked for this thread.

And huzzah for that!

[DSR]

Nov 7, 2008 23:53:19 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

To add to your Savini story, DSR (and that's awesome that you met him) - that's also him that comes sailing through the window at the end, disguised as Brenda.

Nov 7, 2008 23:36:46 GMT -5 DSR said:

PS I was the other person that asked for this thread.

And huzzah for that!

Well, since I'm here, I may as well tell the story of how I met Tom Savini...

I was at college (Penn State's Beaver campus) and he was gonna give a talk/Q and A session...I'm walking away from the Bistro (the cafeteria, obviously) and he walks past me towards it...so I take a trip to my dorm room and grab my copies of Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead (looking back, I wish I had Creepshow with me). So I get back to the Bistro, and he's sitting there eating his cheesecake, and for some reason I'm too nervous to say anything, so I get something to eat and sit at a table that is pretty obviously within his line of sight, with my copies of the movies standing upright facing him. A couple of minutes later, he walks over and says "why didn't you just come over?" I simply shrug and go "Uh...I dunno." Tom then sits at the table, autographs both movies, and tells me a few stories. Savini, a friend of mine, and I wound up sitting there for about a half hour/45 minutes talking before he walked over to the auditorium for his Q and A session...where I simply proceeded to ask the most questions as though our conversation really didn't end.

So, there ya go.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Nicely done Erisi

and neat story DSR.

[Lick Ness Monster]

Nov 8, 2008 0:02:23 GMT -5 DSR said:

Nov 7, 2008 23:53:19 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

To add to your Savini story, DSR (and that's awesome that you met him) - that's also him that comes sailing through the window at the end, disguised as Brenda.



And huzzah for that!

Well, since I'm here, I may as well tell the story of how I met Tom Savini...

I was at college (Penn State's Beaver campus) and he was gonna give a talk/Q and A session...I'm walking away from the Bistro (the cafeteria, obviously) and he walks past me towards it...so I take a trip to my dorm room and grab my copies of Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead (looking back, I wish I had Creepshow with me). So I get back to the Bistro, and he's sitting there eating his cheesecake, and for some reason I'm too nervous to say anything, so I get something to eat and sit at a table that is pretty obviously within his line of sight, with my copies of the movies standing upright facing him. A couple of minutes later, he walks over and says "why didn't you just come over?" I simply shrug and go "Uh...I dunno." Tom then sits at the table, autographs both movies, and tells me a few stories. Savini, a friend of mine, and I wound up sitting there for about a half hour/45 minutes talking before he walked over to the auditorium for his Q and A session...where I simply proceeded to ask the most questions as though our conversation really didn't end.

So, there ya go.

That's awesome, dude. Savini is pretty much a hero to anyone who's a fan of horror movies - or at least should be. Especially if you're like me and prefer a halfway decent on-set special effect to a lame-looking CG creation. Savini was the absolute master during a time when it took some actual hands-on work to make it look like someone had a severely deformed face before having a machete split their head in two. ;D

Never met Savini, but I've been to a couple horror conventions. Had stuff autographed by Englund, Hodder, Bradley, and the usual assortment of 'lesser characters' that show up at the things. Still, didn't get to talk to anybody for as long as that - I'm quite envious.

And, in honor of Erisi's original post and tribute to this awesome flick - I post the epic trailer to the original F13. Everyone's seen it, I'm sure, but all hail the first movie EVER to have a broad opening with NO big-name actors, no multi-million dollar budget or ad campaign, and no bankable director - and yet, the original Friday the 13th trailed ONLY The Empire Strikes Back in box office take during the summer of 1980. Long live Hollywood executives taking chances!

[DSR]

Nov 8, 2008 0:06:07 GMT -5 Lick Ness Monster said:

That's awesome, dude. Savini is pretty much a hero to anyone who's a fan of horror movies - or at least should be. Especially if you're like me and prefer a halfway decent on-set special effect to a lame-looking CG creation. Savini was the absolute master during a time when it took some actual hands-on work to make it look like someone had a severely deformed face before having a machete split their head in two. ;D

Never met Savini, but I've been to a couple horror conventions. Had stuff autographed by Englund, Hodder, Bradley, and the usual assortment of 'lesser characters' that show up at the things. Still, didn't get to talk to anybody for as long as that - I'm quite envious.

Oh yeah, definitely. Hand-made effects look like they might be real, for the most part, whereas CG almost always looks like CG. Hand-made also feels more heartfelt, like they honestly wanted to do a good job, rather than just the "eh, we'll fix it in post-production" vibe that CG tends to carry (whether that's actually the case or not). So, basically, that's my long-winded way of saying that I adore Tom Savini (and Giannetto De Rossi, the Savini to Lucio Fulci's Romero, basically).

Sucks that you didn't get to really hang with any of those luminaries, TR, but Savini is really the only one I've met (well, so far at least). None of my friends like horror, so getting them to go to a convention is highly unlikely. We used to go to comic book conventions, but now we're so destitute that buying a comic book is out of range, let alone a ticket to a comic con.

Sorry, this is one of those threads that I actually want to stay on topic for, and I keep wandering off.

[Lick Ness Monster]

Nov 7, 2008 14:06:31 GMT -5 erisi236 said:

~ Alice's barricade is epic. ;D

Even more hilarious is how she's stacking up all the random objects against the door - despite the fact that said door opens OUTWARDS.

[erisi236]

The body count continues...

Friday the 13th part II

~ Sweet, we start out with more of the mundane life of Alice. ;D

~ Where does this opening take place I wonder, where ever it is it's strange to think of a guy with a sack on his head wandering the streets.

~ A freaking cat, a freaking damn cat.

~ For some reason I find it funny that Jason took the pot off the stove.



~ I could watch Sandra run around all day.

~ Remember contrary to what you hear, Bears are dangerous.... ;D

~ That Crazy Ralph kill is really strange, is Jason standing on a stump behind that tree or what?

~ Terri has one nice ass.

~ Sandra really wants to check out Camp Blood doesn't she, damn pushy.

~ Hey look, it's our first truly random victim, that cop who just really can't stand people walking in them thar woods, and will give an epic chase to anyone who dares to do it.



~ Mildly interesting to me that they break off into two groups in the middle, the ones that stay to die and the ones that decide to go drinking and live.

~ Who's that Asian chick I wonder, she's in the group that decides to live so we don't see her much.

~ Vicky's sexual innuendo is cute.

~ Are Terri and Scott dating or is he just a really creepy stalker/pervert?

~ Did Jason set that snare or was it really Paul and his wilderness BS?

~ How does Terri die? She screams and then is later in the alter pile but we never see her get killed.

~ Ginny's story is kind of interesting, is Jason an out of control lunatic, frightened retard, or child in a mans body? Somehow they try to make Jason sympathetic here, or at least give him a reason to kill, I like it.



~ Ted the comedian stays behind, weird, he had so many lines considering and seemed like one of the "to be killed" group, but isn't.

~ Vicky is a total cutie in a sweet and innocent kind of way.

~ "Paul look out" would have been much quicker then "Paul there's someone in this f***ing room!" *thud*

~ What happens to Paul anyway, I guess hit on the head and KO'ed but they don't show it.

~ Hey, Crazy Ralph is in the pantry again.

~ Jason peeking into the car window made me lol. ;D



~ Now this is a damn odd part right here, Ginny running, the moon, Jason running, the moon, slowly a dream like change into a door, Jason walking into a room with Ginny hiding under a bed, Wtf just happened here???

~ Lol at Jason on a chair and it collapsing under his weight.

~ Jason's cabin reminds me of my house. ;D

~ The "Jason head tilt" makes it's first appearance, love it.

~ Muffin still alive? What was the animal corpse in the woods then?

~ Jason has quite the head of hair on him, and a beard, kind of a shame imo that he became a skin-head in all the following films for the most part, I like the hair look makes him look more like a back-woods weirdo ya know.

~ Now was that ending a dream or reality? What happened to Paul? Is Ginny now a lunatic? Is Muffin really still alive?



~ I like both the survivors in this, Paul and Ginny come off as pretty realistic all things considered.

~ Pretty good Friday flick, tho the kills are kind of weak besides maybe the fellow in the wheel chair.

~ Friday the 13th Part II theme, they really break out the band for this one.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHv0K3xAW8

[Grendel]

Gee, reading the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be about that syndicated television show Friday the 13th, The Series.

[Lick Ness Monster]

TOTALLY agree on Ted the joker, and how it's odd that he stays behind and lives. He seems like a character tailor-made for the "nerdy, sympathetic loser" role - but not only is he a super-popular counselor, he lives. It is very odd and out of place.

Terri's death - originally, there was supposed to be a chase sequence leading up to Jason's shack where she would have had a long, protracted murder scene, but it was scrapped for time constraint reasons. And yeah, the kills in the movie are a little weak. Carl Fullerton is an amazing make-up artist, but sadly, his work got wasted by MPAA-requested cuts to get that 'R' rating.

And in regards to the ending, from Crystal Lake Memories - the cliff notes version is this: The last scenes of the movie are Jason crashes through the wall, grabs Ginny, Ginny wakes up, says "Where's Paul" - then fade to Jason's mother's head in the cabin. The original, last scripted shot of Friday the 13th Part II was the head smiling in an ever-so-subtle manner, kind of letting the audience know that yes, Paul is dead - especially since it comes right after the fade out and "Where's Paul?"

And in regards to your "is Ginny crazy" question - I'll just go ahead and post something that I wrote before on these forums about the crazy direction that the Friday the 13th series was originally going to take after this entry, but for anyone who doesn't feel like reading the whole thing, the short version is this - this was supposed to be the ONLY movie that featured Jason as the killer.





Amy Steele's character in Friday the 13th Part II was originally going to be in the Tommy Jarvis role. Essentially, the script that wound up being used for New Beginning was going to be Part 3, with Steele in the lakeside house having nightmares of Jason and a copycat killer, and a DEAD Jason, never to be seen again. The end of the film would have been the swerve of New Beginning, with STEELE going crazy and being the killer in Part 4. Yes, folks, the original plan for the series was to turn it into "Ginny the Killer" (somehow, Freddy vs. Ginny just doesn't have the same ring to it ;D).

But...Steele backed out at the last minute, a move that she now says she regrets. So, they had to do another movie that set up a crazy survivor to take the killer mantle, which led to Chris (the heroine in Part 3) having some serious mental instability issues, and going nuts at the end of her ordeal with Jason. However, Dana Kimmell wasn't quite the horror film buff they thought she was, so that plan got ditched as well.

AND SO...they had to do another "set up a crazy survivor" movie - The Final Chapter. And as everyone knows, they were all ready to go with Tommy Jarvis being the killer for the remainder of the series after New Beginning - but, by that point, it had been three movies with Jason and the fans had gotten used to him.






Well, that was fun reading all that again.

One more thing from Crystal Lake Memories that I find very interesting, this quote from Amy Steele: "When you're young and cocky, you think that roles are just going to come out of the woodwork, that Spielberg is going to be knocking on your door. And they wanted me back for the next one. I honestly can't remember if it was a money thing or just the script wasn't right or whatever, but my agent told me not to do it, so I didn't do it - but I look back on it now, and I should have just went for it. I should have done Part 3."

Given the plan laid out up above, just IMAGINE how different the horror landscape would look today. I would have given the series 5-6 movies AT MOST before it would have petered out.

[DSR]

Ah, Part 2. It's my favorite movie of the series, in terms of straight-ahead horror (I like parts 5 and 8, but more for their comedic elements). Yeah, the kills aren't all that great (and, anyone familiar with Mario Bava has probably already seen them in Bay of Blood), but it works better for me that the kills are simple and semi-realistic, rather than crushing someone's head to the size of an orange or whatever.

Terri, as far as I can remember, was the first time I saw a girl's butt and said "Man, I gotta get me some of that!" Not those exact words, but you get the idea.

Ginny doesn't really strike me as the killer-type. I know they were gonna basically put her through hell and drive her crazy, but she seems almost too sane to be driven so, what with her background in psychology and all. It honestly makes more sense for a traumatized little kid to grow up crazy (like what happened to Tommy) to me, at least.

It's sorta refreshing that Crazy Ralph dies and the comic relief dork doesn't, at least in retrospect. The "slasher formula" would generally dictate things go the other way around, but I'm a big fan of when films break away from any accepted formula like that, even for just a few little nuances like that.

Lastly, as iconic as the hockey mask has become, I prefer the burlap sack. The hockey mask leaves much of Jason's head uncovered, you can tell he's one gnarly lookin' dude before that mask gets swiped off. With a burlap sack, he could look like absolutely anything under there. It's scarier to me to have no idea what's going on under that sack, than to have even the slightest clue of what to expect.

[Lick Ness Monster]

Nov 8, 2008 17:04:52 GMT -5 DSR said:

Ginny doesn't really strike me as the killer-type. I know they were gonna basically put her through hell and drive her crazy, but she seems almost too sane to be driven so, what with her background in psychology and all. It honestly makes more sense for a traumatized little kid to grow up crazy (like what happened to Tommy) to me, at least.

Oh yeah - totally. Friday the 13th Part V: Ginny's Revenge would have been EPIC fail - like, we're talking Uwe Boll levels of suckness there.

I just wish they would have done two things, but didn't - either stuck to their guns and ENDED the series after The Final Chapter, or actually had the balls to whether the storm of fan criticism and go ahead with Part VI - with Tommy Jarvis behind the hockey mask....but I'll save some comments on this for later entries in the series.

And yeah, Erisi, Ralph's death is quite odd. Apparently he's nineteen feet tall and is able to reach UP AND AROUND the tree.