Waiting For The Watchmen

As the release date for Watchmen sits just a week away, I just realized why my anticipation for this landmark adaptation has been just a little muted - I can't quite believe that a Watchmen film actually exists. Sure I've been following its progress with a mix of curiosity and anxiousness but it still seems unreal that Watchmen has finally been made into a feature film - much less one that looks to have such fidelity to the source material.

It's been well over a decade since I last re-read Watchmen so unless I get a chance to read it again before next week, I'm sure there'll be plenty of details Synder left out that won't even register with me as missing. And that's fine with me - although I expect if this movie is as faithful as it's reported to be, every frame will bring back a flood of memories, jarring my recollections of the book as it goes along.

I first read Watchmen in monthly installments when it was released in '86. Even though I was a high school senior then, I still think the series was just a little over my head at times - or maybe it was just such a different experience than anything else I had found in comics up to that point. Even the way it was packaged was dramatically different in which each cover was a detail from within the issue (a trophy, a Rorschach blot, etc.) and not the traditional style of comic book cover that emphasized action or character.

When I finished reading issue #12, I didn't think of the series in terms of it being a masterpiece or a classic - I just knew that I had loved the story and that it had gripped me straight through the year-plus change that it took to be released. I certainly didn't expect that nothing else in comics would ever come close to it - which is probably the saddest part of Watchmen's legacy, that it stands alone in the history of the medium. Many wonderful comics have come along since, some of them classics in their own right (everything from Sandman to Y: The Last Man to Alias to Preacher), but none of them have been the singular achievement that Watchmen is.

Even though I'm extremely excited to see the film, I agree with writer Alan Moore's unhappy assertion that Watchmen is so specific to the comic book form (thanks to such artistic choices as reserving the use of splash pages until the final issue to reveal the dramatic destruction of Manhattan) that to take it out of its home medium is taking a large part of its impact with it. On the other hand, as director Zack Synder has pointed out, mainstream movie audiences have become fluent in the tropes of superhero fiction in a way they weren't twenty years ago thanks to the popularity of superhero movies so that a Watchmen film can more readily comment on the genre in a way now that it couldn't when Watchmen the book was first released. Had this been made in the late '80s, as initially planned, with Sam Hamm writing and Terry Gilliam directing, it would've been a nightmare. There would have no confidence that audiences would be able to keep up with the material without making drastic changes to get mainstream viewers up to speed.

Speaking to Comics Interview in issue #70 about the then pending release of Batman, Sam Hamm discussed the challenges of adapting Watchmen, saying "...I couldn't see how anyone could turn it into a movie because 1) there's too much sprawl in the story, too much time shifting and flashbacks, and 2) there's too much expositional material to get across." Hamm also said of his resulting screenplay (which jettisoned the beginning of the book, its ending and the entire history of the Minutemen, keeping only the present-day characters) that "I feel like what I came in to do was essentially the writerly equivalent of what Kodak used to do, take elegant technology and dumb it down for mass consumption." I've never read Hamm's screenplay (or if I have, I've long since forgotten it) but remarks like that illuminate how much things have opened up in mainstream culture for even the most geek-centric material. To make Watchmen the way that Synder has approached it would've been an impossible sell twenty years ago - it would've been unpalatable for a wider audience - now it seems inevitable that this is the way it had to be made, if it were to be made at all.

I've only skimmed a few reviews so far and at this point I'll hold off on looking any further into other's opinions until I've seen the film for myself. Even if I walk away feeling that Synder got Watchmen 90% right, I'll consider it to be some kind of triumph. It doesn't have to be 100%. In the end it really can't be - that's what the comic is for.

Friday the 13th: The Final Blog

Judging by the historic box office plummet of the Friday the 13th reboot (just a week after it's historic box office debut), it looks like America has already moved past Jason until the inevitable next installment of his exploits. For myself, I'm still lingering around Crystal Lake for a last look. After watching the entire series again for my Crystal Lake Countdown and after all the excitement and build-up for the new movie, it's hard for me to move on from the world of Friday the 13th. Having watched the reboot a second time now, my feelings are still on par with my initial viewing. If nothing else, this feels like a real Friday the 13th film more than Jason X, Jason Goes To Hell, or Jason Takes Manhattan did and that counts as a step in the right direction to me.

Clearly plenty of people were disappointed by Platinum Dunes' take on the franchise, though, but I'm not entirely sure how PD should've brought Jason back to the screen differently. I understand the complaints about the kills not being up to the series' standards (although I don't quite agree - I thought Friday '09 was ok in that regard) and I understand how older fans might've felt burned by a film that was more interested in going after a new audience rather than respecting the original fanbase. But I continue to be dumbfounded by the criticisms that the characters weren't interesting or sympathetic, that the plot was horrible, or that the film lacked suspense. Directed towards a Friday the 13th film, I find those complaints to be laughable. They're all totally true, of course, but they've been true of all the Fridays (save for arguably the first two) so how is it suddenly cause for concern? Reviewing 1984's Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter for Cinefantastique (Vol. 14, No. 4), CFQ critic Steve Dimeo wrote "this installment, like the others, wouldn't be caught dead probing anything as meaningful as character in its story of six sex-starved teens who visit Crystal Lake."

Dimeo's dismissive review of twenty-five years ago might just as well be directed towards the new Friday with comments like "this...installment assaults the senses as it's supposed to - but it ultimately just insults the viewer's sensibilities. Quite frankly, today's teenagers deserve better." That was true in 1984 and it's true today. But these films have always needed to be graded on a curve. Should the new film have striven to improve on the previous installments? Well, I guess so. But I think expecting that of the twelfth Friday the 13th is bound to lead to disappointment. Although to be honest, I do think that's what Platinum Dunes was trying to do in some respects in regards to keeping Jason more grounded in reality and in giving Jared Padalecki's character a more altruistic reason to be at Crystal Lake other than just getting stoned and laid.

Should Friday '09 have modeled itself after the original film more? Maybe. But in the minds of most people, that first film isn't what Friday the 13th is about anymore. It's not just that people expect to see Jason in action rather than his mother, it's that they expect a much rowdier film than the original. Even by the time Part 2 was made back in '81 it was already impossible to make another Friday paced like the first film was (already they were including more characters, more potential victims) and the series has only gotten farther away from the slow burn of Cunningham's original since then so I can't fault Platinum Dunes too much for taking the approach they did.

One problem with rebooting the franchise is that the legend of Jason makes no sense but yet that's what anyone who wants to make a Friday the 13th film is stuck with. In the old movies, it was all just glossed over and no one gave it much thought but Jason's story needs a little work. You have to have the tragedy of his drowning so that his mother develops a vendetta against the teens of Crystal Lake. But yet is Jason supposed to be at the bottom of the lake all this time? Or is he supposed to have survived his drowning and been living in the woods? I'm guessing the later is what we're supposed to believe but wouldn't his mother have found Jason during this time? If his body wasn't recovered in the lake, a search of the surrounding woods would've been in order - especially with a mother as devoted as Mrs. Voorhees.

My thought would've been to have Jason drown, but no body be found. Have Mrs. Voorhees raise a riot with the camp owners and town officials about the negligence of the counselors but the matter is brushed aside. After all, what's the life of a mongoloid compared to that of the promising futures of clean cut, All-American kids? And why's a kid with a giant head trying to swim anyhow? The lack of any concern for Jason or his memory causes Mrs. Voorhees to lose it. She kills the kids responsible and is apprehended and put in a mental institution before any further harm is done. During that time, "Camp Blood" is shut down and stories circulate about the story of Jason, how his body was never recovered from the lake and that some say he still survives in the woods, waiting for his mother to find him. Years later, as the camp is due to be reopened, Mrs. Voorhees escapes, makes her way back to Crystal Lake and slaughters as many counselors as she can before one chops her head off (perhaps the last counselor gets that famous killing blow in because Mrs. Voorhees is distracted by the unexpected sight of Jason silently emerging from the woods). Jason sees his mother's death and that night his mission of vengeance is born.

Maybe that would've worked or maybe it would've sucked ass but fans can speculate endlessly about what they would do if someone handed them the keys to the franchise. For good or bad, it's never the fans who call the shots. The best you can hope for with these movies is that they come within shouting distance of your expectations and give fans a modicum of respect. I felt the new film dropped the ball in some ways (among other things, I wish that the series would bring the camp counselor angle back - how long has it been since a Friday has actually been about Camp Crystal Lake?) and succeeded in others (Jason is a movie monster to be reckoned with again, rather than just a relic from the '80s).

One thing's for certain - Jason will be back before long. If this latest entry was a disappointment to some, it's far from the first time that's been the case. But as I've found from revisiting the series, even the Fridays that were once met with derision have their own appeal and their own admirers.

Maybe time does heal all wounds - even when they're inflicted with a machete.

The Premio Dardo Awards

I'm late in addressing this but I wanted to give a wholehearted thanks to my pals at Kindertrauma for picking my modest blogspot as deserving of a Premio Dardo Award. As I understand it, this online accolade is meant to spotlight blogs that are considered exemplary (or perhaps simply non-sucky) and as Kindertrauma itself is as exemplary and non-sucky as they come, I'm gratified by their support.

As part of the conditions of receiving a Premio Dardo Award, one is supposed to in turn nominate five blogspots they feel deserve the same attention. Unfortunately, on my 'to do' list is to find more time to explore the blogosphere at large. I remain woefully ignorant of the many fine blogs out there and the few that I have found are already recipients (probably several times over) of Dardos. That said, here's four blogs I frequent enough to mention, plus one that seems to have stopped posting but is well worth visiting.

In no particular order:

Stephen R. Bissette's MyRant:

Best known to many as a celebrated Swamp Thing artist along with John Totleben during much of writer Alan Moore's tenure on the title, Bissette is peerless when it comes to film criticism and his vast knowledge of horror, sci-fi and cult cinema is guaranteed to make even the most hardcore fan feel like they've only scratched the surface of what's out there. There's much more to his blog than movies, though, so check it out.

Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot:

I keep forgetting to add this excellent blog from Marty McKee, moderator at Mobius Home Video Forum, to my Side Menu so I'll take this as the occasion to finally do so. McKee's opinions on films are informative and unpretentious and that kind of straight shooting style is always welcome with me.

Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies:

True to its title, many a mad movie is discussed here by exploitation enthusiasts The Vicar of VHS and The Duke of DVD.

Evil On Two Legs:

Self-described as offering "reviews and commentary on the horror genre with an emphasis on slasher films", the folks at Evil On Two Legs write about the kind of stuff I like and they do it well.

Kill The Snark:

I guess this blogspot is on permanent hiatus seeing as it hasn't been updated since November of last year but I hope it gets going again as a site that promises "uncynical opinions on film and media" and delivers on that is something worth keeping around. Loved Jeff Kuykendall's thoughtful review of the last X-Files movie.

Thanks again to Kindertrauma for the generous props!

Friday the 13th (2009)

I've been waiting a long time to see Jason go on a proper rampage again and thankfully, the new reboot of Friday the 13th courtesy of Platinum Dunes and director Marcus Nispel did not disappoint. By the time the title Friday the 13th came on screen after a lengthy opening and an already robust body count, I felt satisfied that I had seen everything I had come to see - the rest of the film after that was just gravy. Call me a satisfied customer.

Of course, because this is a remake there's inevitably been a few gripes over the internet concerning the inherent wrongness of this film and the many ways in which it's ruined lives. Reading some of the online criticism, I wish that these complaints were meant to be tongue-in-cheek but clearly some people are upset. Maybe if these people were more familiar with the Friday the 13th series, they would calm down. I know they claim to be fans, but I wonder how that's possible.

For instance, would a fan try to complain about the one-dimensional characters in this movie? I'd think they'd know better than that. To slam Friday '09 on the grounds that its characters were ciphers who didn't really engender the proper amount of interest or sympathy is a curious thing to bitch about. Are the kids in this new movie so much less riveting than the likes of Paul Krata, Lawrence Monoson or Tiffany Helm? To my eyes, no. In fact, I think this sports a more winning cast than most of the films in the series. I particularly liked Travis Van Winkle as the movie's major asshole, Trent (at one point he gives a bitch scream for the ages). I also liked Aaron Yoo as Chewie, who fills his obligatory minority spot in the film with humorous aplomb. And Jared Padalecki (already an old hand at genre fare thanks to roles in Cry_Wolf, House of Wax and TV's Supernatural) makes an appealing lead as the concerned character of Clay. In a Friday first, I actually felt a glimmer of wanting Clay to succeed against Jason, which I count as an accomplishment on Padalecki's part. As for the ladies here, they're fine. I wish there'd been an actress as vivid as Part 2's Amy Steel here but I've been waiting twenty-eight years to be as taken with a Final Girl in a Friday movie as I was with Steel so I can't hold that against this film.

Something else I can't hold against it is the fact that its story isn't all that profound. To my surprise, I've read complaints that the story concocted by writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (of Freddy vs. Jason fame) is 'nonsensical'. I wouldn't think that anyone familiar with the previous eleven films (ten, if you don't count Freddy vs. Jason) would consider it an issue that a Friday the 13th was nonsensical but apparently I'd be wrong. Personally, I thought it was understood that Friday the 13th has never made sense (something that hasn't stopped it from being enjoyable). Tom Savini opted not to do Part 2 because he rightfully thought it was stupid that Jason, a figure that was only supposed to be a figment of Alice's nightmare, was now the main killer. So to single out this reboot as being 'nonsensical' is laughable - as though no one's intelligence had ever been insulted by a Friday the 13th film until the folks at Platinum Dunes got a hold of the property! Seriously, Jason is killing kids in the woods here. Like the other movies where Jason is killing kids in the woods. And just slightly different than the ones where he kills them on a cruise ship, in Manhattan, and in space. Sorry to anyone who's let themselves be misled as to what to expect. In fairness to the filmmakers, the title Friday the 13th was a pretty fair heads-up. No one's ever acted confused about this shit until now.

I'm also stunned that anyone would bitch that the new kills aren't up to Friday standards. Is every single one an iconic Friday kill? No, but going back to the first movie, in every Friday there's always a couple of kills that are outstanding (the arrow-through-the-neck, the decapitation of Mrs. Voorhees) and the rest are just all right (Ned, Brenda, Steve Christy and Bill all die off-camera). I mean, Mark getting the machete to the face and then having his wheelchair tumble backwards down a flight of stairs in Part 2 was classic but then in the same film there's the hot skinny-dipper who just sees a dude hanging upside down with his throat slit, then turns to the camera and screams. End of scene. If the remake pulled a punk move like that, everyone would be crying foul about how the filmmakers had botched an opportunity. And what about the last we see of Tommy and Trish's mother in The Final Chapter? She gasps at something off-camera and that's it. I could go down the line through every Friday and point to examples of where the filmmakers didn't go the extra mile but if I did, I worry that it might make me look at little nutty. Suffice it to say, anyone who complains about the kills in this movie is suffering from false memories about what the other films are actually like. At least every character dies on camera here, which is a rarity in the series (possibly a historic first).

With kills that run the gamut from shockingly sadistic, to morbidly funny, to kills that are more hands-on (where Derek Mears' ferocious portrayal of Jason really stands out - this guy's already a front-runner as Best Jason Ever), Friday the 13th '09 acquits itself just fine in the mayhem department.

Further down the line of complaints, some say that Jason's iconic hockey mask is given too casual of an introduction. But as one of my fears for this movie was that the producers would feel they had to come up with some dipshit backstory to 'explain' the mask, I feel relieved at how they handled it. I was dreading we'd have to learn about how hockey was Jason's favorite sport and that he used to skate on Crystal Lake in the winter or some epic lameness like that. I mean, unless you're going to go that route (and thank God that didn't happen here), the only other way to bring the hockey mask in is just to do it. In Part 3 he gets it with no special fanfare so why look for something bigger here? At least the remake has him come across it in a barn, which is a nod to the fact that he originally got the mask after killing Shelly in a barn so for what it's worth there's some acknowledgement of the series' history there.

As for the other controversies this film has incurred among fans - like why did they make Jason into a pot farmer, how can Jason be an expert marksman with a bow and arrow, why does he utilize a network of tunnels, and since when does he keeps prisoners in his basement - all of that seems pretty easy to deal with. First, Jason isn't a pot farmer. There's just weed growing on his land. And he likes to kill anyone who trespasses. I like to think of the weed as nature's way of bringing a certain type into Jason's domain. Jason's handiness with a bow and arrow isn't an issue, either. After all, someone who lives off the land and hunts for their food would have to be accomplished as a marksman (as Ginny said in Part 2: "Let's think beyond the legend and put it in real terms.") and it's not as though Jason hasn't always shown an aptitude for weapons. Jason having tunnels to travel through is also fine with me. It doesn't seem any more outrageous than other elements the series has asked us to go along with. I mean, really. If he had installed some kind of subway system or rocket sled, that'd be worth calling bullshit over but tunnels on their own is acceptable. And while keeping a girl alive in his basement may not be something we've seen Jason do before, as this girl reminds him of his mother I don't feel like it violates his character to not kill her. Jason has always shown a weakness for his mother. The slightest hint of her image is the one thing that can transfix him. And ultimately, we have to keep in mind that this is a reboot of Jason rather than a continuation of the original series so if he handles things a little differently, that's why.

I'd never try to call this a great film but I'd be a hypocrite if I called it out for having the same flaws as every other Friday. From the beginning, these films have always been aimed at a crowd who is largely undiscriminating when it comes to horror. Like many Gen-Xers, I love the series because I started watching it at the right age but as I've gotten older and my tastes have broadened, I still appreciate the Friday the 13th movies for what they are and for having encouraged my interest in the genre. To criticize this as representing a 'dumbing down' of horror is to ignore the fact that the original films were accused of the exact same crime. Friday the 13th '09 isn't a work that'll elevate the Art of Horror like, say, Let The Right One In. It's about watching Jason bury his machete in a few skulls - but that's a valid part of the genre experience, too.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Crystal Lake Countdown Day 11: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Friday the 13th fans tend to favor the movie that they started off with no matter what. For me, that means loving Friday the 13th is always going to come back to Friday the 13th Part 2. Luckily, this first sequel really is the best of the series. Some view Part 2 as an odd-man-out entry because Jason is sporting his Elephant Man sack here (a look also reminiscent of the hooded killer in The Town That Dreaded Sundown) rather than the iconic hockey mask but that sack has always worked for me. Sack head Jason forever! With Part 2, Steve Miner took over as director from Sean Cunningham after serving as associate producer on the original and in his first feature directing gig he brought his A-game and turned the surprise success of Friday the 13th into a series to be reckoned with.

Well before I saw Part 2, I saw the cover of FANGORIA issue #12 that featured a pic of Mrs. Voorhees' severed head in the refrigerator (this was back when FANGORIA was proudly sold at my local Jane Alden convenience store - those were the days!). That cover blew me away and I couldn't wait to see the movie. At the time I hadn't even seen the first Friday yet but my best friend had just gotten cable installed in his neighborhood and so our day was coming.

Shortly after Part 2 made its pay cable premeire, we chose a weekend to do a sleepover when we knew Part 2 would be airing. Because his parents would know we were up watching something we shouldn't be if we watched the earliest scheduled show of the night, we had to wait till the 1:00 am showing. Around 12:20 or so, our curiosity got the best of us and we decided that we had to take a peek at the ending of the movie. We were paranoid about being heard so we got right up on top of the TV with the volume low. It was the scene towards the end where Ginny and Paul are back in their cabin and they hear a scratching at the door. Ginny holds a pitchfork in front of her, braced for whatever may burst in as Paul whips open the door to reveal an adorable little puppy. Just then Jason explodes through the window behind Ginny. My friend and I leaped back at least ten feet in the air, then scrambled back to the TV to shut it off. It was then that my friend and I started to have serious second thoughts about watching the rest of the movie.

When 1:00 am came and we put the TV back on, we were a little less sure about our decision then we had been earlier in the night. And the opening sequence did nothing to put us at ease. Even knowing ahead of time that Mrs. Voorhees' head would be in the refrigerator, the pre-title sequence had me cowering. I even jumped at the cheap scare of a cat jumping through the window. And the clips from the original Friday were terrifying, too, as we hadn't seen any of that movie yet. By the time the titles came up, we were convinced that if the movie began like this and ended with the scene we saw earlier, then this had to be the scariest movie either of us had ever seen.

By 2:30 or so, as the credits rolled over a freeze frame of Mrs. Voorhees' head, I don't know if we still thought we had seen the scariest movie ever - as it turns out, save for the wheelchair death of Mark, the beginning and the end were by far the best parts of the movie - but we sure as shit had enjoyed ourselves. From that night on, I was a diehard Friday the 13th fan. As much as the series has had its ups and downs over the years, I can't shed my affection for it. As for how Part 2 holds up today, I think that in almost every way, it's an improvement over the original (even though it's impossible to best the climatic decapitation of Mrs. Voorhees and Jason's leap from the lake). Working in Part 2's favor is the fact that Miner's a sharper director than Cunningham, the cast is a little more polished (without being overly slick) and the pace is quicker than that of the original without being as rushed as the later entries of the series would become. Miner also avoids the more overt corniness of the original (no Strip Monopoly here) and his lead actress, Amy Steel, is hands-down the best of the Friday girls. I love Adrienne King as Alice but Steel's Ginny really has it all. She has such a natural appeal - she's tough, beautiful, resourceful, and athletic. Had Steel stuck with the series for another outing (or had done another horror film that was stronger than 1986's April Fool's Day), I think she'd be more widely appreciated as a classic Scream Queen.



While I think Ted White's Jason from The Final Chapter takes the golden machete for Best Jason, I love Steve Dash's Jason too (with his signature lopping run) and Part 2's overall depiction of Jason as a resourceful - but not indestructible - backwoods psycho is my favorite handling of the character. The concept of Jason keeping his mother's head on a candle-lit shrine (surrounded by the bodies of the victims he claimed in her name - including Alice's decayed corpse with the ice pick still in her skull) was perfect and it said all that ever needed to be said about him. I also think that make-up man Carl Fullerton's design for Jason (as worn by Warrington Gillette) remains the best that's been done, looking grotesque without going over the top. Truly a face only a mother could love.

The final chase between Jason and Ginny is still the best in the series. Miner squeezes a lot of excitement out of this long sequence (that begins when Ginny detects the crouched figure of Jason moving towards them in the dark of the main cabin - "Paul, there's someone in this fucking room!"). And Ginny's stand-off with Jason as she uses her child psychology training to get into Jason's head is a classic moment, giving Dash a chance to deliver more of real performance than other Jasons as he bows before the image of his approving 'mother'.

In a perfect world, the MPAA wouldn't have forced Miner to excise the now-legendary FX footage of Sandra and Bill's shish-ka-bob demise but that's just the breaks (and in a slightly more just world, Paramount would've reinstated the footage by now). Part 2 is still solid without it, though, and whatever it's faults Part 2 earns the distinction of being the film that turned Friday the 13th into a successful franchise. Had Miner and co. made different choices with this film - had they not gone with the idea of introducing Jason as the killer, had they abandoned the formula of the first film instead of striving to refine it, then we wouldn't still be going back to Camp Crystal Lake all these years later.

Crystal Lake Countdown Day 10: Friday the 13th (1980)

Sometimes you just catch lightening in a bottle and that's what the original Friday the 13th was. The simple story crafted by Victor Miller and Sean Cunningham, with its natural qualities of a campfire tale, was the perfect showcase for Tom Savini's groundbreaking FX work. Savini's own work in 1978's Dawn of the Dead was a benchmark in splatter (in fact, his work in that film led Romero to coin the phrase "splatter movie") but it was more of a midnight movie, rather than a mainstream hit. But Friday the 13th was different. For this grotty little independent film, with its grainy look and grisly FX to be picked up by a major studio like Paramount was a significant deal. It meant that Friday the 13th would receive the kind of wide distribution that a low budget exploitation film normally wouldn't have. And unlike Dawn of the Dead, it was rated R so it would automatically play more venues and be more accessible to a wider range of moviegoers. So while some had already had the pleasure of seeing the top of a zombie's head sliced off by a helicopter blade, for many viewers Friday the 13th was really the start of something new.

It's almost impossible now, almost thirty years later to even remember, much less convey to those who weren't around then, how genuinely shocking the original Friday the 13th was at the time. We weren't such a jaded culture back then. In 1980, just to see a throat slashed on screen was really something. It was horrifying. And Kevin Bacon's arrow through the neck murder was astonishing, jaw-dropping stuff. We weren't blase yet about sights like this. We didn't yet live in world of Re-Animator, or The Evil Dead, or Dead-Alive where seeing gore by the gallons became commonplace. And in the days before most households had VCR's, if you hadn't seen Dawn of the Dead in a theater, you had no other way to see it (and for those few who had VCR's in 1980, I don't even think Dawn of the Dead was on cassette yet).

Given the extremes to which popular culture in general - and horror filmmaking in particular - have gone in the years since Friday the 13th, the original film now carries an old-fashioned appeal to it. Savini's state-of-the-art special effects (which only constitute about a minute or two of screentime in the film) forever changed the expectations of horror fans - and made horror movies a renewed target for moral watchdogs as well. The outrage this film incurred seems hard to believe now, as today what was once considered to be a notorious bloodbath seems positively Hitchcockian.

Although Friday the 13th has long since lost its shock value, I think it still plays very well. And that's because Cunningham didn't set out to make a gore film. This isn't out to hammer the viewer with kill after kill. Cunningham actually expects the audience to stick with the movie when not much appears to be happening. And in tandem with cinematographer Barry Abrams, Cunningham makes Camp Crystal Lake a truly scary place to be. More than with any other film in the series, you really feel that these kids are alone in the middle of the woods. There's a sense of isolation that pervades the film and when night falls on Crystal Lake, it really feels like night - not movie-style night time where everything is still somehow illuminated but real, honest-to-God night. Outside the the limited light of a lantern or a flashlight, you're just looking at blackness. The only other film since that created that same feeling that I can readily think of is The Blair Witch Project.

Some may feel otherwise but for me, Betsy Palmer's performance as Mrs. Voorhees falls on the right side of campiness. Her peformance doesn't hold back and it really gives the third act a boost. Palmer handles the necessary exposition well without letting it stop the film in its tracks and when she has to pursue Alice, she's a convincing threat. You can believe that she was able to take down all these people and that she would be a relentless adversary. And as the first Final Girl of the Friday series, Adrienne King's Alice will always exist in a class by herself. Maybe because I've never seen King in any other film besides this, but she's easily the most wholly believable girl-next-door of any of the Friday actresses. There's a cherub-faced sweetness about her that's been abolished from the world of movies, apparently, because I've never seen another horror heroine quite like her.

Even though Friday the 13th was far from an original creation - preceded by the likes of Twitch of the Death Nerve, Black Christmas, and Halloween - it still feels like a one of a kind movie to me, like a last summer of innocence before horror films had to constantly up the ante on each other and squeeze more slaughter in. It feels like a product of more carefree times and that's always a welcome place to return to.

Crystal Lake Countdown Day 9: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

The prospect of the Friday the 13th series coming to an end was a shocking notion in 1984. At least it was for the legions of fans who had come to depend on a yearly fix of summer camp slaughter. Then again, maybe four films that were practically the same should be considered enough. Yeah, I didn’t buy that then or now but regardless, at the time it looked like the final curtain was really falling on Jason’s reign of terror.

Director Joe Zito, of The Prowler fame, was hired to direct and his proven skill at making great slasher cinema would be an asset to The Final Chapter. Along with scripter Barney Cohen and creative input from Boston-based money man Phil Scuderi, Jason’s endgame was mapped out. One thing I admire about The Final Chapter is that there’s no importance placed on explaining whatever lingering mysteries the series offered. This wasn't taken an opportunity to give fans any answers. In fact, it doesn't even seem to have been made by people who were aware that there might have been any questions to begin with. Jason himself is still as inexplicable and implacable as ever. He’s apparently dead when the movie begins – at least dead enough to be taken to the morgue – and then after awhile he gets up and starts killing again. That’s it. And that’s how it should be, damn it. We know Jason’s not really dead and it’s unimportant to the movie how he manages to overcome his final slumber. We don’t need any lightening bolts, we don’t need any occult rituals, we don’t even need any fucking words said about it. If this movie were made today, of course, the screenwriters would be compelled to come up with some mystic, supernatural horseshit or some kind of backstory about the Voorhees bloodline. Thankfully, The Final Chapter was made before fans started demanding that kind of crap and it was made by people who had no patience for nonsense, either. This was the last chance for Jason to do what he did best. Why waste time on anything else?

The only bone The Final Chapter throws towards stoking the larger legend of Jason is with the character of Rob (Erich Anderson), the amateur hunter who thinks that he can kill Jason on his home turf. I always liked this character as it played up Jason’s aura as some kind of modern myth. Given the time line of Friday Parts 2-4, however, Rob’s status as a Jason Hunter Extraordinaire doesn’t make much sense. It’s the murder of his sister Sandra (the bottom half of the shish-a-bob kill in Part 2) that put him on a path of vengeance but while it seems like Rob’s been hunting Jason for years, chronologically his sister died just two weeks ago at best. Sure, in the real world, we’d been watching Jason wasting teens for four years but in the movie world, the events of Parts 2-4 happened virtually on top of each other. But whatever, Rob’s still a helluva guy and I'm glad he's in The Final Chapter.

What’s really great about this character, though, is how utterly useless he ends up being. Here’s a guy who’s whole self-appointed purpose in life is to put Jason down for good. He’s young, he’s fit, he’s armed for big game. Shit, this guy’s prepared. But yet he suffers one of the most epic fails of any character in the series. I’d like to be able to say Rob gave Jason a run for his money, but that’s just not true. Jason butchers him without even breaking a sweat. Rob’s death scene is one of the best of the series – not because of any splatter FX but because it’s just so harsh. Some might find Rob’s cries of “He’s killing me!” as Jason flays him to death with a gardening tool to be corny but I’ve always thought it was one of the most chilling moments in the series. It’s the most human, the most real, reaction of any Friday victim. If only Rob was half the hunter he thought he was, he would've played things a little bit smarter (here's a life-saving tip for future Jason Hunters: dark basements are Jason's friend).

To add insult to (terminal) injury, where macho Rob failed, a lame kid succeeded. Back in the day, when I heard that a kid was going to be the one to kill Jason, I was a little skeptical on how that would play out. It just didn’t sound so cool to me. But Corey Feldman’s Tommy won me over. The obvious homage to Tom Savini was appreciated and from the beginning, Tommy was more bent than he was precocious. I love his attempt to psych out Jason by making himself look like Jason as a kid (a move that echoed back to Ginny’s similar maneuver in Part 2 - apparently Jason’s Achilles’ Heel is mind games). It was a risky stunt but lucky for Tommy, Jason is genius at killing people but incredibly dense in every other way. He’ll catch on to your game eventually but being able to stop Jason just for a few seconds is an accomplishment few can boast about. Take a bow, Tommy!


Jason’s actual death (however temporary it may have been) was depicted by returning FX hero Tom Savini and boy, did he deliver. The slide down the machete as Jason's face twitches is just awesome. This was the first Friday I saw in the theaters and that moment got an enormous reaction that I'll never forget. Savini originally had lobbied to have Jason die by a microwave device of Tommy’s invention that would’ve melted Jason’s head but I think the producers were right in feeling that would’ve been too 'sci-fi' for Friday the 13th. I think in the Final Chapter it had to be shown that those who live by the machete, die by the machete.

As much as I remember the cheers that greeted Jason’s glorious end, I also remember the round of groans and knowing chuckles that met the final scene of Tommy and Trish in the hospital. As soon as the film froze on Tommy’s intense stare, the whole theater knew they’d been had by this "Final Chapter". Not that anyone was complaining about it, though. After all, who ever wants to see a good time end? As good times go, The Final Chapter remains one of the best. Savini’s work here isn’t always exemplary (some effects reflect a rushed effort - Savini was hired late in the production) but it still has his signature touch. And while the previous three films hadn’t been known for letting their characters off easy, The Final Chapter was nothing short of brutal.

But I don't think it's because the kids in this film die in any more sadistic ways than the victims in past Fridays did but it's just the presence Ted White has as Jason that sells these moments so well. When he destroys someone (like when he mashes Peter Barton's face against the back of the shower wall), you really believe it.

Previous Jasons Steve Dash and Richard Brooker were both excellent in their own right but White’s Jason is the one you really don’t want to fuck with. It’s common to hear some people say that the Friday the 13th's were never scary to begin with but I totally disagree. If nothing else, they were a lot scarier in their day then the Saw films are now, that's for sure. Jason may have turned into a more cartoonish figure with Part VI and the subsequent sequels but before that he was menacing to behold and White’s Jason, especially, was a real force to be reckoned with.

If this had been the real Final Chapter, it would’ve been a fitting cap to the series and at four films, the producers could still claim a legendary run. I'm glad they didn't quit as hope always spring eternal that the series will recapture its magic. But as a fan, I have to say that although I continue to love and follow the films, everything since Tommy delivered the final blows to Jason - and the screen faded to white for the last time in the series - has felt anticlimactic.