The “Friday the 13th” Series
With an iconic killer like Jason Voorhees at the center of the franchise, the “Friday the 13th” series has become one of the most famous slashers of all time.
When it comes to the big horror franchises, I mainly stay away from the onslaught of sequels that often accompany iconic films within the genre. While I watch nothing but horror and other Halloween related films/series throughout September and October, there’s only so much time I can dedicate to my favorite monsters, killers and Great Pumpkins. Why waste my time with a convoluted series with the majority of entries failing to achieve critical success or acclaim amongst the fanbase? However, while I have at least seen the original film in most of the big horror series (“Halloween,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Saw” for starters), I had never watched a single film in the “Friday the 13th” series. When I reflected on this omission during the annual Spooky Season, I remembered going to the local video store and being transfixed by the VHS covers for every entry in the franchise. Even “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday,” one of the most reviled films in a popular horror series, had one of the gnarliest covers to a videotape that my six-year-old mind had ever seen.
Now, in time for Halloween, I decided to not only watch the original “Friday the 13th” but all eight sequels as well (I decided to forgo “Jason X” because Jason Voorhees in space is just dumb). After all, whenever people think of the slasher subgenre of horror, Jason Voorhees , his hockey mask and his machete all come to mind alongside the likes of Freddy Kreuger, Michael Myers and Jigsaw. However, I was hesitant because unlike those other franchises, which had an original film that was a well-crafted piece of horror cinema, the first “Friday the 13th” was made just to capitalize on the now popular slasher genre and to make money off of the coattails of “Halloween.” And that’s not just me speculating. That’s what Sean S. Cunningham, the cocreator and director of the original film, said. However, while the series came from a shallow place, the film and its many sequels have carved their place into horror iconography and have certainly left an impact.
After watching all nine of the original films, I can say that, while the vast majority of these films are nothing but mindless slashers, there is an endearing charm to them. Not only is the killer of these movies one of the most memorable horror villains of all time, but the low-budget quality, innovative kills and iconic music have all seeped their way into the hearts of horror fans. But what specifically works about the “Friday the 13th” style and, more importantly, how does a film using this style become good?
Set around Camp Crystal Lake in New Jersey, the first “Friday the 13th” depicts a bunch of teenagers coming back to reopen the camp 22 years after two counselors were murdered by an unknown killer. These murders happened one year after a young boy named Jason Voorhees drowned in the lake while the counselors who were supposed to be watching him had sex. One by one, these teenagers are murdered until a final girl named Alice (Adrienne King) discovers that the killer was Jason’s mother Pamela (Betsy Palmer) who seeks vengeance for her drowned boy. In the original film’s climax, Alice decapitates Mrs. Voorhees with a machete and all seems well.
However, in the sequel, a grown-up Jason is revealed to have survived his drowning and now seeks vengeance (a common goal in the Voorhees family) for his deceased mother by, of course, murdering any teenager that ventures near Camp Crystal Lake while wearing that iconic hockey mask. After killing teens for three films, Jason was finally put down by a young kid named Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman) in “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter”. But you know what’s more powerful than a definitive conclusion? Money. So, a fifth film came out which depicted a copy-cat killer murdering teens with only a grown-up Tommy (Thom Mathews) able to stop him. This change didn’t go over well with fans and so Jason was brought back to life as a zombie in the sixth “Friday” film and the undead killer would continue to butcher innocents for another three films until the character was banished to Hell in the ninth film. Oh and also follow that up with a venture into space, a crossover with Freddy Kruger and a 2009 reboot.
Remember that Kevin Bacon was in the first film? Weird right?
While these cliff notes of the franchise might feel a bit barebones for fans, everyone can agree that most of the films in this series are very similar in structure and plot. A group of teens go to an area around Camp Crystal Lake to have sex, drink and do drugs when all of them are killed in creative ways until there’s only one survivor who is almost always a woman who has to do a run where she stumbles upon all of the victims before taking on Jason Voorhees. Even fans of these films admit that they’re essentially the same film.
But here’s the thing. In the aftermath of “Halloween” there were tons of slashers that were wanting to become the next horror icon. There was no escaping them for a while and most of them never became as big as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Black Christmas” or “Halloween”. Some gained cult followings like “The Slumber Party Massacre”, “Sleepaway Camp” and “Prom Night”, but most felt like cheaply made shlock that lacked the style of Italian Giallo horror or the campy fun of a Roger Corman production. Between “Halloween” defining the craft of the modern slasher and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” bringing it to the next level, “Friday the 13th” was the only film that managed to have the box office and acclaim among horror fans that all of these other nameless slashers wanted. But why this film? Could it just be that it had a cool title?
Well, let’s see what fans of horror have universally praised about this series. First, there’s the killer in Jason Voorhees as well as Betsy Palmer’s iconic performance as Mrs. Voorhees in the first film. As far as I’m concerned, the reason why anyone remembers the original “Friday the 13th” and the biggest reason why it got so many sequels was because of Palmer’s performance. When you revisit the first film, it’s a bit boring in parts because of how undefined the characters are. Adrienne King is relatively decent as Alice, there is a fun novelty to seeing a young Kevin Bacon post-“Animal House” but pre-”Footloose” and the kills by Tom Savini are fantastic but, because the identity of the killer is a secret, many of the kills are obscured and lack the creativity of the sequels (with the exception of that arrow through the throat that kills Kevin Bacon). When Mrs. Voorhees is revealed as the killer, Palmer brings everything and she gives us one hell of a convincing performance as this insane woman who thinks her dead son is talking to her. Throw in an iconic jump scare at the end of the film, where Alice is dragged into the lake by a decaying Jason in a dream sequence, and you have an audience that is demanding a follow-up film.
When Jason is introduced, it’s as entertaining as you’d expect. After all, that hockey mask, which was introduced in the third film, has become such an icon in horror. Whenever people think of horror villains, certain images just never leave your mind like seeing Freddy’s finger-knives, the Ghostface mask or having John Kramer say “I want to play a game.” Throughout most of the films, the kills have been the biggest source of entertainment because it definitely wasn’t the characterization.
You have to give credit to Tom Savini’s original make-up as well as the talents of everyone who designed the special effects, stunts and make-up of the subsequent sequels. Whether it’s seeing Kevin Bacon killed by an arrowhead, having Jeffrey Rogers be sliced in half in the third film or having Crispin Glover be impaled by a corkscrew and then chopped in the head by a meat cleaver, the franchise quickly became famous (or infamous depending on who you asked) for its graphic kills as well as having premarital sex and the consumption of drugs and alcohol lead to the deaths of characters further defining the rules of horror that “Scream” would mock in the 1990s.
When you think of iconic horror scores, there’s a plethora to choose from including John Carpenter’s for “Halloween”, Bernard Hermann’s “Psycho” theme and the work of Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind on “The Shining”. The scores of Harry Manfredini, who composed the music for every “Friday” film with the exception of “Jason Takes Manhattan”, are the stuff of horror legend with those famous vocals, “ki ki ki, ma ma ma,” alerting us to the presence of a killer.
While there is certainly a lot of invention within the franchise that critics don’t give enough credit for, there are plenty of weaknesses to the “Friday” films. For starters, most of the film’s characters range from bland to forgettable to just plain stupid. They’re just horny teens to be sent to the slaughter with so much pointless sex and nudity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some kind of puritanical prude when it comes to sex in cinema. However, depending on the film, the sex scenes in the franchise can feel exploitative. In the fourth film, I actually admire that the men in the film decided to strip as well during the skinny dipping scene in solidarity with their female costars. But other films, the fifth film mainly, just feel like they used sex to draw in viewers.
While many characters in the franchise feel underdeveloped, Ginny Field (Amy Steel) is one of the best final girls in the series.
Other films in the franchise feel watered down when it comes to violence but that’s not necessarily the filmmakers’ fault. The MPA was a massive bully with this series and would constantly tell the filmmakers to tone down the violence so that the film could be released as an R-rated film instead of NC-17. While many of the early films still managed to get away with quite a bit of violence, later films like “Jason Takes Manhattan” feel like the most bland kind of trash. What good is Jason if he doesn’t spill blood?
So what makes a good “Friday” film and what makes a bad one? To me, the best “Friday” films are those that are allowed to embrace their best qualities while also creatively exploiting the worst ones. The second and fourth films work for me as low-budget, serious horror films because, while most of the characters are pretty standard, the final survivors are interesting enough to keep me hooked. The kills don’t feel watered down and the pacing is quite brisk. I also am an admirer of the sixth film because of how much it feels like a parody of the previous films. It has such a gleeful sense of humor with the dark material that you wind up having a good time. The worst films are either boring, inoffensive or just do stupid things that are guaranteed to piss off fans.
While I can’t say that watching all nine of these films has made me a disciple of the ways of the hockey mask, I do have an appreciation for the impact this series has. I don’t think that I’ll watch all of these films every Halloween season but I can definitely think of a few titles I’ll revisit every October.
Now, here is how I rank the original nine films:
Friday the 13th Part II: With my favorite final girl in Ginny Field (Amy Steel), the second film in the franchise was the first to give us Jason Voorhees as the killer and still manages to stay true to the low-budget thrills of the first film. Because this is the second film, not all of the conventions of this series have been established and this does give the film some room to play with the slasher archetypes.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter: Originally set to be the ending of the series, the fourth “Friday” film gave us a wildly entertaining cast of teens to watch get murdered including Crispin Glover pre-”Back to the Future”. Also, Corey Feldman is a phenomenal presence as Tommy Jarvis, an integral character for the fourth, fifth and sixth films of the series. As far as fake endings in a horror franchise go, this is one of the best.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives: By bringing Jason Voorhees back to life as a mindless zombie, this film threw all caution to the wind and just decided to be the bloodiest and goofiest “Friday” film ever. “Jason Lives” certainly succeeded in this regard and this is the kind of fun that a newcomer should be expecting from this series.
Friday the 13th: While boring in places and certainly shy on relatable characters, the original film in the series has enough positive attributes for fans to enjoy including creative kills, a wonderful early performance by Kevin Bacon and a final act that is seared into horror legend. It may not have Jason as the killer but this is still worth a watch for slasher fans.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood: The first film to have the great Kane Hodder play Jason, a role he would reprise in the next three films, “The New Blood” might be divisive but I had a pretty good time with the film. Lar Park Lincoln’s performance as the psychic/telekinetic Tina is much better than the seventh film in a long running series deserves and the 88 minute runtime is quite brisk.
Friday the 13th Part III: While some of the supporting characters are enjoyably goofy and it is part of my favorite era of the series (the first four films), the third “Friday” film is so fake looking that it’s hard to enjoy it. Like other terrible horror films of the era, this film was shot in 3D and the technology took greater precedence over story, atmosphere and character. Every other shot feels so gimmicky and it’s just a good thing that 3D technology has come such a long way.
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday: Seen as one of the worst films in the series, I enjoy how over-the-top so many sequences are as well as a fun appearance by the late Leslie Jordan. However, the lack of Jason and the nonsensical mythos surrounding a simple slasher killer turned zombie makes this final film on my watchlist feel like a dull conclusion to such a varied series.
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan: As a New Yorker, this film offends me. First of all, Jason spends most of the time stalking teens on a boat and doesn’t even have Jason in New York with the exception of one cool shot showing the killer in Times Square. This is the film that feels like it had the least amount of effort put into it. When you read earlier drafts of the script and realized what kind of insane film we could have gotten, it makes this middling bore all the more lifeless.
Friday the 13th: A New Beginning: This film doesn’t even have Jason as the killer and has the dumbest plot twist in the history of the franchise. That’s all I’d like to say about that.
