Friday The 13th (1980) - This was a good start to the franchise. Features a young Kevin Bacon and Betsy Palmer as Jason's mother. She never wanted to do the movie but her car was in the shop and she needed money for repairs, so she took the role. She told me that in person at a convention. Nice lady. Camp Crystal Lake counselors were too busy having sex and partying when they were suppose to be watching young Jason, who ends up drowning. His mother was a cook at the Camp and now blames anyone who would ever be a camp counselor for the loss of her son. Adrienne King does a fine job as the final girl. Jason appears at the very end. They borrowed much from Mario Bava's Bay of Blood movie for this. It is a good movie and I rate it an 8 out of 10. As much for historical significance as anything.
Friday The 13th Part II (1981) - Five years have transpired since the events in the first movie. Jason makes his debut as the killer. Jason is really scrawny and is dressed exactly like the killer from "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." To me, this is the epitome of a slasher movie. The apex of the form. Amy Steel is great in her role as the final girl. The setup is that they are using Camp Crystal Lake to hold a 2 week training program for counselors and Jason isn't very happy about it. I give this one a 10 rating. This is the best movie in the series in my eyes. A blueprint for the slasher genre.
Friday The 13th Part III (1982) - Remember watching this in the theater in 3d when it first came out? I do. It was an awesome experience at the time. They rely quite a bit on the 3d gimmick in this, and watched without the 3d now, it for sure loses something in the translation. Still, not a bad one. College kids on vacation at the lake. Big points for the debut of the hockey mask (thanks for that Shelley). Jason look really starts to come into focus. Also features possibly the lamest "biker gang" in the history of cinema. I give this sequel a rating of a 6.
Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) - Joseph Zito takes over the director's chair for this outing which entails a group of teens that rent a cabin next door to the Jarvis family. A young Corey Feldman plays Tommy Jarvis, an important character in the Friday The 13th mythos. Crispin Glover also appears as one of the teenagers in peril. This features further development in the character of Jason. Also, rather than a "final girl", Part 4 has a certain surviving young boy that may have gone over the edge. This is one of the better installments and I give it an 8.
Friday The 13th: A New Beginning (1985) - A returning Tommy Jarvis is grown. He is a disturbed individual with what happened to him in the previous movie. Tommy is moved to a halfway house with a bunch of other misfits. This is suppose to take place in a different state than any of the previous movies. I believe they are set in New Jersey and this is in Connecticut. Part 5 features a huge body count, but it is delivered by a counterfeit Jason. He is a crazy guy that is mimicking our dear Mr. Voorhees. There are rather decent characters in this movie, the tenants at the halfway house are interesting fodder. The kid that played Arnold's friend Dudley on Different Strokes and the dude that played Juwanna Mann are both featured and do good jobs in their roles. Tons of sex and drug use in this movie, but that doesn't deter me from recognizing this as one of my favorites in the series. I give this one a 9.
Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) - It's years later and Tommy Jarvis is back, but played by a different actor. A dude from Return of The Living Dead even. Tommy has been released from custody and is now free. This marks the return of the actual Jason, however this is the beginning of the supernatural Jason. He is brought back to life by a lightning strike in a bit of an homage to Frankenstein's Monster. There is a lot of humor in Part 6 which gives a bit of a different feel to the entire film. This time Jason is tall and skinny and bulked up with a padded outfit. In another odd turn of events, I don't think there is any nudity whatsoever in this entire show. That is somewhat of a radical departure for a slasher movie. A nice rockin' soundtrack featuring Alice Cooper also adds a little something to the mix. This one gets a rating of a 7.
Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) - The quintessential Jason, Kane Hodder makes his debut as the murderous masked mutilating marauder of the macabre. Kane Hodder plays the best Jason by far. In Part 7, Tina, a telepathic girl, her mom, and her headshrinking doctor go to the lake so Tina can face her fears about the death of her dad at the lake years before. A ridiculous amount of sex abounds this time around. Something akin to late night Cinemax back in the day. Tina accidently brings Jason back with her telepathic powers, setting up the massive killing spree that we are all waiting for. This movie also continues the tradition of the cheap jump scare as a cat jumps out across the screen at just the right time. Seen that one a few times. This is a decent romp with a great Jason, but overall I give it a 6.
Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) - It's time for the senior trip for the kids from Crystal Lake School. How about a cruise to Manhattan? Sounds great, except Jason is stuck at the bottom of the lake and is somehow unstuck by the boat anchor and in the ultimate suspension of disbelief brought back once again, not by lightning or telepathy, but by being sparked back to life by some conveniently placed electrical wires. They actually only reach Manhattan for the last half hour or so of the movie, which culminates with a melted face Jason. This is pretty much a stinker. Really bad. I generously give this a 4 out of 10. Generously.
Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday (1993) - Part 9 takes us in a totally different direction thank God. Jason is ambushed by a government task force and is blown to Hell. During his autopsy his spirit enters the body of the medical examiner and possesses him. When the possessed person dies, the spirit of Jason hops into the next person. The person looks like themselves, but if their reflection is seen in a mirror you see the visage of Jason looking back. Creighton Duke, played by the X-Files Mister X himself, Stephen Williams, is a hardened bounty hunter that is hot on Jason's trail. The wonderful Erin Gray (met her a couple of times) plays a waitress at the diner, and she shares a hidden history with Jason. (Think Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Myers in Halloween for a reference.) Kane Hodder makes an appearance without the hockey mask as a doomed security guard during one scene, which was a nice touch. There is also one particularly brutal and gruesome kill at a campfire that stands out in my mind as a true highlight. For some unknown reason the bounty hunter knows how to kill Jason, still haven't figured that out yet. Overall this features some good kills, but not enough Jason. It was a good try to do something a little different, but a magical dagger? Really? I rate this one at a 5.
Jason X (2001) - The government wants the secrets to Jason's ability to regenerate. They cryogenically freeze him until they have the technology to figure this out. Several hundred years go by and a group of young people on a field trip to a now uninhabitable earth find Jason and take him aboard their spaceship. They head back towards their planet, Earth 2. Jason thaws during the journey and madness ensues. How did we manage to get from Friday The 13th Part 1 to this? Maybe Jason will burn up while entering the atmosphere after free falling from outer space. This movie is watchable, barely, but slightly embarrassing, and not what I personally want out of a Friday The 13th. The best I can give this is a 3 out of 10. Yikes.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003) - Although far more of an Elm St. movie than a Friday The 13th, this still qualifies as the 11th in the series. In this installment Freddy Krueger is trying to come back to continue his shenanigans but he isn't strong enough because parents are drugging their kids with an anti dreaming pill, which in turn renders Freddy powerless. So, in order to manifest the juice to make it back by causing people to remember him, he enlists Jason Voorhees from Hell, brings him back from the dead so Jason will kill a bunch of kids in the Elm St. neighborhood. This will strengthen Freddy enough to come back and continue his trail of terror. Wow. As Freddy gets stronger, he realizes Jason isn't going to stop his killing spree on the Elm St. kids, which presents a problem because Freddy wants to kill those kids himself. In other words, this entire premise is a set up so Freddy and Jason can have a giant fight. Meanwhile, a few of the kids figure out what's happening and attempt to stop both Freddy and Jason. There is a good cast of decent actors this time around which is helpful. Too bad the script isn't up to par with the on screen talent. Not the worst by far, but still somewhat disappointing when you know this could have been special. 6 out of 10.
Friday The 13th (2009) - Reboot? Reimagining? Continuation? A bit of all these things I guess. A group of campers are near the abandoned Camp Crystal Lake. The legend is that there were a series of brutal killings here decades earlier. One of the campers is Amanda Righetti from the Mentalist show. She's a good actress. You know this movie can't be all bad when it features Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" for some unknown reason not 10 minutes in. But that doesn't mean it's good either. A machete wielding Jason soon makes an appearance and begins downsizing the group of campers. A pair of the campers wander off and find a mysterious rundown shack in the woods. The home of Jason Voorhees. Move ahead 6 weeks and Jared Palecki from Gilmore Girls and Supernatural shows up on the scene. His sister was one of the campers and they are all officially "missing." His name is Clay and he is canvasing the area passing out flyers of his missing sister. At the gas station he runs into a group of rich kids on their way to stay at rich douchebag number 1's parents vacation cabin. They soon discover there is no cell phone reception in the area. Never a good sign when that happens in a horror movie. Danielle Panabaker from Flash also appears and this is actually quite a good cast of talented actors. Part 12 incorporates many good elements from the other movies but it just should have been so much better than the end result. It is lacking a few areas that I truly enjoy in my slashers. It is filmed rather dark and muddy, and I kind of like bright and colorful scenery in these. I guess I feel it gives a much starker contrast when the killer strikes or something. The script kind of plods along in places and drags a bit as well. A few other things I found bothersome include Jason doesn't feel like Jason. He is portrayed more like Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or the redneck mutants from the Wrong Turn series. At times he is almost Ninja Jason. The biggest thing that bugs me is that Jason runs in this movie. Jason isn't suppose to run. The victims are suppose to run. They should be running at top speed while Jason is shown walking after them. Always walking, yet he catches up to them to do his business. That is what Jason does. He does not run! Blasphemy!Final problem I have with this film is that it just isn't scary. That can be a problem when a horror movie isn't scary. I don't mean to totally slog on this cuz I enjoyed it. It just squandered a lot of potential to be great. I guess I would give this one a 6.
I considered attempting to run through the Friday The 13th TV Series as well and include that along with this post, but that is a big project and will have to wait for a future time.
Friday The 13th is a great series of movies overall. My favorite by far is the second one. Classic slasher fare. If they continue to put these out I will continue to watch them, even if they suck. I guess that makes me a sucker for Friday The 13th. I enjoyed going through these again. Captain Creepy hopes everyone has a very wonderful Friday The 13th.
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